Poor Coverage

[AndrewC_1978217]

I moved to Smarty from Vodafone because you were cheaper and it seems like now I know why. Your rural coverage is quite poor. As a keen amateur golfer I'm finding that it's rare to have an adequate connection at clubs I visit. And your coverage checker seems to be in la-la land. For NN136JA it predicts good coverage but my phone would beg to differ. It shows one bar of 4G and prefers to use wifi calling.

With a price differential of 50% I'm uncertain whether I will stay with you or go back to Vodafone. At the end of the day as far as I can tell you are failing at the fundamental task of providing a telephone connection. Perhaps that's why you're so cheap.

[N_2014122]

Just switched to Smarty from Vodafone and already regretting it. Very poor coverage outside cities, several times in last few days I've had either no signal or a signal and no data. 

[MSF]

@AndrewC_1978217 @N_2014122  The fact that a network offers cheap prices is not necessarily linked to the service.

It depends where your nearest mast is, the structure of the building you are in, congestion on the network etc.

Not sure what network you used previously, but if it provided a good service then unfortunately it may be the only one in the area that meets your needs.

On the positive side, at least you don't have a long term commitment when you sign up to Smarty.

[AndrewC_1978217]

On the positive side, at least you don't have a long term commitment when you sign up to Smarty.

That's true.

I'll see how it goes over the summer but so far it seems like it's just not the service to use for anyone outside of a large town. It's not even like I live in a remote part of the country - Brackley might be a fairly small town but it's half way between Birmingham and London and barely two miles from the M40. It's not the Scottish Highlands! With Vodafone I had to get right out into the sticks before the signal became poor.

I had assumed these days all providers offered good coverage pretty much anywhere other than really remote places like Dartmoor or Scottish Highlands. Lesson learned I suppose.

[MSF]

@AndrewC_1978217 Reception can be variable. I use to live not far from a mast for my previous network but had poor reception as the village was in a slight dip. We had to run upstairs to answer calls or to make them.

[N_2014122]

I worked in cellular network planning for over 20 years, so I'm reasonably familiar with the coverage and capacity challenges of operators. I'd accept a few spots of poor speed especially when there's is a high number of subscribers in a cell, but my experience the last few days outside of London has led me to reconsider as I'm so regularly having no signal or no data.

[MSF]

@N_2014122  It does seem to be a bit of a lottery in the UK as to which networks cover which areas well.

Other countries seem to do rather better I feel. I can remember being out in the middle of nowhere in Norway and getting a good signal years ago.

[DavidCr_2077885]

Same here