Smarty 5G mobile wifi

[eccles]

I should add that the above phone does support ethernet tethering which should overcome the wi-fi limitation. I have a USB C to gigabit ethernet adapter which I've tested with the phone and connected to the WAN port of the B818 and it seems to give similar download speeds to my B818 running solo. Uploads are slower, probably due to the fact that I have an external antenna attached to the B818.

 

[coppercable]

This is strange, but Smarty are saying that only certain 5g phones can use their 5g network! As the OP of this thread I am well confused now. Link below to Smarty page saying that only the phones listed will work with their 5g network.

Which devices are compatible with 5G? | SMARTY Help Centre

To use our 5G network, you will need a compatible device.

help.smarty.co.uk

 

[GavinAshford]

They might well be limiting it to select devices - it'd need someone with a device not listed to confirm if it does work on other ones

 

[coppercable]

I want to buy a Motorola G50 5g device for use with my Smarty sim but it’s not listed as compatible. How could they even restrict a firms ability not to use on a certain network? Why would they want to? Its crazy.

 

[eccles]

This is strange, but Smarty are saying that only certain 5g phones can use their 5g network! As the OP of this thread I am well confused now. Link below to Smarty page saying that only the phones listed will work with their 5g network.

Which devices are compatible with 5G? | SMARTY Help Centre

To use our 5G network, you will need a compatible device.

help.smarty.co.uk

I have tested my Moto Edge 20 Lite on 3 5G. I'll pop the Smarty sim in it tomorrow if I have time and drive to a 5G area and give it a try.

 

[CarlO1460]

This is strange, but Smarty are saying that only certain 5g phones can use their 5g network! As the OP of this thread I am well confused now. Link below to Smarty page saying that only the phones listed will work with their 5g network.

Which devices are compatible with 5G? | SMARTY Help Centre

To use our 5G network, you will need a compatible device.

help.smarty.co.uk

It will more likely work with phones not listed there, they did similar when wifi calling was launched however it was proven other devices were capable too.

It’s possible the devices listed support both n78 and n28 which Three has spectrum for, and some older phones only support the n78 band.

 

[Meatball]

Yes I think the providers are now ensuring they only specify the major brands and models that support the bands/frequency changes likely in the UK and not hit issues going forward. However with the numerous model versions, firmware and chip changing they are restricting the list specifically to those that have specifically gone through their own purchasing relationships and hence are proven.

So best advice for the average consumer is to stick to the phones supported by the host network and beware of phones with similar names from other zones (including Europe).

Smarty appear to be simply following their parent THREE.

The Moto Edge 20 Lite supports the bands but is not listed. I have a Moto G50 5G and its fine on THREE and ID Mobile (currently).

 

[GavinAshford]

@Meatball when you're connected to 5G do you know if that's from a Pole of Wonder or a building/lattice site?

 

[eccles]

I;ve just driven to the Tennis Court Road area of Kingswood which is a Three 5g hotspot with my Moto Edge 20 Lite and Smarty sim. This was the result.

 

[coppercable]

thanks for all the info, i will go ahead and buy a Motorola G50.

 

[Meatball]

Hold on! Following on from Gavin's post earlier I went out earlier to check 5G access at two known THREE masts with 5G using a ID Mobile SIM (THREE contract ended at weekend). My Samsung A22 5G connected to both correctly but although the Moto G50 5G worked fine at the first one at the second it detected 5G fine but could not establish 5G data and would not drop to 4G either. I noticed that the Samsung reverted to 4G if the phone became idle but as soon as data was active it switched back to 5G. For some reason the Moto couldn't do the same.

Also found the Samsung easier to set dual SIM/5G options easier and change SIMs to other networks. The Moto gets confused, doesn't appear to like dual SIMS and certainly doesn't like changes of SIMs even if off or rebooted.

Both phones share the MediaTek MT6833 Dimensity 700. I understand MOTO will switch back to Snapdragon chip.
Apologies I have been under the misconception that my Moto G50 5G had the Microtek chip in it like the Samsung A22 5G but actually it has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480.

Despite all this it does work on other networks. Today may have been a one off I don't know. I need to return with different kit. But here is some examples today on the MOTO G50 5G.
ID Mobile (THREE) 555/61
EE 273/89
VM (Vodafone) 358/77.1
Speed variable as always.

 

[Meatball]

@Meatball when you're connected to 5G do you know if that's from a Pole of Wonder or a building/lattice site?

Sorry for previous testing (South Croydon) I did not record the masts.

So as 5G coverage maps from providers are currently useless around here, and Cellmapper currently not showing anything I travelled out today to two THREE masts (poles), one EE (building) and one Vodafone (pole) I know to be definitely 5G just to check the phones and THREE specifically.

THREE Pole 1. Not listed on Cellmapper?. Station Hill, Three Bridges, Crawley, RH10 7AZ.
Confused as it looks like a Vodafone one. If it is the THREE signal must be coming across the railway from Sutherland House (roof) but I didn't get anything outside there.
ID Mobile 493/68.8 on Samsung A22 5G
ID Mobile 555/61.3 on Moto G50 5G


THREE Pole 2. Same location as eNB ID 49667 - LTE.
Pelham Drive, Broadfield, Crawley, RH11 9PU
ID Mobile 927/105 on Samsung A22 5G
ID Mobile - MOTO - 5G logo, could not connect 4G or 5G

 

[GavinAshford]

@Meatball trying to comprehend all that info!

