EE Network Review

Table of Contents Plans Extras and benefits Network Coverage Speeds Frequencies Traffic Management Customer Service Conclusion Alternatives

Plans

EE has a range of Pay Monthly and SIM Only plans available, as well as Pay As You Go bundles, and all of them come with 4G at no extra cost – and the majority also come with 5G.

EE Mobile Plans

	Mobile Phones	SIM Only	Data only SIM
Plans available	✔	✔	✔
Max Data	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Contract lengths	24 or 36 months	1 or 24 months	1 or 24 months

EE’s Pay Monthly and SIM Only plans are split into four categories: No Frills, Essentials, All Rounder, and Full Works (though they’re not always clearly labelled as such). The No Frills ones are extremely basic, with low data limits and a 10Mbps top speed. Essentials ones are basic plans where you’re only really paying for your allowances, and data speeds top out at 100Mbps, which is fast but doesn’t offer the full potential of 5G.

At the time of writing both of these plan types do also come with access to Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, and Apple Arcade free for six months though. And Essentials plans also let you gift your data to other plans on your account, and offer ‘Stay Connected Data’, which lets you keep using data at 0.5Mbps speeds when you run out. That’s awfully slow but better than nothing.

If you’re basically happy with that but also want to roam, then there’s Essentials Plus, which adds EU roaming.

Then there’s All Rounder plans, which don’t limit your speeds, and – on top of the features above – additionally come with one ‘Inclusive Extra’ of your choice.

These extras – on SIM Only or with an Android phone – include a Netflix Standard subscription with adverts or a Google One 2TB Premium subscription. If you choose an iPhone with an All Rounder plan then you’ll instead be able to choose between Apple Music or Apple TV Plus.

Finally, there’s Full Works, though there’s two versions of this. First up there’s the Full Works Plan for iPhone, which is designed for iPhone customers and includes worldwide roaming (in select locations) and the choice of TNT Sports on Discovery Plus or a subscription to Apple One. This gives you access to Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud Plus storage.

The other version is the Full Works Plan for Android, which includes worldwide roaming and one Inclusive Extra from the following options: Netflix Premium, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Google One AI Premium, or TNT Sports on Discovery+.

Taking all of the above into account, EE’s Pay Monthly plans stand out due to higher 4G speeds than rival networks along with numerous freebies and unlimited data plans. But often high prices hold them back slightly, and while free roaming can be had beyond the EU, the selection of locations is limited.

You’ll find similar pros and cons on its SIM Only plans, though the contracts here are potentially shorter.

EE also offers Data Only plans for tablets, MiFi devices and dongles. These, as the name suggests, come with data but no minutes or texts, and you can get up to unlimited data.

Pay As You Go

EE Pay As You Go Plans

		Mobile Phones
Plans Available		✔
Add-ons available		✔
Max Data Allowance		Unlimited
Add-on expiry		30 days
Top Up Expiry		180 days inactivity
Tethering		✔
EU Roaming		✔
Global Roaming		✖

EE additionally offers a range of Pay As You Go bundles, each of which lasts 30 days and automatically recurs.

EE's Pay As You Go packs stand out by letting you roll over your data from one month to the next.

As well as the packs themselves, every couple of pack purchases you'll get a free data boost of 500MB. You can do this up to six times (for 3GB of data).

But EE’s standard rates aren’t the most competitive, as once your pack runs out you’ll pay 40p per minute and 20p per text. Data use is limited to packs and add-ons, and at the time of writing data speeds on Pay As You Go top out at 25Mbps.

Extras and benefits

EE offers a number of extras and benefits, as you can see in the chart below. Further details of these can be found underneath the chart, but the main highlight is arguably its ‘Inclusive Extras’, which we’ve also discussed above.

EE Mobile Perks

	Mobile Phones	SIM Only	Data only SIM
5G	✔	✔	✔
Roaming	✔	✔	✔
Tethering	✔	✔	✔
VoLTE	✔	✔	✖
WiFi Calling	✔	✔	✖
Data Rollover	✖	✖	✖
Spending Caps	✔	✔	✔
Unlimited Data	✔	✔	✔
Family Plans	✖	✔	✖
Credit Check	✔	✔	✔
eSIMs	✔	✔	✔
Unique Benefits	✔*	✔*	✔*

* selected plans only

5G

EE offers 5G as standard on most plans, including SIM Only plans and 5G device plans. Since 5G comes as standard you won’t pay any extra for it, though EE is one of the most expensive UK networks anyway.

Roaming Destinations

Select EE plans include either European roaming in 47 destinations or worldwide roaming in 52. Specifically, if you have an Essentials Plus or All Rounder plan taken out after August 29th, 2024, then you’ll have EU roaming, while if you have a Full Works plan taken out after that date you’ll have worldwide roaming. Older Full Works and All Rounder plans instead come with the option of adding roaming as an Inclusive Extra.

