Looking at buying a SIM from 1pMobile?
In this article, we’ve reviewed 1pMobile, to see if they’re any good – based on their speeds and coverage, value for money, roaming allowances, and more.
Before we begin, if you’re searching for a new mobile plan, on 1pMobile 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
- 1pMobile overview
- Coverage and speeds
- Roaming allowances
- Value for money
- Customer service
- Verdict: should you join 1pMobile?
- Alternatives
- Conclusion
1pMobile overview
1pMobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that uses EE network infrastructure to service their customers.
Rather than operating their own mobile towers, 1pMobile uses EE masts. They are one of the few EE MVNOs on the market at the moment, along with spusu.
In terms of the packages they offer, 1pMobile is a fairly basic mobile network.
They currently only offer SIM-only deals on a pay as you go or prepaid basis. There are no pay monthly phone plans or SIM contracts available to buy.
You can also choose a rolling 30 day SIM plan, which renews automatically each month. Or, you can choose to prepay for a year-long 1pMobile SIM, with a set amount of monthly data, in order to lower your average monthly cost.
No matter whether you choose a PAYG or prepaid SIM, there are a lot of different tariffs available to choose from with 1pMobile, from 2GB up to unlimited monthly data.
This allows you to save money by choosing the exact amount of data you need, which is good.
Each 1pMobile SIM plan comes with unlimited calls and texts to UK numbers, and WiFi and VoLTE calling are included as standard.
There is also free EU roaming up to a certain data limit, which we’ll discuss a bit later in the article.
Coverage and speeds
1pMobile’s coverage and speeds are top-notch, especially on 4G.
The parent network that 1pMobile uses, EE, offers the best coverage of any of the UK’s big four mobile providers, especially in remote areas.
And from our testing, 1pMobile is not being speed or coverage-restricted by EE. There are no 100 Mbps speed caps, like there are on some SIM plans sold by EE directly.
On 4G, in an area with good signal, we typically received a download speed of about 150 Mbps, and an upload speed of 15-20 Mbps.
On 5G, we did not see much of a performance boost in our area on the 1pMobile network.
Our speeds were still maxing out at around 150 Mbps, and we did not see the 300+ Mbps that some other 5G networks offer, like Vodafone and Three, when testing on a phone.
In terms of coverage and consistency though, 1pMobile performs really well.
We very rarely dropped below a download speed of 50-100 Mbps, and we could easily get online and make calls in small towns and villages, and on remote B-roads in the countryside as well.
If you often struggle to get good service on other networks, we think 1pMobile is definitely worth looking at.
However, this network doesn’t offer the fastest 5G at the moment – Three and its MVNOs, like Smarty, are a better choice if you live in an urban area and want the fastest possible download and upload speeds.
Roaming allowances
For a cheap, basic mobile network, 1pMobile’s roaming allowances are quite good.
No matter which SIM plan you buy from them, you get 14GB of monthly data to use (or your full data allowance, whichever is lower) in 46 different EU countries, free of charge.
By comparison, with spusu, the most similar MVNO to 1pMobile at the moment, their data roaming allowances are generally a bit lower, and max out at 10GB per month on their more expensive plans.
Also, spusu only supports 35 destinations, as opposed to 1pMobile’s 46.
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However, some other non-EE mobile networks offer higher roaming allowances than 1pMobile at the moment.
With Tesco Mobile, you can currently use your entire allowance in their EU roaming destinations, even if you have unlimited data included.
And O2, one of the big four mobile networks, gives you 25GB per month to roam with in Europe, at no extra cost.
Outside of Europe, you will have to pay per megabyte of data used or per minute of calling with 1pMobile, which can get very expensive very quickly.
However, this is typical for an MVNO – unless you buy a more expensive SIM plan from a big four mobile network, it’s rare to get free roaming included in countries like Turkey, Australia, and America.
Value for money
Given the level of coverage they offer, 1pMobile tends to provide very good value for money.
For £10 per month, you can get access to the UK’s best network using 1pMobile, with a good amount of monthly data, and no speed restrictions.
Buying a SIM-only deal from EE directly is very expensive, but 1pMobile is price-competitive with most other MVNOs on the market, even those that use other parent networks with generally worse coverage, like Vodafone.
However, it is worth comparing 1pMobile’s prices with spusu’s, before buying a SIM from them.
spusu is another EE MVNO that often offers cheaper prices than 1pMobile. You can compare both companies’ current deals on our SIM-only comparison page.
Customer service
1pMobile’s customer service is quite good in our experience.
Activating the SIM was a straightforward process, which simply involved typing in the activation code and our phone number on their website. No need to use an app or follow a long verification process.
If you ever run into any issues, 1pMobile has a customer support phone number, which can’t be said of some other MVNOs at this price point.
You don’t need to use live chat or work through AI-generated answers before you can speak to a real person as a 1pMobile customer, which is good.
In our experience, it’s easy to reach 1pMobile when you call them, and their team is quite helpful with billing and technical issues you raise.
Verdict: should you join 1pMobile?
1pMobile is a great choice if you’re looking for a cheap pay as you go or prepaid SIM deal.
They offer very good coverage and speeds, thanks largely to the fact that they use the EE network, which performs especially well in remote areas.
They also have helpful customer support, and their team is easy to reach over the phone. Plus, you get a decent EU roaming allowance included with most of their SIM plans, free of charge.
The only real downside to 1pMobile is their 5G speeds aren’t the fastest, in our experience. And they’re not a great choice if you want a new handset, because they don’t offer pay monthly phone deals at the moment.
Overall, we rate 1pMobile 4.3 out of 5. They’re definitely worth considering if you struggle to get strong signal on other networks.
Best 1pMobile alternatives
If you’re not set on 1pMobile, here are some alternative mobile networks it might be worth considering.
1. spusu
spusu is 1pMobile’s closest competitor, especially in terms of the similarity of their service.
They don’t have as many plans to choose from, or as extensive roaming allowances, but they also offer access to the EE network for a very reasonable monthly cost.
It’s often worth comparing the prices on offer from both 1pMobile and spusu, to see which is cheapest when you’re buying a new SIM plan.
2. Smarty
Smarty uses the Three network, meaning they offer very fast 5G speeds – Three is the fastest big four network at the moment.
They also have very competitive prices, and good customer service, given their size. They tend to be a bit cheaper than EE MVNOs like 1pMobile.
However, Three’s coverage in remote areas isn’t quite as good as EE’s, meaning Smarty isn’t as good a choice as 1pMobile in rural parts of the UK.
3. EE
If you want to use the EE network, it’s also worth looking at buying from EE directly.
The advantage of this is EE offers a lot more in the way of add-ons and extras compared to their MVNOs, like 1pMobile. For example, you can get much more extensive roaming allowances on certain plans, including beyond Europe.
The downside to EE is they are very expensive, and their range of short-term contracts isn’t the best.
They also have 100 Mbps speed caps on some of their cheaper mobile and SIM-only plans, which it’s important to be aware of.
Conclusion
You’ve reached the end of our 1pMobile review.
If you’re still not sure if 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.