Appalling 4G signal strength. Disappointing!

[FredD]

4 reasons why I moved from Vodafone to Smarty: Price (very competitive for unlimited calls/texts + 40GB of data/month); SIM-only contract terms (1-month rolling contract; in EU, no roaming charges and 12GB/month of data without charge); Signal strength on Three's network; Customer service.

3 reasons have been fulfilled. But, an essential one - signal strength, is a complete failure. Getting no or 1 bar of signal isn't acceptable; people end up calling me on WhatsApp to ask if I've changed phone number or if my phone is broken. Since nothing has changed on my end since my transfer to Smarty, I can only conclude that Three's 4G network isn't as good as advertised and reviewed, and/or Three gives substandard signal to its Virtual Private Operators.

What a pity, because all started well with Smarty, particularly an excellent price, good and flexible contact terms, and commendable customer service. However, at the end of the day, the key use of phones is for calling and receiving calls; if this doesn't work, then all other factors are worthless, and I can't afford to lose business calls.

In conclusion, I'm happy to pay a few £s more if Smarty solve their problem of signal, or I'm out at the end of the month.

[jassingh]

Did you test drive a Three SIM card prior to purchasing a 30-day Smarty plan so that you could evaluate the coverage and performance to see if it met your needs? Sometimes such issues can be down to temporary work on a local mast or congestion at certain times of the day - you can use the Three coverage checker/ network status with your postcode...that might tell you if there are any issues currently.

Bear in mind, no network can guarantee 100% coverage since the signal is affected by many different things (buildings, weather, terrain, distance from mast etc) .. or I would recommend starting a webchat to see if Smarty can troubleshoot for you. I don't think that there could be a difference in the signal itself since Three owns Smarty but it is known that a network that is strong in one area, may not be so good in another. That is an inherent problem with mobile networks in general.

The good thing is you're not tied to a long contract incase the coverage is not meeting your needs. 

[JJP2]

You didn’t “buy blind” did you ? 

Since I have been with Smarty in June, I have quite frankly been amazed at the number of people who obtain a Smarty SIM purely on price, without checking the coverage of Three, Smarty’s parent network, where they live, work and socialise. 

You absolutely have to check the coverage on whatever network you plan to use before parting with your hard earned cash. Where I live for example, O2 is extremely poor, so I won’t use O2 or any MVNO’s that use O2, such as Tesco Mobile.

Before I switched to Smarty, it was imperative that I check the coverage of Three where I mostly use my phone, to ensure that it gave me the coverage I require. 

[HowardL_2816013]

I got a Smarty SIM and put it in my Samsung A34 5G before activating it. My existing SIM was an ID Mobile one which is also on Three. The ID signal was very poor but the Smarty one was much stronger. I chose to activate the Smarty SIM and transfer my number. Immediately on doing this, the Smarty signal has dropped to be the same as the ID one. Why? Have I been lured and then robbed?

[MSF]

@HowardL_2816013 I really do hope you are not suggesting that Smarty have a clever way of upping the signal strength just the first time a sim is inserted in a phone and then deliberately dropping it once you activate the sim.

What would even be the point? How long do you think that a company could get away with that - even if it is possible? How come they have a large number of satisfied customers who were apparently not 'lured and then robbed'? FYI, robbery is a criminal offence and so best to think through carefully.

[AngelVi_2604092]

I was on Three for years before switching to Smarty less than 6 months ago. The network performance is not the same as being on Three. I'm finding myself with no signal at all in areas like town centres, where I've never had problems before. Now looking at other providers and thankful that I'm not tied to a contract.

[SmartyTrousers]

Smarty's coverage and performance is the same as Three's. What has happened in the last six months is that Three have switched off most of their 3G coverage across the country. This has improved average data speeds, but has slightly reduced coverage, at least in the short term. You will see this whether you're on Three, Smarty or another Three MVNO.

[MSF]

@SmartyTrousers While theoretically the service and coverage should be the same, I can't help wondering if Three customers are at the head of the queue when it comes to service level.

To be fair, they pay more and should rightly expect first call on any signal in the locality, thereby leaving Smarty customers with what is still available.

Now, I'm no expert on mobile telecoms but I feel sure that the clever electronics can sort out the customers and prioritise those from the owner's main network. This is something that often seems to be reported when people are EU Roaming.

I must say the if I were a customer of Three directly I would be pretty peeved if I thought that those paying less were getting first dibs on the signal in an area.

[SmartyTrousers]

I agree that it's theoretically possible for Three customers to be given priority when it comes to data speeds or coverage, although I've never personally seen any evidence of that.

I'd say the customers of the big network brands are mainly paying for the brand names, although the virtual networks like Smarty also offer lower prices by keeping customer service online and making their offering largely self-service.

The problem with people comparing Smarty and Three (or any other two networks, whether virtual or not) is that there are many variables which will dictate the speed and coverage someone will get at a given moment in a given location on a given device. To do a fair test, you would need the two SIMs in the same model of device, in the same place, running the speed test at the same time.

I use a Three SIM in a 5G router for my home broadband and currently use Smarty for my phone, and I can say the coverage and performance is identical from both SIMs in the same device (or as identical as they can be, considering results are going to vary from one speed test to the next using the same SIM in the same device).

The only difference I am aware of is that Three customers can get a non-CG-NAT connection if they use the 3internet APN, which means you can run a server on your connection if you want to.

[MSF]

@SmartyTrousers  You make some very good points.

But surely we know that things are not identical on Three and smarty because there is a difference in what phones will work on each network now that 3G is being turned off - isn't that so?

[SmartyTrousers]

I think the difference in VoLTE compatibility is a difference at the phone end, not the network end. Specifically, that Three, being a full MNO, is more likely to have its carrier profile (including the specific configuration needed for the device to work with its VoLTE) deployed to different device manufacturers. My suspicion (and I'm happy to be corrected on this) is that the reason virtually all iPhones work fine on Smarty is because, in the absence of a carrier profile for the MVNO, the iPhone falls back to using the parent network's carrier profile. And hey presto - it works perfectly. I'm guessing in the Android world, maybe the device falls back to some generic VoLTE configuration in the absence of a carrier profile for the MVNO.

But you make a good point - from the perspective of the end user, if your phone works on Three but not Smarty, that is a definite difference in service.