Multinetwork SIMs - Good idea?

DavidA

I have an inexpensive iD Mobile contract which uses Three (thanks MSE!)

Quite often, especially on train journeys, I have a poor connection. I've noticed a few companies such as Honest Mobile and Flexifone who offer eSIMs that use another network when yours fails. I signed up to Flexifone last week, which gives me about 10gig a month for £50 a year. I was hoping that it would switch to the best signal but it appears to only kick in when the primary network loses all connection.

It seems like Three pretends it has bars when it doesn't actually have a usable connection, meaning the Flexifone SIM rarely kicks in. I have an iPhone.

I'd love to improve my phone connection. Anyone got this working well?

redux

I don't know exactly how those work, though I did read a small amount about Honest Mobile, which sounded a bit similar to your description, that it acts automatically as standby

Does yours override your own ability to select that one manually, or is that also possible?

I've got a different approach at the moment. Two different network physical SIMs in the phone, and another in a mobile WiFi router. Less data anyway

flaneurs_lobster

I have a similar issue with an Android phone, main SIM is Vodafone with a Sky (O2) eSIM as backup.

Everything is set so that the second SIM takes over when signal to SIM 1 is lost….except it never actually dies completely. Manual switching is a major pain.

Not true when travelling outwith urban areas when often only one signal is available but in urban areas Vodafone manage to get enough coverage to register on the phone, just not enough to be actually usable.

What's needed is some kind of configurable cut-off level where the backup kicks in. Might be some kind of app out there but I suspect this level of control is going to need messing with the phone's giblets and risk bricking the thing.

Can only assume that iPhone is similar?

DavidA

I can manually switch between networks, but it’s hard to know the best one to switch to, especially when they lie about signal strength.

The phone network switches me from mast to mast so in principle switching between networks should be similar, but it doesn’t seem to work that way. I guess it would require that the network providers were honest about the quality of connection and the phone periodically compares the network and switches when appropriate.

alanjones60

Mine is dual sim RWG (EE) and 02,when data is weak on 1 sim it switches to the other.

I thought multi sims worked the same,

tinker411

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82062317#Comment_82062317

My Talkmobile sim does broadly the same as your EE/O2 setup, albeit between Vodafone and Three (for obvious reasons). No need for the 'Backup Calling' setting to kick in either (maybe just as well as the other sim in my dual sim phone is Sky (O2)).