Honest Mobile Launches New UK eSIM Based Smart SIM Plan
Crowdfunded mobile operator Honest Mobile, which harnesses Three UK’s network via a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement, has today announced the launch of a “first-of-its-kind SIM” plan – Smart SIM – that is multi-network and designed to tackle expensive global roaming, as well as poor UK phone signals.
The supposedly “industry-first” eSIM solution works alongside your main SIM to provide 200+ essential apps with “unlimited data” (broadband) on mobile operators including EE, O2 and Three UK, plus free global roaming on those same apps in 180+ countries.
The key detail here is that the new Smart SIM only “kicks in when you lose signal in the UK or go abroad“, automatically connecting essential apps to the strongest available network. To date, these 200+ apps include WhatsApp, Google Maps, Uber, and Monzo, with more added every week.
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After almost 100,000 people signed up to the operator’s waiting list last year, Smart SIM is now available to buy instantly.
Andy Aitken, CEO and co-founder of Honest, said:
“The big mobile networks have set the bar shockingly low when it comes to meeting consumer needs. Too many people still struggle with connectivity, both in the UK and abroad. With yet more price hikes coming this April, Brits deserve better. We developed Smart SIM to tackle poor UK signal and expensive roaming, giving people peace of mind about staying connected, without worrying about losing signal or expensive roaming.”
The price of Smart SIM starts at either £10 per month or the equivalent of £3.75 per month if you pre-pay for a year in advance (normally £120). The plan is clearly focused more on data connectivity.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Is this just the official launch of something which has been around for ages?
Also has the price doubled from £5 to £10 a month?
It looks like it is the official launch/moving out of beta, yes. I’ve been using it since the early Beta and it seems to work well, used it on a recent cruise across the Caribbean, it’s sometimes a bit slow to initially connect to an international network but fine once it gets started. The game changer for me was when they added WhatApp Voice Calls to the allowed apps, saved me a lot on roaming costs.
The pricing looks like it has been tweaked, beta users are still grandfathered in at £5/mo but looks like they’ve increased the price to £10/mo without a contract and dropped it to £3.75/mo with a 12 month contract, I assume that’s to discourage customers signing up for a holiday and cancelling immediately after.
Looking at standard Honest? Mobile packages i cant see why the hell anyone would bother to sign up with these people! It is an overpriced rip off to start with! Even with the max loyalty discount applied there are much cheaper sim only deals available.
Honest claims they get a bad deal as a small MVNO. They supported the Vodafone-3 merger because they believe it will improve things for them.
I don’t really believe their claim at all and don’t understand their business beyond trying to be a niche, “ethical” operator. Whilst some small MVNOs like Zevvle and The People’s Operator failed there are others popping up recently including Spusu and Yayzi who have way better deals so clearly small starters can do better.
You can get a foreign esim from some of the travel esim brokers that can roam on at least 3 of the UK networks for £1.50-2 per GB (non expiring).
There’s a thread on the forum discussing some of them.
If you are just using it for backup and with things like whatsapp 1-2GB of data will last quite a long while.
So not sure why you’d pay £10/mo for a worse service
I agree, whilst they obviously have unique marketing I don’t think this is a good value product.
There are better eSIM brokers, some of which roam on all 4 networks.
There’s even Firsty which is completely free for low-speed data by watching an 1 ad for 1 hour service, and can roam on the same 3 networks.
Can’ you detail the sim ?
Three network? No thanks
The smart sim uses EE, Three and O2 whichever is the strongest signal and has worldwide free roaming, no calls (except WhatsApp calls) or SMS. It is excellent as a standby
Really not a fan of the “200 approved apps” angle, it’s just the loss of net neutrality. I can see they might not want you using Netflix or YouTube on roaming data but only approving apps from big tech is just the wrong way to do it IMO. Encourages more walled gardens and such.
In fairness it’s not just “big tech” – you’ve got plenty of apps from finance, travel, etc. I guess it’s their way of limiting how much data will be used. But IMO it would be better to restrict the speed (e.g. to 1 Mb/s) and let the customer self-moderate.
So I’d say pretty much all of the approved apps are “big tech” in one way or another. There’s certainly no small businesses on there, and of course anything self hosted or whatever is out of the question. I just think allowing some services and not others on any internet plan is a very slippery slope and it only serves to consolidate money and power in the hands of relatively few “big tech” companies and dissuade competition and startups.
Wouldn’t be needed if Three’s coverage was good.Cheaper to have both an EE+Voda dual sim setup, and far greater coverage with no app restrictions.
It’s rubbish , I tried it but there’s hardly any apps you’d use , all irrelevant banking apps I’ve never heard of !
Must admit ive had this for a couple of months now nad pay £5
The game changer fo me was the ability to use WhatsApp calls….used it quite frequently in Turkey..
Have a cruise coming up and hopefully will prove useful
There’s no way it will include any maritime options.
Complete joke of a product.
You plainly don’t understand it
In my experience it does not work in some places advertised as roaming destinations whereas my Airalo esim worked flawlessly. Cancelled. Waste of time and money
Why is Vodafone not included?!
They need reporting to the regulator, they are promoting it like any other eSIM product yet it is highly restricted to apps that use tiny amounts of data. I had it for a few months, there wasn’t a single occasion where it became useful. I have swapped for a secondary Lyca eSIM for £5 a month with 10GB of data.
Their promotion strategy is anything but ‘honest’.
I mean if you read it, it does say “The ultimate second SIM” and goes on to explain the use case of the smart SIM. So I don’t think that’s misleading
Why does it need reporting exactly? I’m in my 70s and can barely see to the end of my nose yet I could see within about 10 seconds what it was.
Just purchased a year. Mainly for loss of whatsapp in main sims nonspots.