For all other plans, EE charges £2.47 per day to roam – within your allowances and up to a fair usage limit of 50GB – in the following 47 destinations: Austria, Azores, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus (excludes northern Cyprus), Czech Republic, Canary Islands, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion Islands, Romania, San Marino, Saint Martin (French), Saint Barthelemy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Vatican City (Italy).

This all only applies to customers who joined or upgraded after July 7th, 2021, though. Those who didn’t will keep free roaming for the duration of their contracts.

You can also get a Roam Abroad pass, which allows you to roam for free in these places as well as the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand, for 52 destinations in total. You can add this to your plan for £25 per month.

Tethering

EE offers tethering as standard on all of its plans, and you can use as much data as you want for it, up to your overall data allowance – though bear in mind you’ll then be left with no data to use on your phone until the next month.

That’s unless you have unlimited data of course. In that case you can use as much data as you want up to a fair use limit of 600GB per month. EE also reserves the right to move you to a “more suitable plan” if you regularly tether 12 or more devices.

WiFi Calling

EE offers Wi-Fi Calling as standard on its Pay Monthly plans, meaning you can call or text (as well as receiving calls and texts) over Wi-Fi. It does this seamlessly without an app and is handy if you’re ever somewhere without a signal but with a Wi-Fi connection.

However, it’s not available on all handsets, though it does work on all 'compatible' handsets when bought directly from EE.

Many handsets not bought from EE should also work with Wi-Fi Calling, but the network can’t guarantee their compatibility. Wi-Fi Calling also isn’t available on Pay As You Go or when abroad.

VoLTE

VoLTE stands for Voice Over LTE, and on EE the service is called 4G Calling. That name tells you most of what you need to know – it lets you make calls over 4G. The big advantage of this is improved voice quality, but it also means you can make calls when you’re somewhere that has 4G coverage but not 3G or 2G.

It works across EE’s entire 4G network but only on select handsets. To guarantee it will work you should buy your handset direct from EE, but VoLTE should also work on some phones when not bought from EE.

Data rollover

EE doesn’t offer data rollover on most plans, but you can get it on Pay As You Go. This means that with a Pay As You Go pack, you’ll be able to roll over your unused data from one month to the next, giving you a second chance to use it.

Spending caps

EE allows you to set spending caps, so you can restrict any additional usage and spending outside your general allowances. You don’t have to set a cap at all, but if you do want to then it can be set at between £0 (so you can’t accidentally spend any extra) and £50.

This will restrict charges for things like out of allowance calls and texts, calling abroad, and premium numbers, among other things.

Unlimited data

EE offers unlimited data on many of its plan types, including SIM Only, Pay Monthly, and Data Only plans, as well as home broadband and mobile broadband ones. The only real plans that don’t offer this as an option are Pay As You Go ones.

Note that there is a fair usage policy when using unlimited data with a phone though, which states that you shouldn’t use over 600GB per month, or regularly tether 12 or more devices, and that you can’t use more than 50GB per month when roaming.

Family plans

With EE you can get what it calls a Family Account, which lets you add additional lines to your plan, with up to a £12 monthly discount on each additional one. You can also gift your data to other people on the Family Account.

Credit checks

EE will carry out a credit check when you sign up for any plan, other than Pay As You Go. This is standard practice across mobile networks, with contracts on any network typically requiring a credit check, but it’s something to bear in mind.

eSIMs

EE offers eSIMs for handset and SIM Only customers. You can either request one at checkout or convert your physical SIM card to an eSIM by contacting EE.

Unique benefits

The main unique perk to EE is its Inclusive Extras, which we’ve detailed above as they’re a core part of many of the network’s plans.

In short though they let you choose a benefit that you can access at no extra cost for the duration of your contract, with the selection including the following:

A Netflix Standard subscription with adverts, a Google One 2TB Premium subscription, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple One, TNT Sports on Discovery Plus, Netflix Premium, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, or Google One AI Premium.

You’ll notice that some of those options are clearly a lot better than others, and that’s because more premium plans (dubbed ‘Full Works’ plans) have access to the better options. For more details, check out our EE Inclusive Extras guide.

EE also offers ‘Stay Connected’, a service which means that if you run out of data you can still keep using it, just at a much lower speed of 0.5Mbps. Your speed will return to normal when your allowances reset, or if you buy a data add-on. This is a perk of most plans on the network.

WiFi Coverage Boost is another perk, and this is available to all mobile customers. This offers free and seamless access to over 150,000 securely encrypted BT Wi-Fi hotspots across the UK, including in places like the London Underground, so you can stay connected in more locations.

Network

Coverage

EE Network Coverage

Network Type	Coverage by population
5G	Now available in over 1,000 locations
4G	>99%
3G	In the process of switching off
2G	99%
Check EE Coverage

As well as 4G, EE of course offers 5G coverage. The network switched on its 5G service in six cities on May 30th, 2019, making it the UK’s first 5G network. Since then it has brought 5G to numerous additional locations for over 1,000 towns, cities, and smaller communities in total at the time of writing. That amounts to 5G coverage for at least 73% of the UK’s population.

