Giffgaff announces more news on their pricing structure

You remember Giffgaff, right? That’s the all new o2-backed MVNO that I introduced to you last month.

I’m encouraged by the can-do open attitude of the management team who are very approachable and appear keen to really innovate the mobile operator offering.

Kylie, the company’s marketing chief, posted a note with some updates on their pricing structure.

It makes fascinating reading. For instance, see this paragraph:

We were going to launch with one simple per minute / per text rate. We thought it was the most simple and transparent way of doing things. And we’d make sure it was among the lowest in the market.

But we’re not sure anymore. Our research tells us that around 64% of people don’t know what they pay for individual calls and texts. Because the other networks sell everything in bundles, that’s what people know – they get 300 texts for £10 or whatever. The problem is that if we price per minute / per text, people won’t be able to compare and see what great value we are. And yet we don’t want to do bundles, because we think they’re complicated and not clear.

Kylie makes a valid point. Goodness knows how many MVNOs have tried to gain traction with a super-boring, super-annoying, nobody-cares ‘5p’ per minute or ’10p’ per text rates.

In the United Kingdom, we’re done with per minute and per text charges, we really are. There is absolutely no way to compete with the mighty existing operators on a 5p/10p offering. It’s simply too hard to differentiate the offering.

So Kylie’s on the hunt for some assistance:

So we need your help. How do you think we should charge? Per minute / per text? Or bundles? Or something else?

My own view is do something revolutionary. Really change the dynamic — for example, offer the likes of Skydeck by default to all customers as part of the deal.

The good news is that, initially, data is going to be entirely free. Principally because the Giffgaff team won’t have completed their back-end billing system to charge for it. Fair enough! So for at least the first six months of beta service, you’ll get 100mb fair-usage data per day from Giffgaff. Nice.

There’s a series of interesting comments on Kylie’s post already. My favourite is this suggestion from reader Sam:

introduce a ‘bundle’ whereas you can get unlimited internet, for example, a fiver off your credit every month, instead of extra on top. this could also open the door for a good marketing campaign, something along the lines of;

‘GiffGaff. We like to keep things simple. You get an allowance each month, and you can use it for everything you could possibly do with your mobile. GiffGaff: Unlimited Possibilities, Fixed Cost’

I like that kind of concept.

There’s still a ton of innovative possibilities to attack in the mobile operator space.

For example, international calls. They’re billed in a stupid manner, still.

Roaming calls. Crazy.

Roaming data. Still crazy.

There’s a lot of room to differentiate — at the moment, anyway. 3UK is doing it’s best (with a slightly disbelieving public) with their ‘free, unlimited Skype chat’ offering. I think that’s just a little bit too far outside the understanding of your average normob.

I’d like to see some really clear aggressive monthly pricing along the lines of the don’t-take-the-piss model.

£25 unlimited UK calls and texts.

£30 unlimited UK calls, texts and data.

£50 unlimited international calls to 120 destinations, unlimited UK calls and unlimited data.

£75 unlimited international calls; unlimited roaming calls within 50 countries, unlimited UK calls, unlimited data.

£125 unlimited international calls, unlimited roaming calls within 50 countries, unlimited UK calls, unlimited UK data, unlimited roaming data.

£155 – as £125, but you get priority data access on the local cell. Or a faster mobile data service.

Am I dreaming? 😉

Anyway I’m looking forward to hearing about the next steps with Giffgaff. I’ll keep you posted!