Everything Everywhere reveals initial 4G pricing

Everything Everywhere, the network formed by the merger of Orange and T-Mobile’s UK operations, last month announced that it would be rolling out 4G LTE service to 16 UK cities by year’s end, and today came the announcement on pricing for the next-generation service.

As you might expect, it’s not exactly cheap, with tariffs ranging from £36/month for 500MB of data to £56/month for 8GB and only one handset available free at any level, but at these prices you can expect unlimited calls and texts in addition to much-improved data speeds. The prices are likely to stay  high in the short-to-medium-term, as none of the other UK networks will have any spectrum that they can dedicate to LTE until Ofcom goes ahead with its auction next year. Let us also not forget that the expenses of rolling out new network technology are high and will need to be recouped somehow. Once the other networks can enter the 4G market and give some competition, however, prices will likely begin to come down. With that said, EE will want to be careful not to have the prices so high that potential customers will wait to see what the other networks can offer; EE has a big opportunity to pick up some of the most lucrative mobile subscribers in this window and won’t want to squander the opportunity to lock them into their network for two years.

SIM-only deals are available from a more pocket-friendly £21 per month, but for that to be useful you would already need to have a 4G-ready phone and, as far as I know, the iPhone 5 is the only such phone to be readily available. If you’ve taken out a contract with Orange or T-Mobile in last 6 months for a phone that now offers a 4G version, you’ll have the option to jump across to EE and trade up to a 4G phone for £99.

For those on all but the most basic (500MB) plan, you will get a free film to stream each week, where you won’t have to pay to rent the movie or have the data used to do so count towards your plan. Certainly useful if you’re travelling a lot, and a good way to show the capabilities of the new network.

As far as I’m concerned, unless you’re doing a lot of media streaming (Netflix, Spotify etc.) while you’re on the go, the extra bump in speed, significant as it is, isn’t really necessary. Then again, if everything else on your smartphone is blazing fast, it might be nice to have a data connection that makes that experience universal. Find out more about what’s on offer here.