Best Sim-Only plans? EE/Vodafone/VOXI / Others?

MatsyLR said:
As someone who works for a mobile provider, never go with the "main ones"
It's literally pointless and a waste of money. They are way way too high. Just pure greed.

Go with third parties like Lebara, Smarty, talk mobile etc on 1 month rolling plans.
Voxi are owned by Vodafone, literally no difference apart from cost and where you go for support. Check who has good signal in your area and check HotUKDeals and the third party comparison sites for the cheapest with the amount of data you want.


Lebara do 50GB on 7 month plan's for £1 or under regularly and various others.
Once it's coming to an end you switch via PAC to PAYG (Asda is popular),. buy a new Lebara SIM on another cheap deal and PAC code back.
Remember to use topcashback and you get literally more money than you spent in cashback. Haven't spent money on my SIM in years.

Whatever you do dont sign up to a main providers 24month con SIM plans.
Entertainment is a con when you can get an alternative with better quality for £2.50 a month and not be limited to netflixs catalogue.

Smarty is probably the most popular of the third parties and good pricing.
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Agreed for the most part but you do get some gem of deals with EE every now and then.

For £32 I got unlimited data (uncapped speeds), discovery+, office 365 and Apple Music all included. The data roam pass comes in handy too which you can swap out the perk every month.

As someone who uses all these services it makes it a no brainer.

But yeah best thing is check coverage in your area first and foremost.
 
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I'm still flip flopping between Spusu (EE) and Lebara (Vodafone) once their promotion periods run out.

EE is better for me but Lebara currently has 62p per month (yes!) for 8 months for 50GB of dara with roaming, just silly cheap.
 
neoboy said:
I'm still flip flopping between Spusu (EE) and Lebara (Vodafone) once their promotion periods run out.

EE is better for me but Lebara currently has 62p per month (yes!) for 8 months for 50GB of dara with roaming, just silly cheap.
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I just do the Lebara PAYG dance to stay on there under £1 plans every 6-8 months.
 
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MrRockliffe said:
I found out and it is 100 Mbps. Still pretty high but I think it's a bit cheeky given EE is supposed to be the premium offering. If they're going to actively limit their plans like that, I think they'd be better off having a budget brand.


I want to stay on the EE network as the signal is generally the best for me, in addition to speeds being generally better for everything. I vividly remember having full 4G with vodafone and struggling to get much more than 20Mb down - wildly frustrating.



1p Mobile use EE, but not sure who else is worth looking at. Need to support WiFi calling, VoLTE and the other bits.
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That's frustrating.

I get full 5G signal on O2 where I live, but not even BBC loads!

Switched to 3 mobile and it's much better. 200mbps down on half bars of signal.
 
I can say with almost 100% certainty that Vodafone have prioritisation on their network.

Ok, so my testing isn't particularly scientific but I have a work phone and a personal phone, one with Vodafone (work) and the other is on Lebara. Since switching from iD on my personal phone I get network drop outs every time I drive down a particular section of the A38. I know this because I use Android Auto and I can see the bars on the display drop to E. Also, I listen to Radio X via the global app which also drops out, and is why I first noticed this. My work phone, which I can also see never drops below 2 bars of 4g in this same section and doesn't drop any audio.

The reason I came to this thread looking for a new sim is because of this and the fact that on Lebara you can't text short codes without topping up your sim with credit. Absolutely ridiculous, but I also spoke to Voxi and SMARTY who do the same. So I'm looking for a new sim deal, one where I can use it properly without feeling like I'm on PAYG.

I was considering an O2 50g sim for £8.99pm but I just dont feel good about knowing it goes up in April by nearly £2.
 
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At work, 2 of us were on Lebara and 1 on full fat Vodafone, all slow 4G. All had signal but took ages to load web pages etc...
It used to be really good for all of us, untill something changed......but who knows what?
 
I'm with Mozillion, unlimited data etc and roaming for £9 /month for 2 years. Pretty good so far tbh and the support was great. Only thing is EE is a bit spotty on the motorway. Vodafone never missed a beat when I had that. Had the unlimited glitch but the speeds were meh.
 
R0B75 said:
I can say with almost 100% certainty that Vodafone have prioritisation on their network.

