Posted 25 August 2023

Real life differences between Three and Smarty Internet

I am on Smarty social and I experienced internet cutdowns for a minute or less and it started working. I saw an HUKD member's comment that he also experienced Smarty kicking him out and decided to move to Three. I also signed up to Three 6 months a month unlimited internet contract and I have 10 days to cancel.

I'll either keep Smarty for £12 and cancel Three.

Or cancel Smarty and use £1.99 Lebara MSE deal to get unlimited calls and texts and 5GB roaming.

Three unlimited £6 a month + £1.99 = £7.99 for 6 months. For the rest, I'll find a similar deal to avoid £4.90 fee.

On the other hand, I like Smarty switching IPs each time because I do betting on multiple accounts and it helps for account safety.

Does Three give you one IP which doesn't change ever? Or does it also change the IP when you restart the phone or router?

Can you please share your own real life experiences between these two? Internet speed, tethering, IP issues etc.
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  1. KodaBear's avatar
    Smarty doesn’t seem to like long teetering sessions or using the SIM In a router. Whereas Three have a special broadband APN specifically designed for this kind of use and even disables things like CGNAT to give a more true broadband experience.

    Occasionally you’ll see Smarty data slow right down or even stop all data throughput altogether. Either have to wait a few minutes or disconnect and reconnect.

    I’ve never seen this happen on Three itself.

    It’s also worth noting that I’ve heard rumours that Smarty’s social tariff isn’t likely to remain unlimited for too much longer. I don’t know how much truth there is to it. But worth mentioning it to help you plan in case of potential changes too.
    celalcan's avatar
    Author
    Thank you very much. I saw a comment on another forum that using Three APNs is possible on Smarty? Have you tried that? Will that fix these issues? After reading your comment I'm more likely to cancel Smarty Social and use Lebara £1.99 deal for unlimited calls and texts and 5GB data for roaming for 6 months using the deal I found on MSE. And for the data, I'll keep Three 6 months unlimited 24 months contract for £6. This is probably the best thing to do.
  2. aLV426's avatar
    You have reminded me I really need to switch from Smarty (I moved over from Ovivo) and haven't used data which makes my SIM cost £1/m less. So annoyed at how lazy I have become - I should've swapped it for one of those penny deals!
    Oh and for me I used Threes APN details (I think that's why I just stopped using the data as it was slow) (edited)
    celalcan's avatar
    Author
    Very helpful review about the APN, I had that question answered thanks to you. I'll do the switch from Vodafone to Lyca £1.99 6 months deal and keep Three Unlimited Data £6 a month for 24 months contract. I don't believe there'll be better data deals soon. The only possible regret would be having a great phone contract deal down the line and having duplicate unlimited data Sims.
  3. Conkers816's avatar
    I've been on Smarty social for a good few months myself.

    Like a lot of people I actively avoided 3's network because of a perceived poor signal, terrible speeds e.t.c.. but when I came to terms with the fact that all I really needed it for was music streaming on my iPhone with the occasional bit of YouTube while I was out then it was/is perfectly fine.
  4. Fuzzy-Dunlop's avatar
    Haven't used Three but have recently moved to Smarty from Vodafone. Happy so far, recent speed test was 620Mbps down, 89 up, solid 5G signals.
    celalcan's avatar
    Author
    Wow. Speed variation is very volatile. I was curious and did a test at Islington Specsavers just now. 1.15 down, 0.03 home. I get average speeds at home, but nothing like yours. In London, it's very volatile

    Have you ever experienced internet cutdowns? Momentarily or a minute long or one that you needed to restart your phone. I had all three on Smarty while tethering. Phone was accessing the internet fine at one point but my PC couldn't access any websites including Google that I had to restart both my phone and PC to access internet (edited)
  5. genmaxiu's avatar
    Smarty - all that lies about them not capping when tethering:)

    I am using it, so whenever the network see you are tethering, phone goes from 5g to "5g ready" on my samsung s22 ultra. So dont believe they dont do anything, they do and they do it ALL the times.
    celalcan's avatar
    Author
    Well said. I cancelled my contract with them.
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