Forum Discussion

steamship's avatar
steamship
SMARTY Commentator
22-07-2023

Londonderry, Northern Ireland - New Account - Vodafone IE & Very Poor Recption

Just got my new SIM and activated it. Got the relevant emails and TXT messages confirming it, and have the operator name at the top of the screen on the phone. Extremely disappointed to say the least. Before I signed up, I checked the map for coverage and according to it, I can get great coverage, with the surrounding area saturated for coverage.

 

The signal on my phone says otherwise. This is what I'm getting sitting in my living room. If I go outside, I'm still only getting two bars. Also, as a result of being about 5 miles from the border, the phone is picking up Vodafone IE, and I keep getting messages about my roaming status.

Is there anyone else in the border areas of Northern Ireland that is having the same issues, as I may just revert back to my previous provider again, and accept my losses here. 

 

Customer Support
Network

25 Replies

  • SmartyTrousers's avatar
    SmartyTrousers
    SMARTY Centurion
    22-07-2023

    Sorry to hear the signal isn't what you were expecting. Have you checked Smarty's network status checker? It could just be a temporary issue in the area.

    The good news is, if things don't improve, you can leave under the 14 day cooling off period and received a partial refund for the month you've paid for. I don't know if you've ported your number into Smarty, but if so, I'd recommend you port it out first, then contact Smarty to arrange the partial refund. That way, there's no chance of them accidentally terminating your service before you've had a chance to port your number out.

    • steamship's avatar
      steamship
      SMARTY Commentator
      22-07-2023

      I just checked and coincidentally there's a message stating they're 'fixing an issue' time-stamped at 12:45pm. I'll wait and see how things go today and tomorrow.

      This seems to be a common issue in the border areas as the Irish transmitters seem to have a stronger signal. Even with O2, I get 'Welcome to Ireland' TXT messages driving along some country roads 6-7 miles from the border.

      I did try switching to BT mobile several years ago, but it was that bad (I'm one mile from the cell tower) that I couldn't even make a call from inside the house, or even at the front door. I had to walk to the end of the garden to get a signal.

      I just checked the locations of the cell towers, and both O2 and Vodafone are transmitting from the same tower, one mile from me. The O2 is showing 3 bars (inside) and the Smarty is showing 0. The attached image shows all the Vodafone towers in the area, the purple line to the left is the Irish border, and I'm in the area marked in red. The screenshot is from the cellmapper.net site. Over 30 cell towers within five miles, and I'm getting 0 bars. Not looking promising.

      • steamship's avatar
        steamship
        SMARTY Commentator
        22-07-2023

        So I just did some more digging and found an Android app that shows you what cell tower you're connected to, and the results are ridiculous. In my previous response I provided a screenshot of where I am and where the nearest cell tower is, roughly one mile away, with over 30 towers in a five mile radius.

        Where is Smarty connecting to? The attached screenshot shows where. The cell tower is in the top left of the image and I'm in the bottom right. Distance between them is 10, yes 10, miles.

  • JJP2's avatar
    JJP2
    SMARTY Pro-coach
    22-07-2023

    Try this steamship :

    In an attempt to solve your issue, go into your phone’s settings > connections > mobile networks > network operators  > complete a network scan, select Smarty (It may even be listed as “3 UK” or “Three UK”, which is Smarty’s parent network. )

    Make sure “select automatically” is not selected in your connection settings. 

    If select automatically is turned on the phone will select the closest network for your connection, in your case the phone is connecting to a roaming network in the Republic of Ireland at least some of the time if I understand your situation correctly. 

    Fingers crossed this works 🤞🏻

  • steamship's avatar
    steamship
    SMARTY Commentator
    23-07-2023

    Many thanks SmartyTrousers and JJP2. Both of you suggested what I'd thought about late last night, but decided I'd try it this morning. Several more screenshots to explain the results. First thing I did was manually select the network. With SMARTY selected, I'm getting the same 0 bars.

     

     

     

     

    Something odd happened, so I had to try and reproduce it, and get screenshots. Here's what happened, with SMARTY now being the selected provider.

     

     

     

     

    At 10:23, it's using tower 11953, and about a minute later it automatically switched to tower 7721. Six minutes later, it switched again, this time to the Vodafone IE one that it was picking up from the start, 140918, the one 10 miles away. In the following image, I'm in the red square, and the two SMARTY (3) towers have the times against them. Tower 140918 is the one in the image from my third post above. I have even got another phone and put the SIM in that, and I'm getting the same 0 bars on that one as well.

    • JJP2's avatar
      JJP2
      SMARTY Pro-coach
      23-07-2023

      Unfortunately, it looks like the only thing you can do is switch network.

      At least with Smarty only offering 30 day ‘contracts’ you are not locked in for a long time.

      Its a pity, but I don’t think there is anything else you can do. 

      • SmartyTrousers's avatar
        SmartyTrousers
        SMARTY Centurion
        24-07-2023

        As there are plenty of Vodafone UK masts close by, it might be worth steamship trying Voxi or Lebara. Do note that Voxi doesn't include free EU roaming, though (although it does include roaming in Ireland).

  • steamship's avatar
    steamship
    SMARTY Commentator
    03-08-2023

    So I finally get back to my previous provider, and I'm still having issues with SMARTY. In the past hour, I've received 5 emails and 5 TXT messages from SMARTY saying that "there's been a technical issue porting your number". I've been on their chat system about it, and they say it's because a PAC number is being requested from my dashboard. I also ask why I'm not getting a refund as I've cancelled within the 14 day grace period. I'm told the 14 days is from when I ordered the SIM, and I told them that I tried to cancel the contract within a week of ordering the SIM via their chat system (chatting to a human being), and was fobbed off with the excuse that I couldn't cancel the contract as I had to wait until the number was transferred across. I was then asked to provide details from the chat session (which thankfully I was able to find), and then got a response stating the chat system was closed for the night! So now I have to start again from scratch tomorrow.

    • steamship's avatar
      steamship
      SMARTY Commentator
      04-08-2023

      Continuation of the above message. Back onto their chat system waiting for someone to sort this out, which basically means I'm stuck in the house until the mess is dealt with.

      In the meantime, I've just discovered that just logging into my dashboard is instigating a PAC request, as literally seconds after logging in, I get an email and a TXT like the 5 yesterday, saying there was a problem porting the number.

      • steamship's avatar
        steamship
        SMARTY Commentator
        04-08-2023

        And the final post on this debacle. AVOID this company at all costs. They do NOT abide by their 14 day grace period, and use every excuse under the sun. A total of 4.5 hours using their chat system, and it's same old excuses, time and again. Pathetic!