Extremely slow data speed

[Stelios_2297357]

Hi all, I recently switched to Smarty after seeing that they offered 3x the data for the same price as giffgaff. However since I started using my smarty sim card I saw that data was extremely slow. I've been performing speed tests at various locations and I get ridiculous 1-5mbps speeds. I've tried my sim card on my partner's phone and no difference. I contacted smarty and they didn't help (said it might be my device or works at my area - neither is the case).  I'm planning to switch back to giffgaff by the end of the month. Anyone else having the same issue?

[KevinBu_1727867]

It has (smarty) to many customers in a lot of areas. This is also known as contention and simply put it's the same as your water it's good but would be a drip if everyone decided to use all the taps in their house on the same street. Also it makes me want to scream 3 and smarty may be on the same core network but smarty does not have access to certain beneficial frequencies and a long term three customer paying 35 40 a month is going to be provided with a better service than the one for 20 pound. Most people will accept the old Giffgaff one we are cheap because we do everything online. What's the killer though ? Pick an app Google earth say you will see after zooming in on 3d areas etc the connection will hang. After no help or reply even after months of trying to help THEM I FIGURED IT OUT.  Smarty changes IP on the fly sometimes as much as every minute. This I believe in simple terms when combined with small packet data triggers a ddos attack response. I could chat for ages about issues with smarty. The simple fix for the issue I describe is to use the VPN from Google one I believe it's free of maybe a 1 pound a month this also gets you 100gb Google drive storage and some other goodies. At a pound and it giving other features it's the easiest fix until smarty acknowledge. I do believe that the issue will get better as people will simply leave!

[tonychi_2539068]

Yes me too, 1-5 mbps is ‘normal’ for me. (Hopeless!) I’m in Cornwall. I did see someone suggested switching off a vpn so I will try that. 

[JudithS_2553282]

I am having the exact same issues which is why I've come to the forum. The data speed is so slow that I cannot browse sites/play simple games/use Netflix as my data regularly measures below 6mbs-0!

[JJP2RidesAgain]

Did you (and others replying in this thread) check the coverage of Three, Smarty’s parent company / network before buying your Smarty SIM card, or did you just  “buy blind”, not checking the three coverage where you live, work and socialise ? 

It’s pointless just buying a SIM card from any network without first checking its coverage in the places you need that coverage the most. 

The good thing of course is that with Smarty, you are not tied into a long term contract, so can quickly switch to another network that offers you better coverage.