Coverage

[GrahamRu_505113]

Whenever I’m in a busy area like Soho or City of London in the evening I never get reception. My friends on 3 surf away on 4 or 5 G like there’s no problem. I can wait 5 mins or more for a website to build. I have an iPhone 14. Is this usually a problem on smarty? 

[Strandloper]

@GrahamRu_505113,

I don't usually use my phone much when out with friends so wouldn't know how the networks compare with each other. I usually have more interesting things to do.

Smarty don't throttle or otherwise reduce signal to its users so why you're experiencing slower download speeds is a mystery, unless your home is set up, in some way, to reduce your signal strength

[GrahamRu_505113]

Unfortunately this is not at home. It happens either in the busy area of Soho London or The City of London. I don’t have any issues elsewhere. It’s when I’m with friends who are on different networks and we are both searching for something specific. It always, I say always as it is always in these locations. They don’t have a problem on Vodafone or three. Even though Smarty is part of three there is a definite problem in those locations 

[Strandloper]

@GrahamRu_505113,

It looks like you have a couple of choices:

• As @jassingh says it is probably down to one or more masts at or near capacity and three are prioritising their primary customers, and it's something you accept, or
• You choose to jump to another provider (such as Three, or Vodaphone) who will charge you a premium for their "better" service.

[GrahamRu_505113]

The solution which is quite bizzare but works is I then use his phone (he’s on three) as a personal hotspot and then safari will work. 

[JJP2]

@Strandloper is spot on. There are no differences in coverage between Smarty and Three.

See here : https://www.4g.co.uk/news/smarty-vs-three/ 

 

[GrahamRu_505113]

The problem with that is one friend is on three. We both iPhone 14. His coverage works. Mine doesn’t. Once we move to less populated parts safari then works. We can’t work it out as the settings on the phones are identical. 

[MSF]

@GrahamRu_505113  Have you tried all going to the same website to see how it compares?

[GrahamRu_505113]

Yes. When we realised it was a problem we tried to compare. My coverage just doesn’t work in those areas. My friends do, even trying the same websites. Its very annoying

[jassingh]

@GrahamRu_505113 This sounds like congestion to me (at the local mast somewhere), probably you're also in a location with loads of people nearby all using their phones and connecting which puts pressure on that one piece of infra. I've had the same in East London also (Stratford 😩) to be precise, I can get a few bars but the data is non-existent (although the lack of CA adds to the problem too but I won't get into that here lol) 

Although Smarty isn't throttled and there isn't a speed cap, one thing that might be happening in the background is that the host network prioritises traffic from it's own customers first and then of piggybackers next. Not 100% but seems plausible - at least from what I have read elsewhere.

Have you tried moving around, or changing locations to see if that helps?

[GrahamRu_505113]

I think you may be right. When I move to less populated areas of soho I can get coverage. When I’m around crowds it just doesn’t work. We all have the latest iPhone 14. 

[jassingh]

Yeah, one thing I forgot to mention which can also help is if you toggle between 5G-4G-3G network types manually (not sure how on iOS, but on Android you can choose the desired network) and see how you get on - sometimes dropping one G or two can help as, for example, the radio coverage can be much better on 3G (albeit at slower speeds) but that can still keep you connected until you move back to an area with better coverage. Sounds like a faff, but it can help in those critical times - not that you should have to do it often! 

I've noticed that the Smarty SIM seems to do a better job at toggling network types by itself - when I was with Vodafone it would never shift from 4G at all even in the most congested areas and only once I would toggle down, I found the phone was usable again.