Cheapest UK 4G and 5G Unlimited Mobile Data Plans Compared – 2024

SexyGreyFox said:
@R.O.S.S.I @Super Tigers @Journey

I've just decided to switch from EE because it's an awful plan and they won't give me anything better for my £10.
Looking at Three's coverage I can get 5G in my area and looking at your posts just bought the Smarty 50gb for £10.
I'm also having a bad time with Virgin, I've spent 6 hours with 3 different departments and getting nowhere for a better deal and then surprised to see your 5G Broadband posts using Smarty.
I'll first see how fast my phone SIM is before looking at 5G broadband.

Thanks
Click to expand...

How is the Smarty sim card working out? Are you managing to get a good 5G signal and connections?

I moved my wife onto the Lebara / Vodafone£1.40 for 6 months deal last month, she is getting decent 5G speeds but not as good as Smarty/3 though.
 
Super Tigers said:
How is the Smarty sim card working out? Are you managing to get a good 5G signal and connections?

I moved my wife onto the Lebara / Vodafone£1.40 for 6 months deal last month, she is getting decent 5G speeds but not as good as Smarty/3 though.
Click to expand...

Only ordered it yesterday, probably come Monday.
 
throwaway4372 said:
I'm on O2 "old school" PAYG, which they don't offer anymore. Annoys me I don't get Wifi calling because I didn't buy my phone from O2. I use about 30MB per month (yes MB), occasionally call, and rarely text. Costs me less than £1 a month. All these pay monthly "deals" seem terrible in comparison.

I'd love to see more focus on service for very light users, I firmly believe every provider should have an option that gets you connected without requiring you to accept some bundle of capacity you'll never use. As a student I worked in [a landline phone company's] customer services when they scrapped landline "line rental + payg" billing in favour of the now-familiar packages, and the amount of calls from people who just saw it as a price hike was depressing. Try explaining to old folks who only have service for emergencies why this "progress" is good for them...
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Exactly they have no deal that works for low usage and of that data I bet most of that was from Android phoning home.

All I would want is 100 minutes, text why, and I guess the smallest amount of data (1GB?) all for £1 maybe £2 would be fine for me. If £2 I would want unused minutes to roll over.

Edit I wonder what the limits are on these unlimited plans is.
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
At the top of this page it says the Unlimited is capped every month!!
Just sounds weird if I want to go down the route of 5G Broadband.

Unlimited data only SIM plan

Unlimited Data
smarty.co.uk smarty.co.uk
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Doesn't say that for me? My usage last month was 470gb. Also click on the unlimited plan it says this:

month plan, cancel anytime
Unlimited calls & texts
(Excluding Data Only Plans
Fast 5G, 4G & 3G data
5G available with enabled devices
No credit check
Unrestricted tethering in the UK
No speed caps
EU Roaming
Use your plan in Europe (12GB fair use limit) Learn more
SIM, Micro-SIM, & Nano-SIM

Edit: it says

£20.00​

Capped per month

Means it's capped at £20 per month. You silly boy :cry:
 
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Next question please

I'm expecting my Smarty Sim tomorrow and all I want to do is test it to see if I get a good signal and a decent download speed.
At this moment I don't want to port my number over just in case it's useless so can I test it as it is?
I do have a spare slot for another Sim but should I take my EE Sim out?
Do I still need to register the Smarty Sim or should it just work?
I've been on EE for like forever so a bit of a virgin.

Thanks
 
Once you pop it in the phone it'll be activated. You can put it in your spare SIM slot and disable the EE sim in your phone settings. Or just remove it and put the smarty sim in.
SexyGreyFox said:
Next question please

I'm expecting my Smarty Sim tomorrow and all I want to do is test it to see if I get a good signal and a decent download speed.
At this moment I don't want to port my number over just in case it's useless so can I test it as it is?
I do have a spare slot for another Sim but should I take my EE Sim out?
Do I still need to register the Smarty Sim or should it just work?
I've been on EE for like forever so a bit of a virgin.

