SMARTY is a

mobile telephone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This radio ...

flanker brand In marketing, a fighter brand (sometimes called a fighting brand or a flanker brand) is a lower-priced offering launched by a company to take on, and ideally take out, specific competitors that are attempting to under-price them. Unlike traditiona ...

operated by

Three UK Hutchison 3G UK Limited, trading as Three UK, is a British telecommunications company based in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, England. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of VodafoneThree, a joint venture between Vodafone (51%) and CK Hutchison Holdi ...

. 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 Ting.

Tariffs

All plans are monthly, with no contract, and are paid in advance by credit card, debit card, or cash via

PayPoint PayPoint plc is a British business offering a system for multichannel payments and retail services in United Kingdom. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The PayPoint network was set up i ...

, rather than via the more prevalent

direct debit A direct debit or direct withdrawal is a financial transaction in which one organisation withdraws funds from a payer's bank account. Formally, the organisation that calls for the funds ("the payee") instructs their bank to collect (i.e., 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. 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 a gift certificate in North America, or gift voucher or gift token in the UK, is a prepaid stored-value card, stored-value money card, usually issued by a retailer or bank, to be used as an alternative to cash for pu ...

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.' It is a

mobile virtual network operator A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobil ...

(MVNO) on the

network. 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 Long-Term Evolution (acronym VoLTE) is an LTE high-speed wireless communication standard for voice calls and SMS using mobile phones and data terminals. VoLTE has up to three times more voice and data capacity than older 3G UMTS an ...

) and

Wi-Fi calling Wi-Fi calling, also called VoWiFi, refers to mobile phone voice calls and data that are made over IP networks using Wi-Fi, instead of the cell towers provided by cellular networks. Using this feature, compatible handsets are able to route r ...

(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)