{"id":3477,"date":"2012-01-11T11:40:07","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T11:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3477"},"modified":"2012-01-11T21:50:29","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T21:50:29","slug":"giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm","title":{"rendered":"Giffgaff &#8211; why did no-one tell me about this before?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/giffgaff.com\/orders\/affiliate\/markawilson\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/giffgaff.com\/banner\/09_300x250.png?resize=300%2C250\" alt=\"Get a free giffgaff SIM\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a>Over the Christmas holidays, I completed my new year rationalisation of mobile contracts by switching my mobile phone from O2 (\u00a316.50 for 200 minutes and a 500MB data bolt on, monthly rolling contract) to Giffgaff (\u00a310 for 250 minutes and &#8220;unlimited&#8221; data). Having done so, I really don&#8217;t know why I didn&#8217;t do it sooner (apart from the fact I didn&#8217;t know about it!) &#8211; especially as Giffgaff not only runs on O2&#8217;s network but is actually owned by Telefonica\/O2! Indeed, O2&#8217;s own careers website describes Giffgaff like this:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"http:\/\/www.o2careers.co.uk\/business_areas\/customer_directorate\/customer_directorate.php\"><p>&#8220;Giff-what? Yes, we know it\u2019s a funny name. Giffgaff is a brand new mobile network that doesn\u2019t play by mainstream rules.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the company\u2019s customers help run the company in return for cash rewards. Hence the term \u2018giffgaff\u2019, which means \u2018mutual giving\u2019, as any ancient Scot will tell you.<\/p>\n<p>Customers can earn rewards for helping other customers with queries, designing marketing materials or by recruiting new members.<\/p>\n<p>The business runs a tight ship &#8211; it has no call centres, high street shops and doesn&#8217;t splash out on expensive, glossy ad campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>The result of this is that giffgaff keeps its costs low and and is able to pass the savings on to all its customers.<\/p>\n<p>Although giffgaff is owned by O2 it is run as a separate company by a small group of passionate, full-time employees based in Beaconsfield just 8 miles north of Slough.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This sounded good &#8211; and with a referral code that earned both me and the referrer a \u00a35 credit I signed up. <a href=\"http:\/\/giffgaff.com\/orders\/affiliate\/markawilson\">If you&#8217;re interested in signing up then we can both earn a fiver too!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>So, what&#8217;s the catch? Surely there has to be one? The only difference that I can see is the support framework if things don&#8217;t work as they should. There is community support and you can &#8220;ask an agent&#8221; from the Giffgaff website but there is no call centre (which, depending on your view of call centres, may be A Good Thing).<\/p>\n<p>Once I received my SIM, <a href=\"http:\/\/support.giffgaff.com\/app\/answers\/detail\/a_id\/609\">I activated it<\/a>, including adding a \u00a310 Goodybag to my account and then started to plan for transferring my number.\u00a0I&#8217;ve had the same mobile number for a long time (10 years or more) and I didn&#8217;t want to lose it but there was <a href=\"http:\/\/support.giffgaff.com\/app\/answers\/detail\/a_id\/96\/kw\/transfer%20your%20number\/r_id\/166\">clear guidance on the Giffgaff website setting out \u00a0the steps I needed to take to transfer my number and setting my expectations for the day of transfer<\/a>\u00a0(although I did panic a bit when the number still \u00a0hadn&#8217;t ported at the end of business hours &#8211; it finally became live in the early evening). I also needed to cut down the Giffgaff SIM to fit my phone (most phones use the standard SIM but my Nokia Lumia 800 uses a micro SIM) &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/community.giffgaff.com\/t5\/Contribute-Innovation-Promotion\/giffgaff-Microsim-Cutting-Template\/td-p\/27024\">there&#8217;s a template for this<\/a>\u00a0but I bought a SIM cutter for a few pounds on the Internet.<\/p>\n<p>With my voice services transferred I needed to set up the APN for mobile data access on my smartphone, set up mobile messaging, and set up voicemail. All of this was covered in a handy <a href=\"http:\/\/community.giffgaff.com\/t5\/Learn-giffgaff-Top-Tips\/giffgaffer-s-guide-to-Windows-Phone-7-5\/td-p\/2043139\">Giffgaffer&#8217;s guide to Windows Phone 7(.5)<\/a>\u00a0&#8211; I&#8217;ve sure there are similar guides for iOS, Android, etc. too.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, I&#8217;m really pleased with my switch to Giffgaff. If you&#8217;re not happy messing around with SIMs and entering a few settings in your phone, it may not be for you, but for anyone who is out of contract with their current mobile provider, is happy supporting their own technology, and who can get an O2 signal (the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/status.o2.co.uk\/\">O2 status checker provides coverage details for a given postcode<\/a>) then <a href=\"http:\/\/giffgaff.com\/orders\/affiliate\/markawilson\">Giffgaff might be worth a try<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the Christmas holidays, I completed my new year rationalisation of mobile contracts by switching my mobile phone from O2 (\u00a316.50 for 200 minutes and a 500MB data bolt on, monthly rolling contract) to Giffgaff (\u00a310 for 250 minutes and &#8220;unlimited&#8221; data). Having done so, I really don&#8217;t know why I didn&#8217;t do it sooner &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Giffgaff &#8211; why did no-one tell me about this before?