Barcobird Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 Has anyone used a Smarty sim if so any comments good or bad ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeamRienza Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 Yes, I have the 30gb for £10 per month and my wife has a cheaper version (about £6 per month). As I am sure you know it piggybacks off Three who own the company. I find it ok for what I want. You do get the odd black spot in the suburbs of Belfast which is a bit of a nuisance. It does not offer 5G to the best of my knowledge. I took the rolling monthly contract because of its flexibility to stop, reduce or increase the data. Another big factor was the intention to use it in France where I would expect my usage to increase without WiFi and to hotspot for my iPad, and the tv via a Roku router/receiver. We did use it without problems in France and Nortern Spain until the start of travel restrictions. In view of the restrictions of 12gb per month now being put on use abroad I suspect I will downgrade my plan as I rarely use more than 2gb at home. I hope to resume proper continental trips this year and will perhaps set both of our contracts at 12gb for the period we are away (usually 6 - 7 weeks twice a year) which should meet our needs unless it is further restricted by price increases. Davy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barcobird Posted January 26, 2022 Author Share Posted January 26, 2022 Thanks for your feedback Davy it’s appreciated, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 It may or may not be right for your needs but we use '1p mobile'. It does what it says on the tin for us but may not be ideal for heavy users. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deneb Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 I've been using one in my mifi router for about 3 years. I like the unlimited data rolling contract that can be paused for up to 6 months. Coverage is not as good as EE in remoter areas, although having said that, Three's coverage has improved noticeably more recently. I'm not bothered about 5G (what are people doing in a van to require 5G? We can stream TV etc. perfectly fine on 3G). I also have an EE SIM that I can swap into the router if the Three (Smarty) signal is unusable or none-existent. A couple of years ago in the north of Scotland, that was about 50% of the time, but last autumn we found that Three's coverage had improved greatly in that area. Whether you would get as reliable a signal in a phone, I don't know - my router is connected to an external antenna. Sometimes only a 3G signal is available, and sometimes we find that even though a 4G signal is available, we get a faster connection on 3G. For outright reliability and best coverage, I'd say EE, but you pay for the nose with EE compared to Smarty. For what it is, I'm happy with it for the router, but I'm not sure I'd use Smarty as the only SIM in my phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthur49 Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 TeamRienza - 2022-01-26 10:24 PM Yes, I have the 30gb for £10 per month and my wife has a cheaper version (about £6 per month). As I am sure you know it piggybacks off Three who own the company. I find it ok for what I want. You do get the odd black spot in the suburbs of Belfast which is a bit of a nuisance. It does not offer 5G to the best of my knowledge. I took the rolling monthly contract because of its flexibility to stop, reduce or increase the data. Another big factor was the intention to use it in France where I would expect my usage to increase without WiFi and to hotspot for my iPad, and the tv via a Roku router/receiver. We did use it without problems in France and Nortern Spain until the start of travel restrictions. In view of the restrictions of 12gb per month now being put on use abroad I suspect I will downgrade my plan as I rarely use more than 2gb at home. I hope to resume proper continental trips this year and will perhaps set both of our contracts at 12gb for the period we are away (usually 6 - 7 weeks twice a year) which should meet our needs unless it is further restricted by price increases. Davy We use the 30gb/£10 month option too and find it works well for us. We like the flexibity to suspend the auto renewal for a month or more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barcobird Posted January 27, 2022 Author Share Posted January 27, 2022 So far then there are no big negatives accept 5G which is not a problem :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeamRienza Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 I visited the smarty website after my reply to you yesterday. It seems as if 5G is available for those who have devices which are compliant. What the coverage is like throughout the country is a different matter. None where I live. Davy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DickB Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 Now that most mobile companies are charging, or about to charge, roaming fees, I changed to iD which is a subsidiary of Currys/Carphone Warehouse, it uses the 3 network with the known coverage limitations. For a year I paid £8/month for 8gb on a monthly contract. Any unused data rolled over to the next month. I now have a 12 month contract for £10 for 40gb which again rolls over each month. There are no roaming charges and coverage in Spain and Portugal has been perfect. I use my phone as a hot spot for a tablet and a laptop as well as listening to UK radio extensively and my current balance of 74gb hardly seems to drop. I used to buy a local SIM when abroad for extended periods, but don't bother any more; that might change if roaming charges are implemented. Dick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breakaleg Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 My wife has just had a text from smarty to say that all their sims are being up graded to 5g at no extra cost to the user very soon. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul F Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 DickB - 2022-02-09 11:12 PM Now that most mobile companies are charging, or about to charge, roaming fees, I changed to iD which is a subsidiary of Currys/Carphone Warehouse, it uses the 3 network with the known coverage limitations. For a year I paid £8/month for 8gb on a monthly contract. Any unused data rolled over to the next month. I now have a 12 month contract for £10 for 40gb which again rolls over each month. There are no roaming charges and coverage in Spain and Portugal has been perfect. I use my phone as a hot spot for a tablet and a laptop as well as listening to UK radio extensively and my current balance of 74gb hardly seems to drop. I used to buy a local SIM when abroad for extended periods, but don't bother any more; that might change if roaming charges are implemented. Dick Sounds like a better deal than Smarty, apart from needing to have a 12 month contract instead of going month to month and saving money in the times when you are not using any data. Is there a fair usage limit on the roaming data though? If you wanted to use most or all of your accrued 74gb on one month whilst abroad, could you do that at no extra cost? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DickB Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 This is my first month abroad with this contract and 35gb rolled over from January to give the 75 gb. I am pretty sure that the whole amount will be within the allowance. Only if I am abroad for an extended period and use more than I was using at home would there be a cap. I am away for another 4 weeks and at my present usage I will still have plenty data left. I didn't mention it, but also included are unlimited free calls and texts throughout Europe. Dick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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