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
My phone is on PlusNet, £10 for 25GB and unlimited everything else. Sim-only for 1 year.

My home internet is on Three, £16 for unlimited data ("unlimited" as in no fair usage policy) and fast.com regularly returns 800mbps, sometimes over 1gbps in the nighttime! Also sim-only for 1 year.

Make sure you renew your phone / internet contracts once a year to keep your rates low and use cashback web sites.
 
Something is wrong.
Smarty SIM installed
Three map coverage says I have 5G
My speed test says 5 meg download :(

I've been to another area tonight that is on that map and only got 4 meg download.
My phone is a Sony Xperia 5ii which is 5G compatible.

smarty5g.jpg
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
Something is wrong.
Smarty SIM installed
Three map coverage says I have 5G
My speed test says 5 meg download :(

I've been to another area tonight that is on that map and only got 4 meg download.
My phone is a Sony Xperia 5ii which is 5G compatible.

smarty5g.jpg
Click to expand...

I don't overly find these coverage maps terribly useful. According to EE I can get full coverage at home both indoors and outdoors.

You're lucky if I get any signal at all unless in the loft! Unfortunately, all the other networks are just as pap and EE has best coverage in general so I stick with them and just grateful Wi-Fi calling does its job!
 
www.ispreview.co.uk

Smarty Named Best Mobile Operator in Expert Reviews Awards 2022

Consumer site Expert Reviews has today revealed the winners of their annual 'Mobile Network Awards 2022' event, which surveyed their readers in an effort to i
www.ispreview.co.uk www.ispreview.co.uk

Winners of the Expert Reviews Mobile Awards 2022

Overall winner: Smarty
Highly commended: Sky Mobile

Best customer service: Sky Mobile
Highly commended: Tesco Mobile

Best value: Lebara
Highly commended: Smarty

Most reliable: Voxi
Highly commended: Smarty

Best 5G: EE
Highly commended: Sky Mobile
Click to expand...
 
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Journey said:
Does it actually show you connecting at/to 5G in the phone on the display?
Click to expand...

I've just been chatting to Smarty and they reckon I should have a good signal but they have planned maintenance on October 25th in my area.
Later this afternoon my mate is coming with both an EE and Vodafone sim for me to try, I watched him get 260 meg download on Vodafone last night where I was getting 4 meg on Smarty.

sims.jpg
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I've just been chatting to Smarty and they reckon I should have a good signal but they have planned maintenance on October 25th in my area.
Later this afternoon my mate is coming with both an EE and Vodafone sim for me to try, I watched him get 260 meg download on Vodafone last night where I was getting 4 meg on Smarty.

sims.jpg
Click to expand...
The active smarty sim there is only receiving H+, which is a faster version of 3G. Does both slots in that phone have 5G? As some phones only have 5G in one slot. Take the EE sim out completely and just use one slot.
Also look in the settings for something like this "preferred net work type" you can select 5G preferred there.
 
Huxton said:
The active smarty sim there is only receiving H+, which is a faster version of 3G. Does both slots in that phone have 5G? As some phones only have 5G in one slot. Take the EE sim out completely and just use one slot.
Also look in the settings for something like this "preferred net work type" you can select 5G preferred there.
Click to expand...

Just switched sims and took the EE out but still H+

In my settings it only allows me
5G/4G/4G/2G
or
4G/3G/2G
or
3G/2G

of course I have it on the 5G one.

WEIRD
My display has just shown 4G and then went to 5G so I tried a speedtest but slow at 9meg which is an improvement :)
Rebooted the phone but went back to H+ but I'm now doing a Sony update.
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
WEIRD
My display has just shown 4G and then went to 5G so I tried a speedtest but slow at 9meg which is an improvement :)
Rebooted the phone but went back to H+ but I'm now doing a Sony update.
Click to expand...

I'd suggest standing outside and then inside for a comparison as well, you may find that you are on the edge of the working signal for your device.
 
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