EE has over 99% population coverage with 4G, which likely puts it ahead of most rivals (though every UK network claims to have at least 99% 4G population coverage).

EE’s 4G is also more widespread than its 5G, so it’s the network type you’ll probably spend the most time on if you’re with EE, unless you’re lucky enough to get a 5G signal in your home or office.

Network speeds

OpenSignal – Mobile Network Experience, September 2024, and April 2020

Network	Download/upload speeds	4G latency (ms)
EE	45.9/9.8Mbps	36.0ms
Three	38.0/7.1Mbps	48.3ms
Vodafone	31.1/7.8Mbps	39.0ms
O2	23.1/5.3Mbps	38.1ms

EE delivered the highest combined download speeds in Opensignal's September 2024 mobile network tests, recording average speeds of 45.9Mbps. Its combined upload speeds are the best too at an average of 9.8Mbps. These speeds use a combination of all available network types – so 5G, 4G and 3G.

Latency results weren’t included, but they can be found in an earlier April 2020 report, in which the network also fared well, leading the pack with a latency of 36.0ms. Latency is the delay experienced when sending and receiving data on the network and is an important consideration to those who play online games.

When operating purely on 5G, EE’s speeds are higher than in the chart of course, with the same 2024 Opensignal report finding its average download speed was 96.8Mbps.

And according to 2024 data from RootMetrics, EE’s median 5G download speed is 207.5Mbps, while its 95th percentile speed (meaning close to the highest) is 709.0Mbps.

Those 5G speeds are all beaten by Three, but its median and 95th percentile are the second highest on test.

EE was also included in a 2024 report from Speedtest, which found that it had a median 5G download speed of 106.61Mbps and a median 5G upload speed of 12.23Mbps – both of which were also beaten by Three, as well as being beaten by Vodafone.

However EE ties with Three for the win on latency, with an average of 29ms in this report.

Traffic Management

EE’s current traffic management policy doesn’t appear to limit the amount or speed of your data beyond the standard terms of your contract – so for 5G speeds you’ll need a 5G plan, for example.

However, EE adds that it reserves the right to manage your use of the network in order to protect it for the use of all customers, and may therefore apply traffic management controls from time to time.

Data speeds may also be slower when roaming.

Network Frequencies

EE Network Frequencies

Frequency	Frequency Band	Network
700MHz	n29	5G
800MHz	Band 20	4G
1800MHz	Band 3	2G & 4G
2100MHz	Band 1	3G & 4G
2600MHz	Band 7	4G
3400MHz	n78	5G
3600MHz	n77	5G

EE uses the 800MHz frequency, 1800MHz frequency, 2100MHz and 2600MHz frequency for 4G. The 800MHz frequency is long range, making it good for rural locations, but it can also penetrate walls, for strong indoor coverage. The 2600MHz frequency meanwhile is shorter range but deals well with congested areas like inner cities, and the 1800MHz and 2100MHz frequency is a middle ground. You can find in-depth details of those frequency bands in our 4G and 5G frequencies guide.

For 3G, EE uses 2100MHz, and for 2G is uses 1800MHz, though the network is becoming ever less dependent on these now that its 4G coverage is widespread.

EE also holds some spectrum in the high frequency (and therefore short range) 3.4GHz and 3.6GHz bands, which comes into play for 5G. Plus, it has some low frequency 700MHz spectrum, which it’s also using for 5G.

Customer Service

As well as speeds, allowances and coverage, customer service is a key and often overlooked aspect of a mobile network, and it’s one which right now EE doesn’t seem to excel at.

Or at least, results are a mixed bag. In a 2023 customer service report from Ofcom, it was found that 87% of EE mobile customers were satisfied with their service, but that 12% had a reason to complain and only 55% of those who made a complaint were satisfied with the way it was handled. Additionally, Ofcom received 6 complaints about EE per 100,000 subscribers, which is lower than most but not all rival networks.

Average call waiting times on EE were found to be 3 minutes and 41 seconds, which is substantially worse than the average among UK networks.

We can also look to Trustpilot, where EE has an overall score of 1.6/5 at the time of writing. That’s considered ‘bad’.

Conclusion

EE is a top-class mobile network, especially if you care about having the fastest data possible. It offers higher 4G speeds and lower latency than any rival network, as well as competitive coverage and extras, such as inclusive roaming outside the EU on select plans.

It can be pricey, and its selection of roaming locations isn’t a match for some networks, but if you mostly plan to use your phone in the UK and aren’t on a tight budget, EE is tough to beat.

Alternatives

If you’re looking for another network with EE’s coverage then the obvious choices are 1pMobile, Spusu, Talk Home, and Lyca Mobile, as well as the China-focused CMLink.

If on the other hand you want another premium network, then consider Three, O2 or Vodafone, which all have their own network infrastructure. That means their coverage differs to EE’s, but it’s generally strong in all cases, and they have their own selections of perks and extras.

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References

• OpenSignal, Mobile Networks Update September 2021
• Point Topic 5G broadband 2020