As per the title. Three coverage is OK for me and I’m particularly attracted to the free EU roaming.
Any reason not to?

I’ve been with them a few months, no issues.

It’s a shame referral links aren’t allowed, otherwise if you were to PM me I could give you a gift card code. So definitely don’t do that.

Smarty is Three. Im on Three. But i tried Smarty for a few months. (i tried Voxi too, same result)

I felt like a second class citizen to be fair, i found the 4G was more 3G and the service between Smarty/Three was a downgrade. Also no WiFi calling included on Smarty which didnt help.

Caveat tho, im in the country, it may be completely different in the City.

Result, i went back to 3

(i tried Voxi too, same result)

I’ve just gone on to giffgaff (saving £60 a month!) wish I had know about Smarty, I could’ve saved a few quid more.

I had a Smarty Sim for a while and there was something that wasn’t enabled, WiFi calling maybe? Or Hotspot tethering? Sorry, can’t remember, but there was definitely something, and meant I binned them off.

I’m on three now, so @SSS are you saying that the service is different/worse on Smarty than on Three?
I see wifi calling is now included.
TBH one of the reasons for moving is Three Business customer service, which I’ve not been happy with – I can’t even login to their self serve portal, despite hours on the phone trying to get that sorted. I am hoping that the smarty offering might be a bit more user friendly.
I have 4 family sims on it though, so I want to get it right. Maybe I should sign up for a test sim to try in an old phone 🤔

The cheap sims tend to run the older bandwidths and so yes – expect a worse service on Smarty/Voxi than 3/Vdf

That said my daughter is on smarty and its fine, and I have a voxi sim in our tablet, also been fine.

I moved from Three to ID, haven’t noticed any change in the service at all and wifi calling is still enabled according to the top of my screen.

I moved to keep roaming which is currently still included.

Also no WiFi calling included on Smarty which didnt help.

It might be a recent (last year?) change – but WiFi calling working here. One of the reasons we went for Smarty as we don’t get any signal at the house.

From the website:

All plans include WiFi Calling to supercharge your signal

But to answer the OP, not here. Both my kids are on it. £8/month or so sees them with more data than they manage to burn through on whatever they’re streaming. EU roaming is great. It wasn’t so good when they were over in Canada a few months ago (they just had to go without any mobile service there) but overall, really happy with the service.

I also tried Voxi in our 4G router and it was unusable, PlusNet in it works perfectly.

@oldtennishoes If they have WiFi Calling included, may alleviate some problems in the house if lack of signal. I also run a business and i found that even though id be outside, and have a signal shown on the phone. People had told me that they had called, but the phone didnt ring. Id get the answerphone message. But id have ‘bars’ on the phone.

Hence the second class citizen quip. Its like the bandwidth was reserved for the primary 3 customers.

Now im back to 3, no problems like i encountered. But thats in a Rural area

That would be a good start, spend a tenner and get a Sim, put it in the phone and give it a try.

Do any of the ‘cheapy’ SIMs use EE? As that’s the only network of any use around here

I’ve been with them for a few months. No complaints at all. 100gb data for a tenner I think, maybe £12. I’ve streamed HD Prime off it.

Signal is a bit patchy but that’s Three’s fault and I seem to live in a signal blackspot.

Do any of the ‘cheapy’ SIMs use EE? As that’s the only network of any use around here

I’m looking to move to EE as that’s the only network that gives decent signal in my flat. Best I’ve found is Plusnet Mobile. 50gb for £15.

@IHN PlusNet use EE but only 4G.

Plusnet use EE but 4g only and no WiFi calling, the latter of which is a big no for me.

Re. Smarty/three…. I have similar experience.

Smarty WiFi calling is dreadful. Three WiFi calling isn’t the best but smarty is rubbish.

EE and O2 WiFi calling are solid IME

Plusnet use EE but 4g only and no WiFi calling, the latter of which is a big no for me.

