SMARTY 5G coverage checker

Last updated 19th March, 2024

5G is available on Smarty in parts of over 588 UK towns and cities at the time of writing, covering over 60% 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

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:

• O2 has launched 5G in 93 of the 120 locations below. 
• Three has launched 5G in 111 of the 120 locations below. 
• EE has launched 5G in 114 of the 120 locations below. 
• Vodafone has launched 5G in 92 of the 120 locations 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 a network’s official coverage checker to be sure it’s available in the places that matter to you.

Latest locations to get Smarty 5G

The most recent locations to get 5G on Smarty (via Three) include Cleveland, Lancaster, and Sunderland.

Smarty coverage checker

You can use Smarty’s coverage checker to get a clear and detailed picture of 5G coverage anywhere in the UK, including whether it’s available indoors or just outside. 4G and 3G coverage is also shown.

Check Smarty 5G coverage

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 or 3G (though the latter is in the process of being switched off).

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

5G roaming abroad

You can’t roam using 5G on Smarty, but you can use 4G and 3G and if you’re in the EU then it comes out of your normal data allowance at no extra cost.

5G network speeds

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 205.5Mbps according to September 2023 data from Opensignal. It also has a median 5G download speed of 226.27Mbps according to Speedtest, in data covering the second half of 2023.

RootMetrics meanwhile found in the second half of 2023 that Three’s median 5G download speed was 165.7Mbps, and that its 95th percentile speed (so close to the maximum recorded on Three) was an impressive 853.4Mbps. Its 5th percentile 5G download speed, meaning close to the slowest you’re likely to encounter, was 7.8Mbps.

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.

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

Smarty’s 5G frequency allocation

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 700MHz, 3.4GHz, and 3.6-4GHz. 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 has 160Mhz of 5G spectrum (including its 20MHz of 700MHz spectrum). For comparison, EE has 120Mhz, O2 has 100Mhz, and Vodafone has 90Mhz. So Smarty is in a strong position here.

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