By SMARTY Mobile offers low-cost SIM cards such as 5GB data for £6, 40GB data for £8, 60GB for £9, and 120GB data for £11.
In the UK, SMARTY is a low-cost mobile network, offering SIM-only deals with 4G & 5G coverage from Three.
With its focus on simple one-month rolling Pay As You Go plans, SMARTY claims to give you “all the data you need for less”. At present, you can get a SMARTY SIM card with 5GB data for £6/month. For heavy users, there’s 40GB data for £8/month, 60GB data for £9/month, 120GB data for £11/month, and unlimited data for £18/month.
In this article, we’ll review the SMARTY mobile network, including their latest SIM-only plans and offers available on SMARTY. We’ll also compare SMARTY’s price plans to those available on other mobile networks like giffgaff. Finally, we’ll look at the coverage on SMARTY and how you can keep your current phone number when moving to the network.
| Plans From: | £6 per month |
|---|---|
| Smarty SIM Only Deals: | |
| Contract Length: | No contract (monthly rolling plans) |
| Coverage: | Three coverage (4G & 5G) – check postcode |
| What We Like: |
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| What We Don’t Like: |
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Contents
SMARTY SIM Only Plans
In the UK, SMARTY Mobile currently offers SIM-only deals from £6 per month. Claiming to give you ‘all the data you need for less’, the plans range from 5GB data for £6/month up to fully unlimited data for £18/month.
Monthly Plans
The following table shows the plans currently available from SMARTY Mobile:
| Network | Data | Monthly Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5GB data | £6.00 per month 1 month rolling | See deal |
| 8GB data | £7.00 per month 1 month rolling | See deal |
Offer ends 31st Jul | 40GB data | £8.00 per month 1 month rolling | See deal |
Offer ends 31st Jul | 60GB data | £9.00 per month 1 month rolling | See deal |
Offer ends 31st Jul | 120GB data | £11.00 per month 1 month rolling | See deal |
Offer ends 11th Aug | Unlimited data | £18.00 per month 1 month rolling | See deal |
You can see all of the latest plans and offers on the SMARTY website.
Pay As You Go Rates
Except from on SMARTY’s Data Only plans, you’ll get unlimited UK minutes and unlimited UK texts included in your monthly payment. You’ll also get an inclusive allowance of mobile data.
For anything else that’s not included in your SMARTY plan allowance, you’ll need to top-up your SMARTY account with a cash add-on. The cash add-on can then be used to pay for your out-of-plan usage:
| Calling Rates: | |
|---|---|
| Calls to UK landline & mobile | Included with base plan (Voice & Data Discount plans) 10p/minute (Data Only plans) |
| Calls to Voicemail | Included with base plan (excluding Data Only) |
| Calls to International Numbers | 19p/minute to £2/minute |
| Calls to Special Rate Numbers | 3p/minute access charge + service charge from the company you’re calling |
| Messaging Rates: | |
| Text Message (SMS) | Included with base plan (Voice & Data Discount plans) 10p/text (Data Only plans) |
| Picture Message (MMS) | Included with base plan (Voice & Data Discount plans) 40p/message (Data Only plans) |
| Data Rates: | |
| Mobile Data | £1/GB |
It isn’t possible to use SMARTY on a pure Pay As You Go basis. This is because you’ll need to maintain an active plan at all times to maintain access to their network.
Data Only & Money Back Plans
Aside from SMARTY’s regular price plans (which are sometimes referred to as “Voice plans”), there are two other types of plan available on SMARTY:
- Data Only plans: SMARTY offers Data Only plans such as 2GB data for £5, 15GB data for £9, 40GB data for £13 and 100GB data for £17. You won’t get any inclusive minutes or texts on a Data Only plan. In most cases, we’d recommend choosing one of the regular plans instead as you’ll get a lot more data for your money that way. You’ll also get unlimited UK minutes and texts included on the regular plans.
- Money Back plans: On SMARTY’s Money Back plans, you’ll get £1 back for each GB of unused data. Although this sounds like an good feature, it’s less useful in practice as you’ll pay more for your plan. For instance, you’ll pay £6 for the 1GB Money Back data plan.
SMARTY also offers a 10% discount when you set up a Group with multiple SMARTY SIM cards.
Handsets
As SMARTY is a SIM-only mobile network, you’ll need to provide your own unlocked phone to use with the service. You can use any compatible 4G or 5G phone, including your existing mobile phone or one that you’ve purchased SIM-free.
If you’re planning to use your existing smartphone, it might be necessary for you to first unlock it before you can use it on SMARTY. For more information, see our step-by-step guides to unlocking an iPhone and unlocking a Samsung Galaxy phone.
If you’re looking to buy a new unlocked smartphone, there are a number of online retailers where you can buy a SIM-free smartphone.
Network & Coverage
4G & 5G Coverage from Three
SMARTY is the low-cost sub-brand of Three. As Three provides all of the underlying coverage for SMARTY, customers will receive the same coverage as customers on Three.
