EE Prices 4G ServicesThe company, which owns the Orange and T-Mobile brands, said it was on a mission to make a land-grab for as many customers as it could before rivals Vodafone, Three and O2 are able to launch their rival 4G services.
Ealier this year, EE was granted a controversial head start by regulator Ofcom in the roll out of 4G services, giving it a six-month lead on the other mobile phone operators, who need to buy more airwave capacity before they can launch their own 4G services. EE will launch 4G on 30 October and roll the services out to 16 cities by the end of the year.
EE has defended its decision not to offer unlimited data plans on its new 4G LTE network. The network announced its tariffs earlier this week with 500MB, 1GB, 3GB, 5GB and 8GB two-year plans available ranging from £36 all the way upto £56 a month.
Pippa Dunn, EE's consumer CMO, told TechCrunch that they didn't feel it was necessary to take the step as only "super techies" want unlimited data and catering to them would have forced the prices up further.
She said: "You've got your super techie people… who would love nothing more than for us to have given unlimited data packages but for the vast majority of the 27 million who are our customers they don't need it."
"If we'd had to price for allowing all of those techie users to be able to use as much data as they'd want your average consumer would really have suffered."
Dunn said, on average, Orange and T-Mobile customers are falling way below their allocations and by offering unlimited data the company would have attracted people who would abuse the network.
She added: "We've looked at what customers are using at the moment and on average an Orange customer on a £36 plan uses less than 500MB a month and those customers who are on unlimited plans on T-Mobile Full Monty on average use 1.5GB.
"We don't think [unlimited data is] necessary [for 4GEE]. The only thing that happens when you get an unlimited data plan is you attract the people who cane the network and that's not great for any consumer.
"There will be customers on our network who are using 50GB of data a month… so you end up with customers who are basically making the service worse for all other consumers."
EE's 4G network goes live on October 30 and will, initially, offer LTE connectivity on the iPhone 5 with more handsets incoming by the end of 2012.
Mr Swantee said a lot of businesses were interested in the 4G packages as a way of getting more work out of their employees.
You can sign up to EE 4G network through Orange or T-Mobile. If you are already with Orange or T-Mobile, even if you are within your current contract, simply change your phone plan by phoning Orange or T-Mobile to one of the 4G EE plans. There are no penalties for switching contracts if you are currently with Orange or T-Mobile. If you are not with Orange or T-Mobile and want the 4G services from 30 October, launch date, then sign up to Orange or T-Mobile now! iPhone 5 currently in stock at Orange and T-Mobile.
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