Yeah, that’s a no from me too, wifi calling is the only way of making/receiving a phone call in/around our house

Maybe I should sign up for a test sim to try in an old phone 🤔

A Smarty contract is month-to-month. You could try it and jump ship a month later if you don’t get on with it.

Do any of the ‘cheapy’ SIMs use EE?

Quite a few do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Kingdom_mobile_virtual_network_operators

Was happy with Three signal at work, switched to Smarty and it was rubbish. Voxi have been as good as Vodafone for me but of course, it all depends where you are located.

Mmm I have a voxi sim in a MiFi device which has been solid. I’m going to try a Smarty sim and see how it goes. I have 2 discerning teenagers to satisfy, so if the service isn’t great, the level of mither I receive will not be worth it.

I’ve heard contradictory things about Smarty using the same network frequencies as Three. However my own experience is that Smarty was unusable but Three works.

I guess it helps to know what people use their phones for. I hate talking on the phone these days so that’s not a priority. All incoming calls go straight to answerphone so I can text them back.

I’d actually pay for a ‘proper’ landline service. Where only pre-allowed numbers can dial in, and they must also be landlines, no mobiles or VOIP. I miss chatting to friends and family on a clear and loud signal with a big old earpiece hooked in the crook of your neck.

I miss chatting to friends and family on a clear and loud signal with a big old earpiece hooked in the crook of your neck.

weird. the last few mobile phones I’ve had have been far superior to any land line phone I’ve used for voice calls.

It’s an odd one. I do kind of get where Jammy is coming from, in a “vinyl vs mp3s” sort of way. Big lumpy reassuring analogue tech; a speaker the size of your ear rather than a pinhole; knowing all your mates’ numbers off the top of your head along with the local taxi and pizza place; trying to work out who someone else was calling by counting the tick-tick-tick of the dial returning; no wandering about the house going “Hello, can you hear me now? How about now? Hang on, let me stand next to the window, is that any better?”

Thing was though, also in a in a “vinyl vs mp3s” sort of way, they were shit.

I am a dinosaur. I listen to records at home, and in the car I’ve just upgraded from cassette to the new Compact DISC.

Long term (multi year) user of smarty here. Both mrsg82 and I (me?). Create a group account and get discount (10% I think). Had WiFi calling since half way through my last phone ownership so roughly 3 years. Seeing 5G increasingly. Absolutely nothing to complain about apart from EU roaming is an add-on. Also due to US trip in the new year so will be looking at a temporary esim or maybe a three sim with a stack of data.

It’s going to be interesting to watch how the customer experience changes and evolves with 5G and the concept of dynamic slicing of available bandwidth for each cell & operator using that cell, rather than equal slots for each client with previous generations.

AIUsI, below 5G the only way to modulate for the different carriers was bandwidth on the back haul which is a bit of blunt tool.

Absolutely nothing to complain about apart from EU roaming is an add-on.

Fair use up to 12gb per month is free according to the blurb. You can pay extra to use more, but the free 12gb is goof compared to most other offerings.

Also due to US trip in the new year so will be looking at a temporary esim or maybe a three sim with a stack of data.

It’s what I did. Ten quid on a Three SIM converted to their bolt-on or boost or whatever they call it. (Weirdly if you don’t do the free conversion it costs a fortune, “why has my month’s worth of roaming data run out in two days?” how I laughed.) The equivalent if I’d just used my monthly contract with O2 at the time was well over £100.

the free 12gb is goof compared to most other offerings.

By way of comparison, before I changed my local data allowance with O2 (who I’d been with since 1999) was 3GB/month.

I thought I’d update this thread after being with smarty for a couple of weeks now.
All I can say is that it’s been painless. Voice and data services appear exactly the same as they were with my full fat Three business account – the 5g service is the same.
Their black friday offer is 120gb for £12 a month which means that the kids Christmas presents are sorted 🤣

Now, what should I spend that £10 amazon voucher on? 🤔