EE refreshes pay monthly plans with extra services

Essentials, All Rounder and Full Works plans are designed to appeal to different types of customers on different budgets.

New Smart Benefits have also been added to EE's line-up and access to BT WiFi hotspots has been added for all new and existing EE pay monthly customers.

However, it's worth noting the speeds on the new EE Essentials plans are capped at 100Mb, no matter how fast the service is in your area.

Credit: Electric Egg/Shutterstock.com

New plans

The new roster of pay monthly plans from EE offers three different levels of plans depending on what a customer is looking for:

• Essentials - Offers maximum download speeds of 100Mbps with 6 months of free Apple Music and Apple TV+ (plus Apple Arcade and Apple News for iPhone users) plus Stay Connected promise.
• All Rounder - Fastest speeds available with choice of 1 Smart Benefit and Stay Connected promise. Customers can also upgrade their phone at any time.
• Full Works - Comprehensive unlimited plans for Apple and Android with 3 Smart Benefits and the Roam Abroad Pass included. Customers can also upgrade their phone at any time.

For anyone looking at Smart Benefits, two new options have been added: Microsoft Office 365 and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Customers who sign up to the Full Works Plan for iPhone from 31st August 2022 onwards will gain access to the new Apple One service featuring Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and iCloud+ with 50GB of storage.

This is an extension of the Full Works iPhone plan first introduced in 2020.

Extended services

EE have enhanced their pay monthly plans with some key features across the range.

All the plans listed above include:

• Ability to gift data to family members
• Device Care Extras to help keep devices in good condition
• Wi-Fi Coverage Boost

This last benefit is of particular interest because it offers free access to over 150,000 secure BT WiFi hotspots across the UK.

Customers can connect to these hotspots seamlessly as soon as they come into range, something EE are calling a converged first by a major UK mobile network.

While it's worth pointing out that the overall BT Wi-Fi network is far bigger than this, the move towards convergence will be very useful for many customers who want a seamless and secure browsing experience while on the move.

Maximum data plan

One thing to watch out for with the Essentials plan is the data speed cap.

This is set at a maximum of 100Mbps, far higher than the 2Mb and 10Mb capped plans offered by Vodafone but still a limit on the speeds a customer can reach with their plan.

For many customers, this might not be an issue since 4G speeds are usually around 40Mbps and plenty of people don't yet have access to 5G from EE.

Yet EE are expanding their 5G services rapidly and passed 50% of the UK population with their network in May 2022. Their ambition is to cover 90% of the UK's landmass with 5G by 2028.

With 5G mobile speeds already able to reach far more than 100Mbps, it could be that customers signing up to Essentials plans are limiting themselves for the duration of their contract.

That said, speeds of up to 100Mbps are likely to be sufficient for the needs of most everyday users, so the trade-off in price may be worth it.

Read the full review of EE mobile.