fallback

The problem here is that EE don't have a nationwide 4G network this means that if they did give you 100GB of data to use you would need to be able to consume it on 4G and 3G and 2G.

Now they could say you can have 100GB of data on 4G and 500MB on legacy networks but this would be a hugely confusing model for most people.

I take it all these packages are advertised as unlimited?

the film service is nothing new, although maybe improved.

orange used to offer a free film via itunes once a week until it was scrapped a few months ago

Terrible deals

I waited for the deals to be announced as I'm into upgrade month - ouch, sorry T-Mo/EE, nope, lost me to Three.

Greedy Bastards

They can shove all their 4G mast up where the sun does not shine.

Thats all.

EE site

If you look at the EE site it seems the pricing is a little more complicated.

e.g if you already have a 4G phone and you want a sim only deal 5GB a month is £36, still expensive but not as bad.

If you just want data you can get a data only plan which according to the website is significantly cheaper for 18 months than it is for 24 months - £26 for 5GB over 18 months or £36 for 5GB over 24 months.

Sorry but...

4G LTE peak rate is approx 300Mbit/s, understood that Mr Av. Punter isn't likely to see that often, but 500MB data allowance at peak rate...

300Mbit/s divided by 8 (bits in a byte) = 37.5MB/s

500MB divided by 37.5MB/s = 13.33s

You can spend just over 13 seconds a month downloading things... ?!

The point is?

Those cheaper plans suggest they must think we're all a bit dense - what on earth is the point of an allegedly* fast connection with a 500mb data allowance? With the unhealthy size of webpages (and the bloody ads) these days you can clock that with a few days browsing of El Reg + the Beeb. There's not going to be a lot left for that Full HD grumblefick extravaganza they've been alluding to to pimp the service - 500 meg won't get you much further than the copyright notices, titles and a bit of introductory Bulgarian Airbag action before your bandwidth's throttled back to the glory days of postage stamp sized Realplayer for the actual gruntfest. From memory of the spectacularly over optimistic 3G launch era, the "EE movie streaming service" seems unlikely to offer much more than a bit of free b-roll to demo your new fat pipe to admiring mates**.

It's a bit of dead giveaway they're chucking in minutes galore isn't it - as if no one would notice that voice and data aren't quite the same thing. That really was the point wasn't it - spend a mint on a fast*** data connection because what you really want is a thousand more opportunities to vocalise "I'm on the train" after a liquid workout at the Stoat and Black Pudding.

Sure, you can bump up the ante and get a workable slice of data by chaining yourself to 50 quid odd for two years from a company whose track record with speedy 3G left much to be desired. Personally, I'll stick to the cheap as chips 3G for now thanks, and save the bragging for 2017 when they're begging.

That said, at least this time they won't be pimping ringtones as the must have.

* throttling and inadequate provisioning may apply (see onerous T+Cs)

** Requires proximity to a major road in one of 10 desirable localities

*** The actual value of fast may depend on marketing, weather or proximity to Silicon Roundabout

That website's horrific

And why are the 24-month mobile broadband prices higher than the 18-month?

A fiver a month for EU roaming?

That's not bad at all. Vodafone charge three quid a day for the same facility.

Why would anyone choose 4G with bad coverage to start and very high tariffs for low allowances over a truly unlimited package with still great speeds on three?

Unlimited Browsing and email too

Having just upgraded and checked T's and C's with the agent on the phone I was confidently told my T-Mob contract included unlimited web browsing and email syncing. the 750mb data allowance figure I was given was for downloads and streaming etc. Having burnt through 2 boosters (50mb and 10mb) in 4 days on holiday I wanted confirmation. Should be the same on a 4g deal too.

evil diskheads.......

Well done EE, 500mb for 36 quid?

If the real-world download speed of their LTE network is 30mbps that means you can eat your 500mb in 133 seconds.

Or put another way when downloading at 30mbps you'd be spending 27p per/sec!

Better not click on a file download link by accident on their network..... Cancel the download in four seconds and you've already burned through over a quid's worth of your data bundle, that my friends doesn't just suck it blows chunks

This is pretty much an incremental upgrade.

(You could get the sort of speeds they are offering under HSPA+)

They should do LTE at 800mhz that would be good.

Indoors O2 & Vodafone at 900mhz is great signal quality compared to Three / EE

It is a marketing exercise. (4G Did mean 100Mb/s moving / 1000Mb/s stationary)

40Mb Down / 20Mb up is not really that much better than what Three has already.

(Probably less places will get it).

Got my Note 2 (non LTE) version happily slurping my 'old' T-Mobile Android 3GB monthly allowance for under £5 a month - was a £10 a month contract but it ended and decided to stick with contract alone and buy the phone sim free and unlocked from Amazon.

Quick snip snip with the scissors and I had a micro sim to fit.

two things...

1: It would be nice if they sorted out their 2g/3g coverage first. Where I live, there is no 3g for at least 10 miles square on any network. In the nearest big town there is 3g coverage, but its so oversubscribed that you would be hard pressed to notice the diference to an edge connection. At my house there is between 1 and no bars on 2g outside, nothing inside.

2: Those prices and data allowences are ridiculous, at full speed your entire allowence has gone in a few minutes. Whats the point in that?

Also, if it has to fall back to 3g/edge/gprs over large swaithes of the country, its really bad value for money compared to an unlimited 3g tarriff. In fact, you would have to be a bit of a fool to buy into it at this point in time.

I'm quite baffled

at those silly caps. You'd think that the whole point of LTE was to get A LOT OF data A LOT faster. Instead, you're going to get VERY LITTLE data A LOT faster (for seriously silly money, given how little data). So why would anyone want this service? To open this or that page, or email half a second faster? To show your mates this cool youtube vid, like it's f... fast, maaaaan!

It would be really sad if it turns out they were right and lots of people are really that stupid to sign up for this service and pay for nothing. And, if they're successful, their competitors next year will have no incentive to come up with lower prices, why would they?

I have personally installed O2's 4G backhaul fibre transmission equipment (between their core switching sites) in Slough, Yate and Birmingham, and I will be involved in the same for Vodafone in the near future. I'm sure EE have installed similar, as the bandwidth demands for 4G are far too much for existing 3G backhaul networks to just swallow (although the core backhaul is the same technology - Layer 2 Ethernet switching over DWDM links).