SMARTY Unlimited Data SIM Review: £16 Unlimited Data With No Contract

SMARTY is offering a £16 unlimited data SIM card for Black Friday 2024. There’s no contract, no credit check & 5G coverage.

In the UK, SMARTY Mobile is currently offering an unlimited data SIM card for just £16/month. It’s a special offer that’s running for Black Friday 2024.

To get the £4/month discount, you’ll need to order through this special link. The plan gives you unlimited UK minutes, unlimited UK texts, and unlimited data for only £16 per month (reduced from the normal price of £20 per month).

SMARTY’s unlimited data plan is available on a one-month rolling basis, with no contract and no credit check required. However, despite the flexibility, you’re able to benefit from the discounted price every month, for up to 15 months. You’ll get 4G & 5G coverage from the Three network.

Get unlimited data for £16 on SMARTY →

In this article, we’ll review SMARTY’s unlimited data SIM card. We’ll start by looking at what their £16 unlimited data plan includes, the download speeds available, and the monthly fair usage policy. We’ll also look at how SMARTY’s unlimited data plan compares to rival networks and the coverage available on SMARTY. Finally, we’ll look at how you can keep your current phone number when you move to the SMARTY network.

Unlimited Data on SMARTY

No Download Limits

In the UK, SMARTY is a low-cost mobile network that is owned and operated by Three. All of their SIM cards work on a one-month rolling basis, and customers can join SMARTY Mobile with no need for a contract or credit check.

SMARTY’s flagship plan is their £16 unlimited data SIM card. This gives you unlimited UK minutes, unlimited UK texts, and unlimited UK data. It’s normally £20 per month, but there’s a special £4 per month discount for 15 months when you order through this link:

Network	Data	Monthly Cost
Three coverage Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£16.00 per month 1 month rolling	See deal

SMARTY’s unlimited data SIM card works on a Pay As You Go basis, so you can easily change or cancel your plan at any time. The £16 payment for your plan will be taken automatically from a registered credit card or debit card. For any out-of-bundle usage (e.g. international or premium-rate calls), you can top-up a separate cash balance onto your SMARTY account.

4G & 5G Download Speeds

SMARTY’s unlimited data SIM card gives you access to 4G & 5G coverage from Three. The download speeds available on SMARTY are the same as those available on Three, with no speed restrictions or throttling in place on their service.

According to Three, they have the UK’s fastest 5G network. This is based on Ookla’s speed test data, which recorded a median download speed of 226Mbps on Three’s 5G network (H2 2023 data). In practice, download speeds will vary based on the time of day and based on your location (a maximum download speed of 1,000Mbps or 1Gbps can sometimes be obtained).

Fair Use Policy

SMARTY doesn’t have any speed restrictions or hidden fair usage limits for unlimited data in the UK. This is confirmed in their price guide:

With our Unlimited plan there’s no hidden ‘fair use policies’ within the UK, giving you all the access to the Internet you’d need without worrying about hefty bills and no data speed restrictions.

If you’re travelling in the EU you will be subject to our fair use limit of 12GB each month.

All our SMARTY plans must only be used for your personal and non-commercial use.

In the past, a fair usage limit of 1,000GB per month has been used to identify non-permitted commercial usage of the service. SMARTY has confirmed that this fair usage policy is no longer being applied.

If you’re using your SMARTY SIM card in another European country, a fair usage limit of 12GB per month applies when you’re abroad.

Tethering & Personal Hotspot

You can share your unlimited data allowance with other devices through the tethering or personal hotspot feature on your phone. This is confirmed on the SMARTY website:

Tether without worrying
You can tether and hot-spot all of your data with no speed caps as long as you’re in the UK.

The use of tethering or personal hotspot can be a convenient way to get your other devices (including a laptop or tablet) connected to the internet.

SMARTY Mobile Broadband

You can use SMARTY’s unlimited data SIM card in other devices such as your tablet, mobile broadband dongle, mobile wi-fi hotspot or 4G router.

