London data failed today for 3 hours in 4 different locations.

[Dominic_1770810]

I think I need to change providers.  I have been unable to obtain data today in London for 3 hours.   I have been to the City - Tottenham Court Road and Soho.   Maps didn’t work.  No email nothing that data dependiant.   My phone still worked I called a friend to give me directions.  I have raised this before and got a building s and variance answer.   I have used other providers and never had this problem.  The answer needs to acknowledge the issue and provide a solution.  I cannot sustain membership if the chip doesn’t work in London.  It’s the third test in a month. 

[MSF]

@Dominic_1770810  Assume that you checked the network status checker for any issues - although unlikely across a large part of the city at once I guess.

Not sure that we can say much else really. If this gores on and Support cannot help, I can see that you may need a different network unfortunately.

[MSF]

@Dominic_1770810 One other thought....have you removed the sim for cleaning and then reinserted? Worth a try maybe?

[Dominic_1770810]

I will try that.   But it’s fine where I live.  I did recommend Smarty to a friend in London he has same issue in West end.  What I don’t understand is why it’s not impacting more people.  

[Chalkychap]

I'd suspect in peak periods in London's West End, Three's mobile network (SMARTY's network partner) would be very congested. Three use a network management system called TrafficSense, which they say is to manage traffic on their network to give users the best possible experience - maybe its not working entirely as desired.

In addition, Three could be working in the West End on decommissioning their 3G network infrastructure, and improving their 4G network infrastructure to handle the increase in 4G VoLTE calls once their 3G network is turned off (currently scheduled for end of 2024).

[Christo_1459117]

Strange, I was in the same areas and had no issues.

[Shadoxity]

Smarty is horrible in any area with lots of people. 

Soho, Trafalgar square etc. 

Any time it is busy I get zero data, maps doesn't work, cannot load pages etc. It's horrible. 

Guess we are bottom of the barrel for any bandwidth

[JJP2RidesAgain]

Such a sweeping generalisation!

You may have problems in London, but in Bristol, Smarty is absolutely fine, even in areas with lots of people. 

Where I live, O2 is very poor, but of course that doesn’t mean O2 is dire throughout the entirety of the UK ! Yet, on this forum, we constantly see people having issues with Smarty, who then embellish the situation and claim that Smarty is bad “everywhere” 

If Smarty doesn’t work for you, then you probably need to switch networks, buy obviously, don’t switch to Three, Smarty’s parent network, it other MVNOs, ID Mobile and Superdrug Mobile. 

[MSF]

@Shadoxity  So, you have stated problems that you have found with the service. As forum members just like you , and not Smarty employees, what changes do you feel that we may be able to make?

[Shadoxity]

The main change would be fixing bandwidth in an area with a dense amount of people. 

The value is great everywhere else with eu roaming etc.

But pretty much any time I go anywhere with a large amount of people, I cannot use my phone for anything, not even maps to get directions.

So a fix for that would be valuable and I would pay more for it

[MSF]

@Shadoxity Sorry, but did you actually read my reply?

We cannot fix anything as we are members like you! You need to take this issue to Smarty; if enough people do that then it is possible that change may come about. You do that initially via a web chat with Support Team and then via a complaint if necessary.

There are no guarantees that anything will change unless Smarty find themselves losing a significant amount of income. 

[Shadoxity]

Oh sorry I read it as what changes they could make. 

Yea I have taken it to their support and they just say it was a congestion issue at the time and do nothing. 

I'm happy to log it every time it happens if you think it might start making any kind of impact, but so far it's just been a fob off

[MSF]

@Shadoxity  Smarty runs on Three network and so is limited by what they offer them.

If you are prepared to pay more for a better service to meet your needs, it may be that going over to Three would do that.