Looking at buying a phone plan from iD Mobile?
In this article, we’ve reviewed iD Mobile, based on their speeds and coverage, value for money, customer service, and more, to see if they’re worth joining in 2025.
Before we begin, if you’re searching for a new mobile plan, on iD Mobile or any other network, use our comparison site to find the cheapest pay monthly phone plans or SIM-only deals on the market right now.
Contents
- iD Mobile overview
- Coverage and speeds
- Roaming allowances
- Value for money
- Customer service
- Verdict: should you join iD Mobile?
- Alternatives
- Conclusion
iD Mobile overview
iD Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that piggybacks off the Three network, rather than having its own 4G/5G masts.
They currently offer pay monthly phone deals, pay monthly SIM-only deals, and pay as you go SIM contracts.
Unlimited UK calls and texts are included on all iD Mobile tariffs, and they also offer the choice of getting an eSIM, instead of a physical SIM, if you’d prefer.
There is a huge range of SIM deals to choose from with iD Mobile, on a 1 month, 12 month, or 24 month contract, with anything from 5GB up to unlimited monthly data.
However, on their pay as you go SIMs, the number of different data limits you can choose from is a bit lower than what you can get on a 12 or 24 month agreement.
iD Mobile’s range of pay monthly phone plans is also quite extensive, if you’re looking for a phone from Apple, Samsung, or Google.
Although they don’t have as big a range of handsets as the likes of Vodafone, Three, or O2, they do include extras and freebies on many of their pay monthly tariffs, such as free Apple Music, or Apple TV+, which is rare to see from an MVNO.
Also, iD Mobile includes one month of data rollover on their plans, allowing you to use any leftover data during your next billing period, once the month is up.
Coverage and speeds
iD Mobile uses the Three network, which offers the fastest median 5G download speeds in the UK.
From our testing, we nearly always experienced extremely fast 5G on iD Mobile, generally over 200 Mbps recorded on an Android phone.
We found that their 5G coverage was also very good in suburban and urban areas, meaning we were nearly always able to get these sorts of download speeds.
On 4G, it’s a similar story. iD Mobile offers fast speeds, and quite good coverage.
We never had any issues with call performance or dropouts on the iD Mobile network.
The only slight downside was, we found that certain EE MVNOs beat iD Mobile when it comes to availability in remote areas.
In some places, providers like 1pMobile or spusu can offer signal in areas that iD Mobile doesn’t, from our testing. However, this is only in very remote parts of the countryside.
Roaming allowances
iD Mobile’s roaming allowances are very strong, especially for an MVNO.
On all of their plans, you get free inclusive roaming in 50 different countries, up to a 30GB monthly fair usage limit.
This means you can only use up to 30GB of your data limit overseas each month, even if you have unlimited usage included.
However, most other networks don’t have a fair usage limit this high.
With Three for example, you’re limited to just 12GB of roaming data. It’s the same with Smarty, another Three MVNO, and their roaming only covers 44 different countries.
Some small mobile providers, like VOXI, don’t even provide free roaming for their customers at all.
Essentially, iD Mobile’s EU roaming is hard to beat. Only Tesco Mobile tops them at the moment, as they currently allow you to use your entire allowance overseas in European countries each month.
In certain popular non-EU destinations, like India, Turkey, Australia, and the USA, iD Mobile also gives you the ability to buy a fairly cheap monthly roaming pass, which is quite good to see – most other MVNOs don’t allow you to get roaming for a flat fee outside of Europe.
But beyond these countries, as with most other mobile providers, you’ll have to pay per megabyte of data used, or per minute of calling – and this can get very expensive, very quickly.
Value for money
iD Mobile tends to offer strong value for money, depending on the type of phone plan you’re after.
When it comes to pay as you go SIM only deals, iD Mobile is cost-competitive with Smarty – they’re normally about the same price – but cheaper than most other MVNOs, including VOXI, and 1pMobile.
But if you don’t mind entering into a 12 or 24 month contract, iD Mobile can offer even lower monthly costs, compared to these other cheap providers.
Most other MVNOs don’t give you the ability to lower your monthly bill in exchange for committing for longer, and passing a credit check, like iD Mobile does.
When it comes to pay monthly phones, iD Mobile’s tariffs are normally also pretty cheap, though it depends on the deals other providers are offering at the moment.
