Very slow 4 and 5G speeds

[NOS911]

So today is my first day with Smarty mobile and I can't say I'm impressed, the speeds on 4G and 5G are abysmal where I live, 4G indoors fluctuates between 500kbps and 2.3mbps without outside speeds only marginally better, 5G doesn't appear indoors and outdoors its between 1 and 6mbps, in comparison my o2 Service offers 60 to 68mbps indoors and outdoors with 4G and 83mbps indoors with 5G and significantly higher outdoors.

I have great signal with both providers(full bars) but with such low speeds it makes the unlimited package I've signed up for pointless.

[DavidB-3335558]

I've just joined Smarty. Iam getting 5g in my house with 200 mb/s download; I live less than 1/2 a mile away from a Three mast. OFCOM's mobile coverage checker is a great tool to check your area if you were thinking of changing again. In general i've noticed that the number of bars showing on my reception indicator often bears no resemblance to speed of data; 5 bars: sometimes slow, & vice versa. I've noticed that with Vodafone too. Perhaps the number of bars just indicates voice call reception strength. I would stick with it for the month, to see what your overall experience is in different places.  Check your connection settings also. I wish you luck. 

[MSF]

@DavidB-3335558 I agree that the number of bars is only a general indicator of signal and does not differentiate between calls or data.

[MSF]

@NOS911 I'm assuming that the coverage and Network Status checkers indicated that you would do better with signal speed.

I'm also assuming that you moved from O2 as Smarty is cheaper.

Unfortunately, Smarty is not all things to all people but the good thing is that you are not locked in to any long contract.

[NOS911]

@MSF The coverage checker states excellent 4G indoors and outdoors and coverage for 5G, which is the same as o2 state.

This morning I'm in a major city(Nottingham) and the speeds are woeful, 4G is bouncing between 2.5mbps and 6mbps, 5G isn't getting above 1.1mbps, i have dropped in to a Three store and they gave me a "test" sim which shows vastly better speeds 4G 60mbps and 5G 115mbps, same network yet vastly difference speeds.

Now i do understand that MVNO's are usually slower than the parent network, it was the same when i was with Virgin before being migrated to o2, however the speed difference was not as much it was maybe 10 to 15%.

So looks like I'm staying with o2 (i wasn't motivated by price to move as my rolling o2 deal is really good)I'm so glad I didn't move my number over and cancel my o2 service.

[MSF]

@NOS911 Fair enough then.

The only thing I don't understand - if you had decent service on a good deal and weren't motivated by price.....why move at all in the first place?

[NOS911]

I have been with Virgin/O2 for years and the decline of their customer service is getting tiresome, so I decided to try another network, I guess I'll have to try others.

@DavidB-3335558 Thanks for the reply, I'm going to check the ofcom checker and see what it says. 

[MSF]

@NOS911  I am going to risk 'jinxing' everything here.

I have been with Smarty for a few years now and it has been fine. That means that I haven't needed customer service very often - that is one of my main measures of how good the product is.

It is perhaps telling that you needed customer service at virgin/O2 often enough to notice the decline.

[NOS911]

@MSF I haven't had much need to contact Virgin/o2 customer service but on the occasions i have its been a rather unpleasant experience, its taken a full year for them to change the address on my account and that's why I'm looking at moving.

The service itself has been pretty much flawless, but that doesn't outweigh the declining customer service and their inability to do the simple things like change/update address details.