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iD Mobile vs Smarty unlimited 5G SIMs

Steve1980

Regular Member
I'm looking to use one of these for "DIY" home 5G broadband, as discussed in another thread.

These are both on the Three network so is it reasonable to assume the performance will be similar and probably identical?

I understand Smarty use CGNAT and customers don't get a public IP address. Does anyone know if it's the same with iD?

It looks like both companies allow tethering and "unlimited" does mean "unlimited", but Smarty seem to be more explicit about this which looks like a plus for them.

Smarty seem to be more discussed on the forums, but right now they're £16/month at uSwitch whereas uSwitch have an offer for iD at £15/month. It's only a quid but if the two services are really indistinguishable it feels silly to pay more. Though to be honest Smarty feels more like a known quantity just because I can find more discussion of their service and that discussion is generally positive.

Thanks for any advice!
 
Thanks, I had no idea that was even an option! I've seen Scancom mentioned on the forum but got it into my head they were EE-only, which is obviously not true.

That is very good value. I do note that the Amazon listing says "1000GB/month fair use policy", but I suspect I am very unlikely to exceed that. Just out of interest, supposing I did use that much routinely, is it likely that iD or Smarty would be OK with it or would I suddenly find out their "unlimited" service with no fair use policy isn't so unlimited after all?

Is there a risk of Scancom going bust and I lose my money without getting the service I paid for, or is my money "really" held by Three?

This is definitely interesting though. I think I will go with iD or Smarty to start with, because I need to see if the connection is fast and reliable enough for a month or two before I make a long-term comitment like this, but I could see myself switching afterwards. (I would like a public IP address, but it isn't critical, so I could live without one for a couple of months.)

This bit on the Amazon listing looks vaguely concerning: "If your order is not in the name of company / non-profit registered at companies house or an Amazon business customer, by purchasing, you affirm your status as a self-employed individual and consent to being listed as a business customer with Scancom Distribution Ltd, a necessary step to complete your purchase." What does this actually mean? Am I breaching some kind of T&Cs if I am not a self-employed individual? I am guessing not, but is there any kind of horrific VAT paperwork implication here? I don't want Hector collaring me just because I wanted cheap broadband. :)

(Apologies, I've been doing a bit of searching in old threads and it looks like everyone has the same reaction as me on first hearing about Scancom and this "business" thing.)
 
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I've been using smarty unlimited for 9 months now and this last month exceeded 1070GB for our DIY broadband, but normally use between 650 and 850GB. No issues so far, although recently started to experience Internet dead spots a few times a day. Not loosing connection, rather threes network seems to stall for 30s to a minute. This maybe a local thing, although I have seen others experience this also on this forum in other parts of the country.
 
Thanks Liono, good to hear that Smarty aren't making a fuss about this. I suspect my normal use might come in somewhere like yours too.
 
Thanks, I had no idea that was even an option! I've seen Scancom mentioned on the forum but got it into my head they were EE-only, which is obviously not true.

That is very good value. I do note that the Amazon listing says "1000GB/month fair use policy", but I suspect I am very unlikely to exceed that. Just out of interest, supposing I did use that much routinely, is it likely that iD or Smarty would be OK with it or would I suddenly find out their "unlimited" service with no fair use policy isn't so unlimited after all?

Is there a risk of Scancom going bust and I lose my money without getting the service I paid for, or is my money "really" held by Three?

This is definitely interesting though. I think I will go with iD or Smarty to start with, because I need to see if the connection is fast and reliable enough for a month or two before I make a long-term comitment like this, but I could see myself switching afterwards. (I would like a public IP address, but it isn't critical, so I could live without one for a couple of months.)

This bit on the Amazon listing looks vaguely concerning: "If your order is not in the name of company / non-profit registered at companies house or an Amazon business customer, by purchasing, you affirm your status as a self-employed individual and consent to being listed as a business customer with Scancom Distribution Ltd, a necessary step to complete your purchase." What does this actually mean? Am I breaching some kind of T&Cs if I am not a self-employed individual? I am guessing not, but is there any kind of horrific VAT paperwork implication here? I don't want Hector collaring me just because I wanted cheap broadband. :)

(Apologies, I've been doing a bit of searching in old threads and it looks like everyone has the same reaction as me on first hearing about Scancom and this "business" thing.)

It's a good idea to test before spending the money on one of these SIMs.

I have been using Scancom SIMs (EE and Three) for a few months now and have no complaints. The Three SIM was a business one, I think, but they didn't ask me to confirm anything. A friend has been using one of their EE SIMs for 5G broadband for more than a year and it has been working fine. Feedback here is also very positive.

Can they go out of business? Yes, I guess there's a risk, but someone posted their financials here and apparently business is going well. I'm not that worried.

Something to be aware of is that their Three SIMs have a hard limit, eg: use 1000GB on their 1000GB SIM and the SIM stops working until the reset date. On Smarty you wouldn't have such limit. Also, there's no way of checking your usage, you have to do it on your end.
 
I made the leap to home 5G broadband at the end of March using iD Mobile and had a few hiccups along the way trying to use tethered mobile phones for network access. In the end I purchased a Huawei 5G CPE Pro 2 Router H122-373 from ebay and my issues simply went away. I'm enjoying a very stable service far exceeding the speeds from my previous VDSL service. The screenshot attached is at the moment (plus I'm not directly connected to the Pro 2 at the moment) but it often runs 2 or 3 times as fast.

As @Leono mentions above though there does seem to be an occasional lull in the Three network for brief periods at various times. I've exceeded 1000Gb twice on the unlimited pan and there's been no sign of throttling or any warnings issued so the unlimited plans appear to be true to their word.

1719759986034.webp
 
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Thanks guys, this is really useful. My new router is due to arrive tomorrow and I'm quite excited to give it a test and see if this is going to work for me or not. I hope it will offer some kind of data use tracking. I intend to do a bit of scripting on my PC to download the usage stats from the router regularly to allow me to keep track of my use and avoid nasty surprises, as well as decide whether I realistically need to worry about a hard cap at 1000GB.
 
You could purchase the Scancom SIM using a credit card and, so long as the purchase is over £100, you'll likely be protected by Section 75 Consumer Credit Act 1974 should they go bust and unable to fulfil their contract to you.
 
Thanks e6qberu5, that is a great point. I did initially wonder if the whole "business" thing might kibosh this, but from a quick web search (turning up eg https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5606781/section-75-for-business-purchase, notably patw66's post) if you're a sole trader it's probably fine.

Even if there's a chance the credit card company would try to wriggle out on this pretext, it does add an extra chance to get the situation resolved in my favour even if there isn't any absolute guarantee.
 
Thanks e6qberu5, that is a great point. I did initially wonder if the whole "business" thing might kibosh this, but from a quick web search (turning up eg https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5606781/section-75-for-business-purchase, notably patw66's post) if you're a sole trader it's probably fine.

Even if there's a chance the credit card company would try to wriggle out on this pretext, it does add an extra chance to get the situation resolved in my favour even if there isn't any absolute guarantee.
Just looking at MSE and there's a Three unlimited deal that equates to £11.42 a month via Fonehouse for a 12 month contract. Might be a good bet if you're looking to take a cautious approach to this?
1719775055997.webp
 
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