Hi, I am in the UK and have been using 1P Mobile on my iPhone 13 Pro, it is an MVNO using EE’s network. Works alright and I get 5G on it. I also have a Smarty Sim in my old iPhone XR. Reason for this is I was with Smarty for ages and really like them, but they run on 3‘s network which isn’t as good in my area.
But 3 are turning off 3G across their network by the end of next year, in theory this should boost their 4G signals.
So I have been testing them both. But it is a pain with two phones. Recently I noticed another provider Lyca Mobile now uses EE too but crucially they also offer E Sim support. So I signed up to their service this week and run it on my E Sim, I was thinking I could move my main number to them and then have my Smarty Sim in the phone too, so I could use one phone to test the networks.
But in my testing although both Lyca Mobile and 1P Mobile use EE the speeds re quite a bit different, on 5G it can be 10 to 20mbps difference, I’m guessing that Lyca isn’t using the same bands?
Has anyone else tried two different MVNO providers at once like this on the same network backbone and seen different speeds?
As to why I am doing this? Well EE can give a good signal, it can also drop a fair bit when it goes from 5G to 4G, and I find it doesn’t penetrate as well in shops. But it is the only provider where I live to give 5G, I can get over 100mbps in my home on 1P Mobile. Smarty whilst where I live has poor signal dropping to 3G usually, when I go shopping it’s signal is better in shops and when it gets 5G it gets 5G properly, speeds in excess of 800mbps. I like the Smarty app too and it’s cheaper then 1P Mobile also, 1P Mobile don’t have an app.
But 3 are turning off 3G across their network by the end of next year, in theory this should boost their 4G signals.
So I have been testing them both. But it is a pain with two phones. Recently I noticed another provider Lyca Mobile now uses EE too but crucially they also offer E Sim support. So I signed up to their service this week and run it on my E Sim, I was thinking I could move my main number to them and then have my Smarty Sim in the phone too, so I could use one phone to test the networks.
But in my testing although both Lyca Mobile and 1P Mobile use EE the speeds re quite a bit different, on 5G it can be 10 to 20mbps difference, I’m guessing that Lyca isn’t using the same bands?
Has anyone else tried two different MVNO providers at once like this on the same network backbone and seen different speeds?
As to why I am doing this? Well EE can give a good signal, it can also drop a fair bit when it goes from 5G to 4G, and I find it doesn’t penetrate as well in shops. But it is the only provider where I live to give 5G, I can get over 100mbps in my home on 1P Mobile. Smarty whilst where I live has poor signal dropping to 3G usually, when I go shopping it’s signal is better in shops and when it gets 5G it gets 5G properly, speeds in excess of 800mbps. I like the Smarty app too and it’s cheaper then 1P Mobile also, 1P Mobile don’t have an app.