EE handing out Power Bar free portable charger to customers

Network will let you refill device at any store.

EE is looking to snare more customers and ensure it doesn’t haemorrhage old ones with a savvy new offer: a free portable charger.

Dubbed the EE Power Bar, it’s available to all of the network’s customers and will hold enough juice for a full phone charge.

What’s more, if the Power Bar itself dies and you’re near an EE shop, you can go in and swap it for a fully charged one without having to pay.

There are, of course, caveats. Pay as you go customers need to have been with EE for three months in order to qualify and you’ll need to send a text to activate the device, which will cost 35p.

However, phone and broadband customers are eligible, so those aren’t exactly the worst hurdles to clear.

Read more »

Orange and T-Mobile won’t offer 4G service

EE to soak up next-gen network customers.

T-Mobile and Orange customers who want to sign up for a 4G service will have to transfer their custom to EE, it has emerged, as the process of shifting subscribers to the relatively new brand begins in earnest.
EE, which operates the UK's sole 4G network, is owned by the same Deutsche Telekom and France Télécom joint venture that owns T-Mobile and Orange.

It had been thought in some quarters that T-Mobile and Orange planned to use EE’s 4G infrastructure as a platform to launch a next-gen mobile internet service of their own, most likely later this year.
However, EE yesterday told our sister site Omio that it is reserving 4G for the EE brand and that T-Mobile and Orange will continue to offer 3G only.
An EE spokesperson said: “Orange and T-Mobile are 3G brands only so customers would need to move to EE if they would like to use 4G.
“There are no plans to launch 4G on Orange and T-Mobile. As below, EE is our 4G brand.”
Whether Orange and T-Mobile will survive as brands in the long term isn’t yet clear. But we’d say that the sheer strength of Orange's brand gives it a much better chance of lasting the distance than T-Mobile.
EE last week announced it is doubling data allowances on 4G plans as part of a limited-period promo. The sweetener is intended to soak up early adopters ahead of the launch of rival 4G services from Three and O2 later this year.

 Related Search 

Read more »

EE doubles 4G smartphone speeds in 12 cities, launches shared plans

Super-fast network presses home first-mover advantage.

EE customers in 12 cities will from tomorrow be able to access 4G mobile broadband speeds double those currently available, as the UK's sole 4G carrier bids to sweeten its appeal ahead of the arrival of rivals' next-gen networks later this year.
EE customers in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield will be able to enjoy average, real-world connection speeds of between 24Mbps and 30Mbps and a headline, theoretical speed of 150Mbps.
Existing EE subscribers will be upgraded to the faster connections, which promise improved streaming for HD video and more practical tethering multiple devices and sharing high-res photos, for free. They will also remain on their current plan, with allowances unaffected.

Read more »

EE 4G at Glastonbury prompts surge in high-res photo uploads

Next-gen network transforming usage habits.

The debut of 4G network technology at Glastonbury festival saw consumers' uploads overtake downloads for the first time ever, as Glasto-goers took to social networking sites to share high-res photos of artists' performances.
According to Olaf Swanatee, CEO of EE which provided next-gen service for free at the festival, upload activity unprecedentedly surged after bands finished their sets at the event, as a result of 4G facilitating sharing of high quality snaps on Facebook and Twitter.
The shift, engendered by a network on site capable of delivering speeds up to five times faster than the UK's average 3G connection speed, is perhaps indicative of how the availability of 4G has the potential to chance consumer usage habits.

Read more »