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EE announce new services and pricing before October 30th launch

We tripped it along to the Science Museum in central London last month to find out what Everything Everywhere had been cooking up and expectations were high. It turned out to be not only the launch of the first 4G network in the UK, as we’d anticipated, but also a complete rebrand of the company and its services to the name ‘EE’. Check out the video to find out more.

Now the company have revealed what it will mean to be an EE customer, both with regards to their 4G mobile network and their fibre optic home broadband service when the company officially launches both of these new services on October 30th.

What is EE?

The company has abbreviated its previous name of Everything Everywhere to EE in order to make it punchier and easier to remember. Along with the new name, Steven Day, the company’s Chief of Branding and Communications spoke about the new logo, typeface and branding you’ll likely spot across major cities as the brand grows its awareness.

As with Everything Everywhere, the company is a combined effort from Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, but customers will now be able to pick up products using EE’s network – classed as a separate network.

 

Is EE replacing Orange and T-Mobile?

As time goes on the company will slowly restructure how the three brands are perceived in the UK. The Orange and T-Mobile high street outlets will be replaced by EE branded stores featuring 10,000 staff educated on all three networks and questions relating to any of them as of October 30th.

Existing customers from Orange and T-Mobile will be able to make use of all of the services that new EE customers will, but if they wish to leave their current contracts as they are, the only key difference will be a variant on the respective company name on their monthly bills.

Which devices support EE’s 4G network?

When the company officially launches next week, consumers will be able to pick up mobile phones, USB dongles and FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) broadband, all branded with EE. The company will be offering a range of ‘4GEE’ (the company’s official term for such devices) smartphones and dongles from the likes of Nokia, Samsung, Apple and Huawei, with more devices coming soon after. At present they list several mobile phones, including the new iPhone, one 4G dongle and one MiFi:

  • Huawei Ascend P1 LTE
  • HTC One XL
  • Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 2 LTE
  • Nokia Lumia 820 LTE
  • Nokia Lumia 920 LTE
  • Huawei E589 Mobile WiFi
  • Huawei E392 MBB Stick
  • Apple iPhone 5

EE 4G handset lineup

What new services are being offered to EE customers?

The latest additions to the structure of EE are a range of additional services that the carrier’s new customers (and in many cases existing Orange and T-Mobile customers) will be able to make use of.

EE Film – An evolution of Orange Wednesdays; EE Film maintains the previous scheme’s offer of 2-for-1 cinema tickets, but in addition offers customers the Film Store: a catalogue of over 700 movies to choose from, with classics and new releases alike. Customers will be able to choose movies to stream and/or download with prices starting at 79p, but be allowed one free movie to watch a week which won’t impact on their data allowance.

Pause & Play – As part of the EE Film, Film Store service, customers will be able to watch a movie on their phone, pause it and resume where they left off on their laptop or through their TV (via their laptop).

ClonePhone – EE are offering a service to mobile customers as a means to back up their mobile life. An app will back up the user’s mobile contacts, calendar, photos and video to the cloud incase their phone gets lost, stolen, broken or they decide to upgrade. All they will then have to do is then re-download and their content will be pulled down to the new device. Depending on the device, the service will cost £4 a month, with the Lite package offering 500MB of cloud storage, the Loaded package offering 16GB of storage and the Fully Loaded package throwing a replacement phone into the mix.

Repair & Loan Phone – Some automotive insurers offer cars whilst the customer’s is in for repairs, EE are doing the same with phones. This service will make sure that not only will a user’s phone be repaired within 14 days, but a replacement phone will be on offer to keep the user connected.

When can I buy an 4GEE handset?

Following on from September’s press conference, Olaf Swantee, the company’s CEO has now confirmed that EE’s 4G service will take off from October 30th. As such, the likelihood of 4G devices becoming available around that milestone is particularly strong. Apple’s iPhone 5, Samsung’s Galaxy S3 LTE and Note 2 LTE are currently the only UK devices available which supports EE’s 4G spectrum. The two new Nokia Windows Phone 8 handsets are expected to arrive on November 1st.

How much will 4GEE tariffs cost?

EE have yet to announce specific tariff pricing for their various handsets, but have confirmed that they will range from £36 a month for 500MB of data, plus unlimited calls and texts, to £56 a month for up to 8GB of data, plus unlimited calls and texts. All EE tarrifs include access to BT Openzone WiFi hotspots and the ability to perform VoIP calls and tethering without any additional add-ons. The company also said that for an addition £5 a month, a user can carry their unlimited calls and texts with them throughout Europe and select countries outside of the EU.

4GEE customers will also save £5 a month if they also subscribe to EE’s fibre broadband service.

Where will EE’s 4G network be available?

Engineers have been testing out EE’s 4G network in London, Cardiff, Birmingham and Bristol since last few months, but there are plans to bring 4G LTE to a total of 16 UK cities scheduled for completion by Christmas this year.

EE location rollout

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