James Delahunty
22 Oct 2012 21:09
EE spills beans on 4G service prices.
Gaining access to Britain's first 4G mobile service will cost from £36 per month under EE's plans, as it aims to lure smartphone users from competing operators in the region before they have their own 4G services off the ground.
Whilst providing connections that are up to five times faster than their (3G) competitors, the EE tariffs include the typical data limitation buzz-kill. The £36 plan comes with a measly 500MB of data, while upgrading to a £56 tariff pushes it up to 8GB, which is somewhat better, but is it worth paying an extra £20 per month?
The 4G service will launch in 10 cities in the UK on October 30th.
"Our business model is more built around a fast adoption of 4G services ... because of our whole tariffing structure and tariffing strategy and because the UK in general has a big appetite to move to new technologies," Chief Executive Olaf Swantee said.
EE gained a competitive edge over competitors - including O2, Vodafone and Three - when the UK communications regulator, Ofcom, permitted it to re-use existing spectrum for its 4G service, much to the disgust of its rivals who must wait until next year to obtain spectrum for 4G services.
"We have a big opportunity on the back of a better, stronger, bigger 3G network, and being the first with 4G to get us into some new large accounts," Swantee said.