At the time of writing, SMARTY offers 99.8% population coverage on 4G. You’ll also get 5G coverage in more than 600 UK towns and cities if you’re using a compatible 5G device.
You can check the coverage in your area by entering your postcode on SMARTY’s online coverage map:
Check SMARTY Coverage Map (smarty.co.uk) →
For more information, see our guide to SMARTY’s mobile network coverage.
Wi-Fi Calling & 4G Calling
Both Wi-Fi Calling and 4G Calling are now available on SMARTY if you’re using a compatible mobile phone.
With Wi-Fi Calling, you’re able to make and receive phone calls on SMARTY using a Wi-Fi connection. This helps you to stay connected in places where a traditional mobile signal isn’t available (e.g. in buildings with thick walls and in rural locations with poor coverage).
With 4G Calling (also known as VoLTE), you can make and receive phone calls using a 4G connection. This allows you to benefit from HD-quality voice calls. You’ll also benefit from faster download speeds whilst you’re on a call.
Tethering & Personal Hotspot
Tethering or personal hotspot refers to the process of sharing your smartphone’s internet connection with another device (e.g. with your laptop or tablet). It’s useful for getting a mobile broadband connection on the go: for instance, sending e-mails on your laptop or watching YouTube videos on your tablet.
SMARTY allows the use of both tethering and portable hotspot. This is confirmed in the SMARTY help centre:
You’re entitled to use your data however you like, no matter which of the SMARTY plans you’re on, so you can tether and use your phone as a mobile hot spot with your full allowance if you want to.
You can also use your SMARTY SIM card inside a data-only device such as your tablet, mobile broadband dongle and 4G broadband router.
International Roaming
On SMARTY, it’s possible to use your mobile phone abroad through international roaming.
Within Europe, you can use your SMARTY plan allowances at no extra cost. However, on price plans with more than 12GB of data, European roaming is capped at a maximum of 12GB per month.
If you’re travelling outside Europe, you’ll be required to top-up your account with a cash add-on before you depart. You’ll then pay SMARTY’s international roaming rates.
Keeping Your Phone Number
If you’d like to keep your current phone number when moving to SMARTY, it’s a straightforward process to transfer it from your old mobile network.
To do so, start off by ordering a SIM card from SMARTY.
Once you’ve done that, ask your old network to provide you with a PAC Code. This can be obtained through your old mobile network’s website or app, or by texting PAC to 65075. You should normally receive your PAC Code within 60 seconds of your request.
When your new SIM card from SMARTY arrives in the post, pop it inside your mobile phone and activate the service. To start with, it will come with a temporary phone number assigned to it. This will allow you to test out SMARTY’s service before you move your phone number over.
Once you’re happy to continue, you can log in to your SMARTY account dashboard to submit your PAC Code and to have your phone number moved over.
For step-by-step instructions on how to move your phone number to SMARTY Mobile, please select your current network from the drop-down menu below:
For more information about transferring your phone number between networks, see our guide to using a PAC Code.
More Information
For more information, please see the official SMARTY Mobile website.
Colin McLean said:
Hi Ken
I’ve just signed up to SMARTY. The SIM was received the day after my order was processed, and my number was ported the following day (I requested this on the day the SIM arrived). So far, so good.
Their welcome email, and website FAQs, state a one-time change needs to be made to the ‘3’ access point (under Mobile Networks in Settings) to enable roaming, but this AP didn’t show on my phone. Instead, an AP called ‘SMARTY Internet’ was present which had the correct settings, so I assume I’m good to go. I tried confirming this with SMARTY, but their Customer Service just replied with copies of the information on their website articles relating to a ‘3’ AP. So it looks like SIMs now come with a new AP, and the website information only applies to older SIMs or is no longer applicable.
Miles said:
I changed from GIffgaff to Smarty but unfortunatley most of the time my unlocked iphone only registers on the 3G network instead of 4G. The 4gb data allowance will be somewhat useless on the slow 3G network.
JP said:
Bought a cheap Huawei mifi router which came with smarty SIM, this was for reliable internet at a static caravan up near Carlisle where the site provided internet is like 1990s dial up (unsuitable for streaming).
After reading the smarty reviews I was dubious of the speeds, I can get a signal on three at the site (around 2/3 bars out of 5).
I set the router & SIM up at home first, got unlimited £18 per month. Once at the caravan I switched the router on with smarty SIM card inserted, connected my phone and did a speed test which gave very a impressive 12mb down ,2 up.
Over past few days the network has performed brilliantly, I’ve been doing regular speed tests and the speeds have been constant, this is a very rural area and I can only assume there’s a low amount of users, at home (Manchester) I noticed quite a dip in speeds in busy peek times.
The router has been constant streaming whilst I’ve been up here and I’ve had no buffering whatsoever.
This router and network have been the perfect solution, no contract, pay month by month, half the price of EE, the list goes on and on.
I’m a very satisfied customer.