giffgaff, SMARTY, iD Mobile, VOXI, Lebara and 1pMobile — the same radio waves as the big four, with the savings coming out of the support desk rather than the network.
Fourteen sections · written July 2026 · no prices published · nothing for sale
Four companies own mobile masts in Britain. Every other brand buys capacity wholesale and resells the same radio waves under a different name.
| Mast owner | Brands renting its signal |
|---|---|
| EE | 1pMobile |
| O2 | Tesco Mobile, giffgaff, Sky Mobile |
| Three | SMARTY, iD Mobile |
| Vodafone | VOXI, Lebara |
One sentence covers it: the landlord decides your coverage; the brand decides your price, your support and how soon you get new features.
A cheaper brand is not a weaker network. The transmissions are the same ones the landlord's own customers are using, from the same masts, at the same power.
One technical caveat: at genuinely saturated masts, the owner's customers can be given priority over rented traffic. In ordinary daily use it is invisible.
Most of these sell rolling monthly plans and nothing else, which is an advantage — nothing to unwind if you change your mind.
giffgaff — on O2. Entirely online, no telephone support, by design.
SMARTY — on Three, run by Three itself.
iD Mobile — on Three, competing hardest on price per gigabyte.
VOXI — on Vodafone, leaving selected apps outside the allowance.
Lebara — on Vodafone, built around international calling.
1pMobile — on EE, billed per unit consumed.
Handset finance is generally unavailable on these brands, so phones are bought outright. That is not a drawback: an outright handset plus a cheap SIM is usually the lowest total cost available anywhere in the market.
Several of these brands sell prepaid credit alongside bundles, and one sells nothing but per-unit billing — charging for exactly what you consume on EE's masts.
eSIM support here is broad but not uniform — several of these brands added it after the mast owners, and it can still depend on your handset model.
An eSIM is your plan written into a chip already inside the handset rather than posted on plastic. The service is identical; what changes is speed — minutes rather than days — and the ability to hold a second line alongside your main one.
These are mobile propositions and generally do not sell broadband. What you give up in bundling you get back in a lower monthly mobile price.
Roaming follows the brand's own terms and never the landlord's, even though the signal is identical. This trips people up constantly.
At home, on the handset, unlimited is genuinely unmetered — here and on the other mast owners. Three published conditions bend it, and all three are readable before you sign.
| Condition | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tethering cap | Limits sharing data with a laptop on some plan generations — the clause that matters if you work away from a desk |
| Traffic management | Queues extreme outliers at saturated masts; ordinary heavy use never notices |
| Fair use abroad | Ends the unlimited part at a published figure, then charges per gigabyte |
Before buying any allowance, read three months of recorded usage in your current app. People routinely buy about twice what they consume.
Three figures get quoted at you and only one describes what you will actually pay across the agreement.
| Figure | What it really is |
|---|---|
| Introductory price | Real, time-limited, and useless for comparing networks |
| Standard price | What applies once the discount ends — this is the price |
| Out-of-contract price | The same again, on a handset you already own outright |
| Whole-term cost | Upfront plus monthly times months — the only fair comparison |
| Yearly cost | Monthly times twelve; ask for it, because it is rarely offered |
Bills rise for five reasons, every one printed somewhere before you signed.
| Reason | Behind it |
|---|---|
| A mid-term increase | Since January 2025 it must be stated in pounds and pence before you sign |
| An introductory discount ending | The commonest cause; the duration was stated at purchase |
| Charges beyond the allowance | Only possible where no spend cap was set — roaming is the usual source |
| A minimum term ending | Not a rise: a fall that failed to happen |
| An add-on renewing | Single-period purchases occasionally repeat |
And they fall for five, none of which happen by themselves.
| Move | Effect |
|---|---|
| Switch to SIM-only once the term ends | Strips out the handset payment — usually the biggest single saving |
| Cut the allowance | Where three months of usage shows the tier is oversized |
| Buy a one-off add-on instead of upgrading | Covers a heavy month without repricing the year |
| Negotiate with rival quotes in hand | Take a switching code first, so you are choosing rather than asking |
| Leave | The exit position is itemised before you commit |
Apps and dashboards here are lighter than the mast owners'. Several brands are online-first and one runs entirely without telephone support as a deliberate choice.
Most reported faults trace to one of four causes, and two are cured by free settings you already have.
| What you see | Usual cause | Cure |
|---|---|---|
| An older handset dropping calls | 3G has been switched off nationally | Turn on 4G Calling; if the phone cannot, it has reached its end |
| One room always poor | Building materials blocking radio | Turn on Wi-Fi Calling |
| Full bars but nothing loads | Too many handsets on one mast | Nothing on the phone helps — it is capacity, not coverage |
| A whole street out for hours | Mast work or a local fault | Check the status page with your postcode |
If a problem keeps returning, log dates, times and what failed for a fortnight, then complain in writing with the log attached and ask what goodwill applies to the recorded period.
Every fault and every complaint goes to the brand that bills you, never to the network that owns the masts.
Switching runs entirely on text messages. No conversation is required and none can be insisted upon.
| Text | To | Result |
|---|---|---|
| PAC | 65075 | Your number moves across. Free, back in minutes, valid thirty days |
| STAC | 75075 | The account closes and the number is given up |
| The reply | — | Itemises any early-exit charge and handset balance before you commit |
Your network cannot refuse the code, sit on it, attach conditions, or make a retentions conversation a precondition of leaving. If a complaint stalls, write it down, keep the reference, and escalate free to the Communications Ombudsman at eight weeks or on a final response.
On rolling plans there is usually no exit charge at all, which is exactly what makes these brands the sensible way to test any of the four networks.
Ring us and we will go through it with you. Nothing is offered for sale at any point.
We hold no arrangement with any network, take no commission and sell nothing at all. If your question is not answered here, telephone and ask.
0330 059 9863 Guidance and information only. We sell nothing, arrange nothing and act for no network.Where we stand. wedtream.online is an independent information service for mobile customers in the United Kingdom. We are not a mobile network. We have no affiliation with, endorsement from, appointment by or connection to Three, EE, O2, Vodafone, Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile or any other provider, and no commercial arrangement with any of them. We do not sell, supply, arrange or broker SIM cards, contracts, handsets or services of any kind, and we take no commission from anybody. Everything here is general information; a provider's own current terms always take precedence.
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