In fact, you can build your own 4G home broadband service by combining SMARTY’s unlimited data SIM card with an unlocked 4G broadband router. You’d then pay just £16/month for unlimited 4G broadband through your SMARTY SIM card.

One downside of using SMARTY for 4G home broadband is the lack of a publicly-accessible IP address. This is because SMARTY uses strict CGNAT technology, assigning you a private IP address that’s unable to accept incoming connections. This won’t make much of a difference for most online activities, but it can stop you from doing things like running a server, using certain P2P apps or playing some online multiplayer games.

If you’d like a publicly-accessible IP address, it’s better to get a SIM card from Three instead. On Three, you can get a public IP address when you use the 3internet APN. This service is not available to customers on SMARTY.

Comparison to Alternatives

In the UK, there are a number of other mobile networks that also offer an unlimited data plan.

At their current price of £16/month on a one-month rolling basis, SMARTY has one of the cheapest and most flexible unlimited data plans on the market.

The following table shows a comparison of SMARTY’s unlimited data plan to what is available on other UK networks:

Network	Data	Monthly Cost
Vodafone coverage Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£16.00 per month 1 month contract	See deal
Three coverage Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£16.00 per month 1 month rolling	See deal
Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£20.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by RPI inflation plus 3.9%	See deal
Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£22.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.50	See deal
Vodafone coverage Unlimited UK mins Unlimited UK texts 100 intl mins	Unlimited data	£22.50 per month 12 month contract	See deal
O2 coverage Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£25.00 per month 18 month contract	See deal
Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data 10Mbps max speed	£30.00 per month 24 month contract Monthly cost will rise each April by £1.80	See deal
Vodafone coverage Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	Unlimited data	£35.00 per month 1 month rolling	See deal

For more information, see our full guide to unlimited data plans in the UK.

Network & Coverage

4G & 5G Coverage from Three

On SMARTY’s unlimited data plan, you’ll get 4G & 5G coverage from Three’s mobile network in the UK. At the time of writing, this equates to 99.8% population coverage on 4G. There’s also 60% population coverage on 5G.

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) →

You’ll also have access to 4G Calling and Wi-Fi Calling if you have a compatible device on SMARTY.

For more information, see our guide to SMARTY’s network and coverage.

International Coverage

If you’re travelling abroad to one of 35 European destinations, you can use up to 12GB of data abroad at no extra cost each month. You can also use the unlimited minutes and the unlimited texts from your SMARTY plan.

The following destinations are included within SMARTY’s European roaming offer:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Comoros & Mayotte, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland

If you’re travelling outside Europe, you’ll need to buy an “Out of plan” add-on. For instance, when you travel to the United States, you’ll pay 50p/minute, 20p/text and 10p/MB (equivalent to £100 per gigabyte). It isn’t possible to use your plan allowances when you travel outside Europe.

According to SMARTY’s website, you can only use your SIM card abroad for up to 60 days at a time. If you spend more than 60 consecutive days abroad, they may suspend your usage of the service.

For more information, see SMARTY’s web page on international roaming.

Keeping Your Phone Number

If you’d like to keep your current phone number when you join SMARTY Mobile, it’s a straightforward process to transfer it from your old mobile network.

Start by ordering your unlimited data SIM card from SMARTY’s website. To begin with, it will come with a temporary phone number assigned to it, allowing you to test out the service before moving your phone number over.

When you’re happy to move your phone number over, you’ll need to get a PAC Code from your old network. This is available through your mobile network’s website or app, or by texting PAC to 65075. You can then submit the PAC Code to SMARTY through your online dashboard. Once you’ve done that, your phone number transfer will normally take place on the next working day.

For step-by-step instructions on how to move your phone number to SMARTY, please select your current mobile network from the drop-down menu below:

For more information on transferring your phone number between networks, see our guide to using a PAC Code.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Information

For more information on SMARTY’s unlimited data plan, please see their official website.