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[384,203,18,378],"class_list":["post-3477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-giffgaff","tag-windows-phone","tag-mobility","tag-o2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Giffgaff - why did no-one tell me about this before? - markwilson.it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Giffgaff - why did no-one tell me about this before? - markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the Christmas holidays, I completed my new year rationalisation of mobile contracts by switching my mobile phone from O2 (\u00a316.50 for 200 minutes and a 500MB data bolt on, monthly rolling contract) to Giffgaff (\u00a310 for 250 minutes and &#8220;unlimited&#8221; data). Having done so, I really don&#8217;t know why I didn&#8217;t do it sooner &hellip; Continue reading Giffgaff &#8211; why did no-one tell me about this before?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-11T11:40:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-01-11T21:50:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/giffgaff.com\/banner\/09_300x250.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/01\\\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/01\\\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"headline\":\"Giffgaff &#8211; why did no-one tell me about this before?\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-01-11T11:40:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-01-11T21:50:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/01\\\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm\"},\"wordCount\":632,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/01\\\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/giffgaff.com\\\/banner\\\/09_300x250.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Giffgaff\",\"Microsoft Windows Phone\",\"Mobility\",\"O2\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/01\\\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/01\\\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/01\\\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm\",\"name\":\"Giffgaff - why did no-one tell me about this before? - markwilson.it\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/01\\\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/01\\\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/giffgaff.com\\\/banner\\\/09_300x250.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-01-11T11:40:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-01-11T21:50:29+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/01\\\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/01\\\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/01\\\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/giffgaff.com\\\/banner\\\/09_300x250.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/giffgaff.com\\\/banner\\\/09_300x250.png\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2012\\\/01\\\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Giffgaff &#8211; why did no-one tell me about this before?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"markwilson.it\",\"description\":\"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \\\/dev\\\/web\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\",\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"width\":800,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Mark Wilson\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\"},\"description\":\"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/markwilsonuk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/markawilson\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/markwilsonit\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/mark-wilson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Giffgaff - why did no-one tell me about this before? - markwilson.it","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Giffgaff - why did no-one tell me about this before? - markwilson.it","og_description":"Over the Christmas holidays, I completed my new year rationalisation of mobile contracts by switching my mobile phone from O2 (\u00a316.50 for 200 minutes and a 500MB data bolt on, monthly rolling contract) to Giffgaff (\u00a310 for 250 minutes and &#8220;unlimited&#8221; data). Having done so, I really don&#8217;t know why I didn&#8217;t do it sooner &hellip; Continue reading Giffgaff &#8211; why did no-one tell me about this before?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm","og_site_name":"markwilson.it","article_published_time":"2012-01-11T11:40:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-01-11T21:50:29+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/giffgaff.com\/banner\/09_300x250.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Mark Wilson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@markwilsonit","twitter_site":"@markwilsonit","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Wilson","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm"},"author":{"name":"Mark Wilson","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"headline":"Giffgaff &#8211; why did no-one tell me about this before?","datePublished":"2012-01-11T11:40:07+00:00","dateModified":"2012-01-11T21:50:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm"},"wordCount":632,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/giffgaff.com\/banner\/09_300x250.png","keywords":["Giffgaff","Microsoft Windows Phone","Mobility","O2"],"articleSection":["Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm","name":"Giffgaff - why did no-one tell me about this before? - markwilson.it","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/giffgaff.com\/banner\/09_300x250.png","datePublished":"2012-01-11T11:40:07+00:00","dateModified":"2012-01-11T21:50:29+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/giffgaff.com\/banner\/09_300x250.