SMARTY 5G coverage checker

Last updated 10th February, 2026

5G is available on Smarty to well over 62% of the UK outdoors. We know this as the company uses Three’s 5G infrastructure (and in fact is owned by Three), so its 5G coverage is identical.

Smarty launched its 5G service in January 2022, so it arrived quite a lot later than many other MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators), but not many use Three’s network to offer 5G.

You’ll find all the information you need on Smarty’s 5G network below, plus details on how it compares to other 5G networks.

Smarty 5G Summary

To get a clearer idea of Smarty’s 5G coverage in your area – or any other area – just enter the relevant postcode in our coverage checker at the top of this page.

This will then show you the level of 5G coverage in the area, along with 4G and voice coverage, and a comparison to the coverage on the UK’s other networks.

We use real-time data both from the UK’s networks and independent sources, so the information you see should be as accurate and up to date as possible.

How does Smarty's 5G coverage compare to others?

We keep track of which networks offer 5G coverage across 120 major UK towns and cities, so you can see at a glance how they compare in key locations.

Smarty has the same number of 5G locations as Three below:

For clarity, these are locations that a network claims to have 5G coverage in, however the amount of coverage can vary significantly, so it won’t always be widespread.

As such, it’s worth using our coverage checker or a network’s official coverage checker to be sure it’s available in the places that matter to you.

The most recent locations to get 5G on Smarty (via Three) include Darlington, and Dumfries and Galloway.

4G coverage

While Smarty offers widespread and rapidly growing 5G coverage, there are still many places that don’t have 5G, and in these locations you’ll be reliant on 4G.

Thankfully, you should be even better served for coverage with 4G than 5G, as the chart below shows.

How fast is Smarty’s 5G network?

Smarty hasn’t yet spoken about the exact speeds of its 5G network and nor have there been any real studies into them, but since it’s both owned by Three and uses that network’s infrastructure, it’s likely that the two are very similar there.

For what it’s worth then, Three has an average 5G download speed of 208.9Mbps according to September 2024 data from Opensignal.

RootMetrics meanwhile found in the first half of 2025 that Three’s median 5G download speed was 217.3Mbps, and that its 95th percentile speed (so close to the maximum recorded on Three) was an impressive 916.8Mbps. Its 5th percentile 5G download speed, meaning close to the slowest you’re likely to encounter, was 11.0Mbps.

And there’s an Ookla report from the second half of 2025, in which Three’s median 5G download speed was found to be 214.02Mbps and its 90th percentile 5G download speed was found to be 654.15Mbps, both of which top all rivals in this report.

So while these speeds vary a fair bit, they’re all reassuringly high, especially when compared to 4G, with which Three offered average speeds of 22.2Mbps in October 2020, according to Opensignal. That data is older because not many tests look specifically at 4G speeds now.

5G speeds are likely to improve over time too, as infrastructure improves and additional spectrum gets acquired (or existing spectrum gets repurposed).

Latency

Latency is another important measure, as it shows how long a mobile network takes to respond to a request (such as loading a web page) before data starts moving to carry that request out.

This is typically a tiny amount of time, so it’s measured in milliseconds (ms), and while we don’t have any latency data for Smarty, we do know that according to Speedtest in 2023, Three’s median 5G latency is 31ms.

Three has also had its 5G latency tested by RootMetrics, which found that in central London it was as low as just 17ms, which is lower than any other network in this test. That bodes well for Smarty.

With loaded latency (meaning the latency when the connection is under heavy use), a 2025 Ookla report found that Three’s was 405.93ms, which is also better than rivals.

For reference, unloaded latency averages around 30-50ms with 4G, and 5G latency is likely to get better over time.

What frequencies/bands does Smarty use?

Smarty has access to the same 5G spectrum as Three, meaning that it should be able to access all the frequencies above.

For 5G that means 40GHz, 26GHz, 3.6-4GHz, 3.4GHz, and 700MHz. The bulk of that is high frequency, which is typical for 5G, as it’s available in greater capacity, making it ideal for handling lots of simultaneous connections and general high demand.

However, low frequency spectrum – like 700MHz – can travel further and pass through objects more easily, so it’s handy to have some to help bolster the network.

In total Three/Smarty when combined with Vodafone – which Three has merged with to become VodafoneThree – has 2,030MHz of 5G spectrum in total. EE and O2 each have slightly less at 1,920MHz.

However, all of the networks could potentially acquire more 5G spectrum at future 5G spectrum auctions.