My SMARTY experience after 1+ month of use

[trevordev]

I purchased SMARTY after reading various reviews and (incorrectly) assuming I would get a half decent service at least on par with GG and others.

The mobile calls are not an issue always have reception but then I am not really a phone person everything for me is digital and this requires two things:  bandwidth and data and I will start with the latter.

I get the impression the SMARTY app is laid out in such a way you don't find what you're looking for instead end up buy data bundle like I did only to realise further down right at the bottom you can get unlimited data for a day.

Why unlimited?  I originally signed up for the 8GB tariff but due to the incredibly poor data service and performance anywhere in Milton Keynes and surrounding areas) I didn't bother updating it and assumed I would barely scratch that limit due to non existent data...the worst part was being caught out at the shops with no data even though SMARTY claims to have a great service here and I had to walk out embarrassed.

Internet banking doesn't work correctly either for some reason the app thinks I am going through a VPN (?!) and blocks me or rejects any app activity and it takes several attempts of disabling and enabling the SMARTY mobile connection on the phone (Samsung S23 Ultra in mint condition).

I do a fair amount of work online and need access to the internet but again SMARTY let me down big time first claiming they don't shape the data yet when I ran various speed tests without load and with two apps running the results speak for themselves I managed to get a dizzy 112 mbps with an upload of 64 but I realised these are just "speed test numbers" I suspect this is a dynamic service that ramps up bandwidth on demand such as streaming and gaming services then falls back to a pitiful 1 mpbs at times.

I had to build a Linux system from home had no broadband as I am moving and I needed to tether my SMARTY service which was a bad idea anything more than one device on the network resulted in terrible network performance from SMARTY.   My home network is pretty solid I ran a battery of tests all the devices communicate fine at full speed.

I haven't done a full network trace yet but I suspect I need to as I am most curious about the VPN issue it pops up time to time and as for SMARTY claiming they don't shape or throttle the bandwidth which may be true but there is something strange happening especially with load on the network.

Its nice fishing out the good posts and raving about them what about the rest of us? The internet is rife with posts complaining about the SMARTY service and again I want to reiterate the telephone service is fine but its the data its abysmal and unusable so the SMARTY marketing claims are not accurate and this is bordering on false advertising.

I would add images but I can't do that it seems but to give you an idea right now I am getting:

0.54

Mbps download

1.92

Mbps upload

If I reset my mobile connection I get slightly better speeds initially seems to ramp up then drops off just a as quick as if its being limited:

4.23

Mbps download

2.19

Mbps upload

------------

This is all of Milton Keynes further afield I have tried different mobile devices nothing to do with hardware everything to do with the terrible service being supplied and there is something awry about the network is it just contention then why claim those speeds you should be advertising true average speeds across the UK.

Taking into account all of the various posts I have seen about similar issues and putting their locations on a map I am sure it paints a different picture to the "yay we got %% coverage" line being touted about.   Had the service been decent and I could get a consistently good data service I would have gone for the full sim package but based on my current experience would be a waste of time.

I stuck around hoping things would get better but they don't seem to be and its not easy just jumping to another provider especially when the phone number is integral to so many of my 2FA accounts.

Open to any suggestions IS there a way to improve this apart from moving to the handful of regions where SMARTY seems to do very well?

[GavinMc_2619880]

It's a complete shambles and when you point it out to them on here because there's nowhere else to go, some halfwit appears and tells you how easy it is to complain and why you shouldn't have used so much energy typing.

Which I accept is a challenge for that person, who likely had just been introduced to a keyboard.

Anyway, cancel everything and run to the nearest Vodafone, EE or Tesco and thank them for paying a few quid more each month for a service that works.

[MSF]

@GavinMc_2619880 As this is the Community Forum, "pointing it out to them on here" isn't like to get you anywhere as "they" are only customers.

Some of us have been with the company a fairly long time and yes, we have complained and yes, we have had responses to said complaints. "Halfwits" ? We may well be by your analysis, but then we aren't the ones complaining about the problems, are we?

Of course there re the other networks to use at a higher price. Can you be certain that things are always rosy with them?

[trevordev]

This is the current state of play, a not very big github repo I am trying to pull:

% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0
44 56.9M 44 25.2M 0 0 406k 0 0:02:23 0:01:03 0:01:20 380k

Average speed = 380k

I have time warped to the internet 15 years ago with the SMARTY sim wasn't expecting that...

[Ha05ger]

I have a smarty SIM in a router and it works but isn't fast. I have id mobile in my phone and it's similar speeds. I'm in a congested area and it's just what we have to deal with. My smarty SIM is literally for fail over as my fibre isn't the most reliable. I was originally with EE years ago and then it got so congested where I am most the time speed tests hung around 0.04mbps. it was unusable so I swapped to three and got very good speeds. Over the years it has slowed in my area and that fine they are cheap and congestion is high however I have tried other networks and have similar issues. Personally as a backup it's usable. We are a household of 6 and multiple days I've switched out fibre off and it's handled it. We also had 24 hour outage so had to be used as our main source. I only get between 15 and 30 but it was enough to have the TV going and the kids tablets plus cameras and all other smart stuff that uses the internet. I personally don't think there is any throttling or traffic shaping last month I used 703gb so pretty heavy use and it's been fine. Last couple days we've had a drop slightly in speed but did state on the checker the other day that they were working on the mast so quite possibly that. Now If EE could give me 100+Mbps would I take it ? Probably not for the backup or my personal phone as everywhere else it's usable and that's fine by me. I couldn't care less about getting 100+ I have that at home. I just want to be able to doom scroll or watch videos and maybe download the odd app. The other day I went to a town down the road from me and my speed test was over 1000mbps during peak times.