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Smarty (Three) roaming partners ?

JJP2
SMARTY Pro-coach
SMARTY Pro-coach

I have been unable to find a list of Three / Smarty roaming partners. 

Is there a list available anywhere ?

I am particularly interested in the roaming partners in the USA, wondering whether it will be ATT, T-Mobile, or Verizon. 

6 REPLIES 6

MSF
SMARTY Guru
SMARTY Guru

@JJP2 I'm not sure it's as simple as that. Don't forget that it will also depend upon what signals available where you are.

As an example, when I was roaming in Spain, I noted Movistar, Vodafone ES and Oigo signals at various points during my stay there.

JJP2
SMARTY Pro-coach
SMARTY Pro-coach

Absolutely.

The three MNO's in the USA are the afore mentioned ATT, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

The MVNO I use in the States, Tello, piggybacks on T-Mobile. The majority of places I frequent in Phoenix have good T-Mobile coverage, hence me choosing Tello.

My interest in Smarty's roaming partners in the USA is because if Smarty do not have a roaming agreement with T-Mobile, then I may need to look at an ATT or Verizon MVNO, or the MNO's directly (As MNO's in the USA charge an arm, leg and kidney for cell phone service, MVNO's are the most cost effective option, certainly for short term stays)

As an aside, another MVNO in the States, US Mobile, has an interesting proposition. In addition to their esim offering, their starter kit contains two SIM cards, a black one which connects to Verizon cell towers and a white one, which connects to T-Mobile cell towers. Obviously, you pick the SIM that offers you the best coverage for your circumstances.

As US Mobile have recently become sponsors of Barnsley Football Club here in the UK, with their logo front and centre on the player's shirts, I do wonder if they plan to launch in the UK soon, otherwise I cant see why an MVNO in the USA would sponsor a UK professional football club. They sidestep the "Are you launching in the UK ?" question on social media ...

MSF
SMARTY Guru
SMARTY Guru

@JJP2  You will almost certainly be better off purchasing a local sim if you can because the roaming charges outside the EU tend towards the exorbitant end I feel.

JJP2
SMARTY Pro-coach
SMARTY Pro-coach

Yes indeed, the Tello physical sim proved most useful in April.

Very useful too that Amazon will ship US sim cards here to the UK, often with free shipping.

Also interesting that a lot of US networks, both MNO and MVNO offer esims, and they all offer iPhone visual voicemail as a matter of course...

Didn't have a service via SMARTY for two weeks in the U.S. Using the locations wifi to communicate with them to try and resolve. Went over the same questions and responses time and time again but still couldn't get it to work. As four of us had SMARTY sim cards it was a right pain in the proverbials. Still not resolved: I think they just gave up in the end. Recomend buying a local sim as soon as you get there (T Mobile was the best one for Florida)

@GeoffMa_1090513 Did you have credit to pay for all usage while in the US? Bearing in mind that data costs 10p per megabyte (not gigabyte) it's very easy to swallow £10 credit with a few emails etc. This can be checked via your dashboard. I mention it because it happened to us once - simply turning on the phone before suspending mobile data resulted in us burning through a load of credit in minutes.