Ok, so my testing isn't particularly scientific but I have a work phone and a personal phone, one with Vodafone (work) and the other is on Lebara. Since switching from iD on my personal phone I get network drop outs every time I drive down a particular section of the A38. I know this because I use Android Auto and I can see the bars on the display drop to E. Also, I listen to Radio X via the global app which also drops out, and is why I first noticed this. My work phone, which I can also see never drops below 2 bars of 4g in this same section and doesn't drop any audio.

The reason I came to this thread looking for a new sim is because of this and the fact that on Lebara you can't text short codes without topping up your sim with credit. Absolutely ridiculous, but I also spoke to Voxi and SMARTY who do the same. So I'm looking for a new sim deal, one where I can use it properly without feeling like I'm on PAYG.

I was considering an O2 50g sim for £8.99pm but I just dont feel good about knowing it goes up in April by nearly £2.
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What handsets are you comparing? Are they the same?

I'm no expert, but I'd assume the differences in reception (signal strength) are more to do with the antenna performance of the handset than to do with any 'prioritisation' of the network.
 
Just my two cents from my experience over the years with family/friends/work.

I think it’s worth paying the premium to get the fully fledge features and access to the network. It’s not just a case of saying Voda or EE are £10 for 5gb or this VMNO is £5 for 10gb you’re missing the big picture. Especially if you have a decent phone like most of us itt

I find a lot of the VMNO don’t have all the features. Even major ones like 3 for example don’t even offer visual voicemail. Some offer esim but don’t offer esim transfer which is a complete pain as you have to get a brand new esim then transfer the number across! Great fun when trying to set up a new phone!

Be interesting if we went like the states with their latest phones only being eSim

Another annoying thing is if you phone someone they could drop from 4G/5G down to 3G(2G?) in order to connect which takes time, it’s silent and you think did I hit phone then you check and you have and then it it’ll go through - I’ve had to phone people twice in order for the connection to go through!

RCS messaging, WiFi calling etc a few more features that a lot of them don’t offer.
 

Smarty, which is a virtual mobile operator (MVNO) on Three UK’s network, has recently introduced two plans that offer 32GB of mobile broadband data for £7 per month (normally 8GB) and 12GB for £6 (normally 5GB) – available until the end of March 2025 and lasting for 15 consecutive months. The move supports their new “Less Malarkey, More SMARTY” TV campaign.
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VOXI have been good, I moved to them from O2. I got a good deal 60GB for £10, this was only available on black Friday.
I think the current cheapest is 75GB for £12. (edit there is a 20GB for £10)
 
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ODuffer said:
VOXI have been good, I moved to them from O2. I got a good deal 60GB for £10, this was only available on black Friday.
I think the current cheapest is 75GB for £12. (edit there is a 20GB for £10)
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Same with me and one thing to note as happened with me over the last year with VOXI. I started off with 20GB a month for £12 but they have offers on all the time so you can just upgrade. I'm currently on 90GB for £12 and use nowhere near that.
They also have 'Drops' every month and you can get some good stuff for free if you're fast enough.
I have 5G pretty much everywhere where I live and out and about too.
 
div0 said:
What handsets are you comparing? Are they the same?

I'm no expert, but I'd assume the differences in reception (signal strength) are more to do with the antenna performance of the handset than to do with any 'prioritisation' of the network.
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I have tested both sims in each phone. It is the same result.
 
I've just ordered an ID mobile SIM after 4 days with Smarty.

My partner and son are both with them, so I know the reception is decent around here, and 40GB for £7 on a 1 month contract isn't too bad :)

Pretty sure that particular deal is only via USwitch as I couldn't see it direct with ID
 
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I'm really pleased with Voxi, it's not the cheapest but I have had so many issues on others.

iD, O2 and giffgaff all had capacity issues around mine. Frequently had good signal but no meaningful internet speed during my lunch breaks.

Voxi also has a lot of nice network features. I find this table really useful for comparing as there are a lot of details you can't get just by looking at price and GB:

NETWORK SPEC SPREADSHEET.

I'm going to keep adding more bits as the days go by so watch this space. Hoping to get Roaming details added as per each operator next. @Mark.J would you be able to pin my brainchild pretty please!! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/126in1zdWmjTkPB1dU2OvWF7BzTpNWiJLPGWgZ3C0n-Q/edit?usp=sharing
www.ispreview.co.uk
 
Hi from EE. We've removed your Travel Data Pass - if you didn't ask for this, it's because we're shaking up our roaming products. Please go to ee.co.uk/go/roamingrefresh for the best way to stay connected on your travels. Thanks.

—

Nice of them.
 
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