Never even heard of iD until a friend mentioned them the other day.
I don’t think Giff Gaff are as much as a bargain as they once were and the data allowance seems far more generous with iD.
Any drawbacks?
3 signal for us is slightly worse at home I think, will have a look to see if you get boosters that you plug in.

So any experiences good/bad with iD?
Ta.

What deal are iD offering?

PlusNet, on EE, seem to be doing some decent SIMO deals at the mo.

Thanks for the tip, Three seems to be the best network round here and I’d only recently found freedompop as a competitor. Though three is still pretty good value for me on PAYG plus add-ons.

iD

Any others as good in value for money?

I was going to say PlusNet, but it seems they have ended their double data promo, so for £10 iD looks good.

If you needed a bit more data, Virgin Mobile (EE) are doing:

Ah, okay. I’ve seen those iD ads on TV and not paid any attention to them at all or realise they were a mobile network (MVNO I assume – Edit: yeah, they use Three network).

As for PlusNet, only problem with theirs is they have zero packages for roaming and no plans for any. That means standard EU per Mb capped rates for Europe and insane EE prices for US (£8 per Mb!).

I’m on ID. They’re ok, but the signal is not brilliant – I think I’ll be changing when mine changes from 1gb / month to 500mb.

I find the 3 PAYG deals work out cheapest for me
3p per minute, 2p per text and 1p per MB
I only really use data and a £5 top-up seems to last a few months.
Guess I’m not really that communicative.

@Jamie

Jesus, that’s a good deal.

I’m an ID customer, I don’t use it myself, I got it for my Son to use – signal near us is good, it’s been totally reliable, but it’s been years since we had a service outtage here on any network.

At the time is was the best deal for data I could find – 4GB a month for £10 with 4G, the best thing is it’s capped – he can over spend by £5 a month, that’s it. I’ve been warned by mates about £2000 phone bills their kids run up in weeks streaming data.

I saw it with my own eyes over Xmas – had to move the router from one side of the living room to the other, that and the effects of the Xmas tress meant wi-fi didn’t quite reach his bedroom, he burnt through his 4GB in 2/3 hours, and the extra fivers worth about 15 mins later – it happened so quickly all the warning texts came at once!

I’ll have a look at the Virgin offering – but it’s going to have to be secured by a cap that requires more than a simple SMS to buy some more, the lad is insatiable for Data – **** Youtube and Insta videos, all in HD, hours at a time.

Three have an offer on with 8gb for 13 per month. I called vodafone to swap and they offered me 10gb for the same price (sim only)

@Jamie

Jesus, that’s a good deal.

Yeah, I am switching myself. Was paying £13.50 for 6GB unlimited/unlimited with Life Mobile (now PlusNet). So this is a no brainer.

Three have an offer on with 8gb for 13 per month. I called vodafone to swap and they offered me 10gb for the same price (sim only)

Year contract right?

iD is Carphone Warehouse’s MVNO.

It’s unique selling point is the ability to carefully control your data usage (they have what’s called real time billing, which a lo of MVNOs and some MNOs don’t yet have).

Carphone used to own TalkMobile*, but sold that to Vodafone who run it as a sub brand.

Plusnet ought to be able to offer amazing deals – Plusnet is owned by BT. BT owns EE. Ergo, Plusnet isn’t really an MVNO, but is an MNO.

MNOs have the best economics (they own their own networks), so ought to be able to offer the best deals. Traditionally, however, they made themselves into premium (read: expensive) brands and let the MVNOs operate in the more price competitive market. However, a price war during 2016 has meant that the MNOs have reached down into the MVNOs’ market and started offering very competitive offers, especially on data.

*Not to be confused with TalkTalk Mobile, which is the MVNO of TalkTalk.

Well, PlusNet’s deals are below standard, after an initial month double data period. So good to see BT bringing competitive prices to the market yet again.

A mate has just signed up with ID. He’s trying to get out of his contract now.

In Greater Manchester he has no signal at his house and can’t reliably received texts. People have to WhatApp him instead.

His experience is terrible. ID piggy back 3 don’t they. Not sure if they’re permitted 4G or not.

That Virgin deal is good but I don’t need that much data.

His experience is terrible. ID piggy back 3 don’t they. Not sure if they’re permitted 4G or not.

Yep, they use the 3 radio network (iD have their own core network – it’s Three’s Ireland network….).

They have 4G (though originally launch with 3G only).

Ofcom hate it when people can’t get a signal – get him to threaten them with an Ofcom complaint if they try to charge him early termination charges when he leaves.

Sadly virgin don’t offer caps, they spin it as a positive but the best you can hope for is an SMS to say how much you’re going to be billed – not a ducking chance with my lad, I’d be destitute in days.

Sadly virgin don’t offer caps, they spin it as a positive but the best you can hope for is an SMS to say how much you’re going to be billed – not a ducking chance with my lad, I’d be destitute in days.

You can only offer caps if you run your own core network*. There are very few MVNOs who have this** – most use their host MNO’s core network.

*not to be confused with the radio network, which only the four MNOs own.

**iD (actually they rent theirs from Huawei), Lyca, Lebara, Sky (just launched). Virgin and TalkTalk are building their own. GiffGaff is owned by Telefonica (O2), and Tesco is built on a pre-pay platform (and part owned by Telefonica).

Life used to offer caps, and continue to under the PlusNet name, but was that because they were basically the play thing of BT/EE?

In relation to Virgin. I know it’s not exactly what you’re after, but they charge a maximum of £2 a day for data charges once you’ve gone over. So at least the damage wouldn’t get too catastrophic. Given the price of bolts on from some networks/mvno, that’s fairly reasonable

Jamie _ yes. Three and Vodafone were 12 month contracts

ourmaninthenorth – Member 
Ofcom hate it when people can’t get a signal

In an ideal world we’d have their vision of UK roaming, where you can roam between UK networks, but operators have a lot of control in the UK. There’s still a fight going on to switch to “gaining provider led” process to switch operators, i.e. where you approach the new provider and they do all the work for you without having to fight with retentions. UK mobile operators (other than Three) hate this idea of course, and certain parts of the government also back the operators (as I discovered on writing to my MP as Three suggested).