And given the fact that iD Mobile doesn’t skimp out in other areas, such as 5G speeds, roaming, or extras on their phone plans, the prices they’re charging are even more competitive.
Ultimately, iD Mobile is normally one of the cheapest mobile networks on the market, especially if you don’t mind signing up for a long-term contract.
There are a few reasons this mobile provider is able to offer these sorts of prices:
- iD Mobile’s parent network, Three, tends to offer the cheapest prices of any big four provider. By buying data, calls, and texts in bulk from Three, iD Mobile can achieve an even lower rate.
- iD Mobile is owned by Currys, meaning they might be able to use the mobile network’s data plans as a sort of loss leader to help them sell more phones.
- There is a small mid-contract price rise included on iD Mobile’s pay monthly tariffs, meaning you won’t be paying the same price a year from now, though most other providers do this as well.
Customer service
Many ultra-cheap MVNOs suffer from poor customer service, but this isn’t the case with iD Mobile.
There is a customer support phone number, but it only provides automated service for just a few different types of actions.
Instead, to get in contact, you need to go through iD Mobile’s live chat. This begins with a chatbot, but with some persistence, you can speak with a real person.
Once you get past the automated responses, we found iD Mobile’s live chat is quite good. You can get answers quickly – you don’t normally have to wait in a long queue – and their team is fairly helpful.
iD Mobile has higher customer satisfaction than most networks at this price point, although it is worth mentioning that Smarty also performs well in this area.
Cancelling your plan is easy, with no need to contact customer support, and it’s also a straightforward process to activate your SIM.
The iD Mobile app is very basic, but is easy to use for essential functions, like monitoring data usage, and changing your plan.
Getting started with iD Mobile can be a bit tricky compared to some other MVNOs, as you can’t order a free SIM card, and later add data to it. And when buying a plan, you need to use a UK credit or debit card.
So, joining iD Mobile can be difficult if you’ve recently moved to the UK.
Verdict: should you join iD Mobile?
We think iD Mobile is one of the best mobile networks on the market at the moment.
- They offer really good 5G speeds, and consistent coverage. iD Mobile’s Three 5G service doesn’t seem to be throttled or deprioritised at all.
- They have very generous inclusive roaming allowances.
- iD’s deals tend to offer excellent value for money.
- iD Mobile doesn’t skimp out in areas that other networks sometimes do, such as customer service, benefits on their pay monthly plans, or lack of eSIM/WiFi calling compatibility.
Overall, we rate iD Mobile 4.7 out of 5. The only situation they might not be the best choice is if you live somewhere extremely remote, and are concerned about 4G coverage.
Best iD Mobile alternatives
If you’re not set on iD Mobile, here are some other mobile networks it might be worth considering.
1. 1pMobile
As we just touched on above, some other networks using EE infrastructure offer better 4G coverage than iD – and this includes 1pMobile.
This provider is a more expensive option, and doesn’t offer the same range of deals or as good roaming allowances as iD Mobile.
But if you live in a very remote area, it might be worth paying more for a 1pMobile SIM.
2. Smarty
Smarty is another Three MVNO that offers really good value for money, and very fast 5G speeds.
Their plans are more simple than iD Mobile’s, in that they only offer month-to-month SIM-only deals.
However, compared to iD Mobile’s pay as you go tariffs, Smarty has a much greater range of data limits to choose from, which is nice.
3. Tesco Mobile
Tesco Mobile is quite similar to iD, in that they have a large range of pay as you go and pay monthly phone and SIM contracts to choose from.
Like iD Mobile, they also offer extremely generous roaming allowances, letting you use your entire data limit in their EU roaming destinations.
The problem is, since Tesco uses the O2 network, their 5G speeds and coverage aren’t as good as what iD offers.
Conclusion
You’ve reached the end of our iD Mobile review.
Still not sure whether this mobile network is right for you? Leave us a comment below, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
About the author
Tom is the founder of Green Smartphones. You’ll find him writing about phones on the Green Smartphones blog, or talking about SIM deals and mobile networks on our YouTube channel. He’s the Android expert on the team – currently using a Google Pixel 9, recently upgrading from a very long-suffering Note 20 Ultra. When he’s not working on Green Smartphones, you’ll find him playing football or hiking.