SMARTY is a

mobile telephone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

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operated by

Hutchison 3G UK Limited Hutchison 3G UK Ltd is a British telecommunications and internet service provider currently based in Reading, England. It is a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings, operating under the global Three brand. Three is the fourth-largest mobile net ...

using its

Three UK Hutchison 3G UK Ltd is a British telecommunications and internet service provider currently based in Reading, England. It is a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings, operating under the global Three brand. Three is the fourth-largest mobile net ...

branded

mobile network A cellular network or mobile network is a communication network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless. The network is distributed over land areas called "cells", each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver (typically thre ...

. It aims to attract customers primarily looking for cheaper deals than those available direct from Three, by offering a monthly rolling SIM-only service, limited to online-only support. On some plans the operator offers to buy back unused data by means of a bill discount, a practice which is not widespread in the UK but is exhibited elsewhere such as by US carrier

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Tariffs

All plans are monthly, with no contract, and are paid in advance by credit card, debit card, or cash via PayPoint, rather than via the more prevalent direct debit method. The company states that no credit checks are made. All plans (excluding data only plans) include unlimited UK calls and

texts Text may refer to: Written word * Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including: **Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred **Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preachin ...

. In common with other networks, SMARTY offers a fixed amount of mobile data (or an unlimited amount) for a fixed monthly payment. It also offers "data discount" plans, where the customer pays a £5 per month service charge and buys a small number of gigabytes of data. Under these plans, customers who do not use all their data allowance receive a credit on their next month's bill for unused data, calculated per megabyte at the same price as they paid for it. This credit for unused data is unique among UK mobile operators, as is the unified price of data add-ons; 1GB of data is priced the same, regardless of whether it is bought in advance as part of a customer's monthly rolling plan, or bought as an add-on which is consumed only when a customer's monthly allowance is used up. In this respect, the data discount plans are functionally equivalent to standard pay-as-you-go (PAYG) tariffs offered by other providers, such as Three's own PAYG offering, since customers only pay for the exact amount of data that they use. Around June 2020, SMARTY introduced group plans: a group of two or more customers can share a single online account and payment method, and receive a flat 10% discount on their plan. This discount does not apply to data add-ons. Upon launch, SMARTY offered hotspot and tethering functionality, although they did not offer the ability to call foreign numbers, roam abroad, or dial premium numbers. These features became available in 2018. In early 2018, SMARTY launched a refer-a-friend program. If a customer refers a friend, both would get a free month on SMARTY. There were no limits to this, so if a customer refers one friend a month they would keep their mobile bill free. In 2022, this offer was replaced with a £10

gift card A gift card also known as gift certificate in North America, or gift voucher or gift token in the UK is a prepaid stored-value money card, usually issued by a retailer or bank, to be used as an alternative to cash for purchases within a parti ...

for both customers. In 2022, SMARTY rolled out data only plans which do not include any calls or texts, unlike their other plans. There are a range of plans available from 2GB per month up to an unlimited data plan.

Network

SMARTY is 'Hutchison 3G UK Limited, trading as SMARTY.' SMARTY runs virtually on the 3UK mobile network, utilising operator code 23420 and Three's IP address range. SMARTY state that there are no speed restrictions or throttling on the network, and SMARTY is not subject to Three's TrafficSense traffic management approach. 4G calling (

VoLTE Voice over LTE (VoLTE) is an LTE high-speed wireless communication standard for mobile phones and data terminals, including Internet of things (IoT) devices and wearables. VoLTE has up to three times more voice and data capacity than older 3G U ...

) and

Wi-Fi calling Voice over Wireless LAN (VoWLAN), also Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi), is the use of a wireless broadband network according to the IEEE 802.11 standards for the purpose of vocal conversation. In essence, it is Voice over IP (VoIP) over a Wi-Fi networ ...

(VToW) are enabled on SMARTY, using the same protocol as Three's Wi-Fi calling service and available on the same devices as Three. 5G service is available in areas where Three has 5G coverage.

References

External links

* {{Telecommunications industry in the United Kingdom Mobile virtual network operators 2017 establishments in England Telecommunications companies established in 2017 Companies based in Reading, Berkshire Telecommunications in the United Kingdom 3 (company)