Firstly, that Station Hill photo isn't a 5G site, at least not for Three...

But in summary, for ID Mobile, your Samsung A22 can connect to both a building site (Sutherland House) as well as the Pelham Drive monopole of wonder?

However your Moto G50 will connect to the building based site (Sutherland House) but does not connect to the Pelham Drive monopole?

With the Moto G50, what were you connected to at Pelham Drive, if not 4G or 5G - was there just no signal, yet it showed the 5G logo?

 

[Meatball]

Ok Sutherland House it is then. Strange that parked round the back I can get EE 5G but not THREE 5G. Station Hill is a higher elevation so there must be a aerial on that side of the roof facing the Railway line.

Yes 5G logo, it appeared to pick up a 5G bearer but no data throughput. I then had a lot of trouble with it as I tried to swap the SIMS between the phones. I tried 4G but that may be because it was confused. The MOTO prompts for a "You have changed the SIM do you want to reset". If you get it the MOTO works but if not you have to restart or turn off a few times.

What I found more interesting was what the Samsung was doing. It connected straight way and gave good 5G speed. Then I noticed it dropped back to 4G, if you then used data it reconnected to 5G. Once the data stopped it went back to 4G.

I will return during this week as I didn't have much time and should have taken more specific connectivity detail.

I went for these cheaper phones (Dimensity 700 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 480) as a 5G modem option and I have been testing tethering these and my iPhone 13 mini to an GL.iNet GL-MT1300 Beryl (Openwrt) which has all been successful. I will be using this router in my campervan tethered I had hoped to the MOTO so it will be good to see if its a THREE, MOTO or this mast at issue.

 

[GavinAshford]

Samsung dropping back to 4G when not using (a lot of) data i believe is normal - it saves battery - I think there should be a setting somewhere for 'smart 5G' or something (I don't have a Samsung phone) that can be disabled to keep 5G on all the time, though at the cost of battery life.

I'd be interested what site you are connected to with the Moto at Pelham Drive. I believe at the moment non-VoLTE approved devices aren't being allowed to connect to the poles of wonder and I suspect that the list on Smarty's website are those devices which are VoLTE enabled/have necessary VoLTE configuration baked into their firmware.
The issue with that is when you're connected to 4G while near a pole of wonder that 4G signal coming from a more distant site will still have it's ULI flag set and so it will appear that you have 5G, though will not (unless also from a more distant (rooftop) site).

This is quite a lot of speculation as I can't test it out for myself...

 

[Meatball]

Excellent thanks. My iPhone 13 Mini behaves that way (if set) but the Samsung appears just to provide a "Stop 5G" option if you manually place the phone in the power save mode. I can't see an auto option in the A22 but it may be there. I had wondered if THREE were influencing it with a policy.

I will check this again, capture cell etc and seek more poles to look at.

 

[CarlO1460]

Excellent thanks. My iPhone 13 Mini behaves that way (if set) but the Samsung appears just to provide a "Stop 5G" option if you manually place the phone in the power save mode. I can't see an auto option in the A22 but it may be there. I had wondered if THREE were influencing it with a policy.

I will check this again, capture cell etc and seek more poles to look at.

Well I think Samsung have it right really, you don’t really need 1gbps to send an email or scroll Facebook or ispreview, but when downloading a file it anticipates may take a while, it boosts the speed to make it quicker.

Sensible approach, otherwise everyone will be pointlessly sat at top speeds when it’s not needed.

 

[Meatball]

Agree necessity for network, battery and this complex transition.

However it didn't behave like it on Southerland House, I hadn't changed any settings and it was after the Pelham tests so battery would have been weaker. The question is then consistency and whether it is network policy, signal strength or device setting (or a mixture).

 

[Meatball]

Just an update:

Revisited Pelham Drive RH11 9PU (THREE known issue currently) and a similar mast at The Orchard, Ifield Avenue, RH11 7LD.

Tested using THREE and ID Mobile SIM

The non connectivity of MOTO G50 5G appears to be down to a firmware issue regarding Dual SIM use or changing SIMS. If it only has a single SIM and has been through a complete reset it connects fine. Although THREE and Smarty do not list this phone as 5G supported ID Mobile do. https://www.idmobile.co.uk/5g

Even with the MOTO not being set in "power save" the 5G NSA disconnects after a few minutes despite a stream in progress. If you use peak data such as a speed test then 5G reconnects. After 5/6 minutes of being disconnected it appears to re-establish 5G and then repeats.

Moving away from the masts the 5G B1 Threshold (via eNB) appears to be around -110db anything worse then a connection to the gNB is not established.

 

[Bendr]

Concerning Smarty/Three I am currently very satisfied with Smarty in our small southeast coastal town in Thanet.

4G with Smarty UK permanently gives me 40-60Mbit/s down, 10-12Mbit/s up (btw. I'll gladly give you my friend invitation code if you like - shameless plug...). Although I sometimes experienced strange hiccups with big websites, mostly Amazon. Parts of the page could not be loaded and I got plain text without proper layout, pictures after they timed out. It first seemed like an MTU issue but it didn't affect most other URLs or downloads. At other times everything loads smoothly. Maybe it is an Android (Xiaomi) tethering bug.

Three years ago it was sometimes difficult to get a 4G connection here at all with Three. So it has improved a lot and I am very satisfied with 50Mbit/s and 45ms ping times, at least in this location.