Hi everyone! 😎
I wanna start off with a simple question just to get it out of my system: Is it still an „Always On” goodybag if I turn my phone Off? 🤣 📲 😉
Joking aside; We've been having yet another discussion about the marketing of the „Always On” 'bags Here and once again I can't help but think I'd happily buy access to unlim1ted reasonable quantities of data at 192kbps (That's about 22KiB/s) if giffgaff would make it available as a standalone product for SIMs without GoodyBags on, perhaps for 1-2£ a month. 👍️
I can see this being highly useful for many users, as we could happily adapt the usage to meet the lower data rates, rather than the other way around. Other potential uses I keep seeing in „Always On, Low (Speed)” (AOL? 😂 ) connectivity include:
- Connectivity to SBCs, small clients and remote sensors which require a 3G connection and small amounts of data. Raspberry Pi's, Arduino boards (With a 3G shield) and the ubiquitous eBay „A8” trackers being common cases in point.
- An excellent option for those whose Internet usage is confined to small amounts of traffic only i.e. looking up TV listings, items of legislation, current news and lightweight e-mailing,
- Virtually indispensable for anyone who's disabled, housebound, has too low an income to afford fixed-line broadband, and requires a connection to submit reports for Universal Credit.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for sure, and I bet a lot of you could propose many other uses the AOL data could serve if it was offered as a product in its own right. 👍️
So with the foregoing in mind: Isn't it high time that giffgaff started offering the AOL data as a standalone product in it's own right? As they're throwing it in to every AO bag, I can't see any reason why they shouldn't...And considering it'd be an instant sell for almost every UK member of Hackaday I think giffgaff are missing a massive trick here! 🙂
+++ 🚄 ThunderDragon 🤘 +++
(Also, as a sub-query: I know that tethering isn't officially supported on the AOL data, but is tethering actually blocked when one goes past their full-speed allowance? I never get anywhere near those levels of traffic myself (Most data I've ever used in a month is 1,5GiB, and that was heavy by my standards) and I can't really afford to go forking out 25£ and go wasting bandwidth simply in the interests of finding out. 🙂 )