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/giffgaff.com\/banner\/09_300x250.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/01\/giffgaff-why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-this-before.htm#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Giffgaff &#8211; why did no-one tell me about this before?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"markwilson.it","description":"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \/dev\/web","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468","name":"Mark Wilson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","width":800,"height":800,"caption":"Mark Wilson"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1"},"description":"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/markwilsonuk\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/markawilson\/","https:\/\/x.com\/markwilsonit","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A"],"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/author\/mark-wilson"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3696,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/03\/giffgaff-gotcha.htm","url_meta":{"origin":3477,"position":0},"title":"Giffgaff gotcha","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Monday 12 March 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A few months ago, I wrote about Giffgaff - and I'm still very happy with paying less for a mobile service on the O2 network than I would from O2 (and earning credit for referrals, answering questions, etc. in the process). \u00a0Unfortunately I fell foul of a little complexity in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"Giffgaff account details","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/images\/giffgaff-account.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4910,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/05\/want-to-update-your-iphone-voicemail-settings-looks-like-a-jailbreak-is-needed.htm","url_meta":{"origin":3477,"position":1},"title":"Want to update your iPhone voicemail settings? Looks like a jailbreak is needed","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 8 May 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night, I wrote a post about shopping for second-hand smartphones. Of course, that's only one half of the deal - the other essential element is a subscription to a mobile\u00a0network. I've been SIM-only for a while now (add up the cost of a contract, take off the cost of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3710,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/03\/how-sending-email-to-sms-led-me-to-a-world-of-event-driven-programming.htm","url_meta":{"origin":3477,"position":2},"title":"How sending email to SMS led me to a world of event-driven programming","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 13 March 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of nights ago, I was messing around with SMS alerting after checking out some websites to let me know the best times to see the Northern Lights in southern Britain. Lancaster University's AuroraWatch UK site, has an alerting system including advice on sending emails to a phone via\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5529,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/04\/reasons-i-no-longer-need-to-jailbreak-my-iphone-and-phantom-app-store-notifications-from-a-shared-apple-id.htm","url_meta":{"origin":3477,"position":3},"title":"Reasons I no longer need to jailbreak my iPhone; and phantom App Store notifications from a shared Apple ID","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Thursday 2 April 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"My home office is a tip. There's certainly no clear desk policy around here... although I really do like the idea of working in a clear space and\u00a0I am trying to take advantage of a rare dip in my workload to clear it up. \u00a0Consequently there are a few posts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3439,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/12\/making-an-ordinary-3g-data-sim-work-in-an-ipad-without-a-tariff-change.htm","url_meta":{"origin":3477,"position":4},"title":"Making an &#8220;ordinary&#8221; O2 3G data SIM work in an iPad without a tariff change","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Friday 23 December 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The history of my various mobile telcommuncations contracts is a long one, so I'll spare readers the details but after my recent customer service debacle with Three, I've cut them loose (they tried to offer me an iPad 2 for \"free\" to stay with them... the sort of \"free\" that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8302,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2021\/06\/weeknote-22-2021-by-the-sea.htm","url_meta":{"origin":3477,"position":5},"title":"Weeknote 22\/2021: By the sea","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 8 June 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, I was on a family holiday - and the sun shone too. And, for the record, it's still a holiday even if you don't go abroad. It's only a staycation if you stay in your own home. Connectivity Sadly, I've been strugging with mobile connectivity recently. I finally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3477"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3479,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3477\/revisions\/3479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}