EE review: Top for speed, not for value

EE has good reason to claim it’s the UK’s fastest mobile network. The most recent tests conducted by RootMetrics place it as the top UK network for performance for the 11th year running. Its UK-wide median download speed (79.8Mbits/sec) is nearly 80% faster than that of the second-fastest network – Three, with 44.5Mbits/sec. Yet the competition is fierce at this level, with Three now beating EE on 5G performance in some places, and coming close on 5G coverage. What’s more, EE’s plans increasingly look expensive when you compare them to the budget deals on offer from the likes of Voxi and Smarty.

EE does well in some sections of this year’s Mobile Network Awards survey, but it still falls behind the leaders on value for money and customer service – and comes away without a Highly Commended, let alone any other awards. It says a lot that, when asked if they would recommend their network, only 68.5% of the EE customers we surveyed said they would be likely to, and 22% said that it would be unlikely. With other networks scoring 90% or more for recommendations, this isn’t a great result; but is EE still the mobile network to go for if you prize speed above all else?

EE review: What do you get?

EE sometimes has decent deals on mid-range and flagship smartphones, even if you can often get a cheaper bundle by looking elsewhere. For instance, if you want an iPhone 15 with 125GB of data on a 24-month contract, it’s going to cost you £58/mth plus £30 up front at the time of writing. Over the two-year term, that works out to a total cost of £1,430. Three’s deal with 150GB of data comes in at £55/mth or £1,345 over the full term, except a half-price offer for the first six months drags this down to £1,270. iD Mobile is cheaper still: you can have an iPhone 15 plus 100GB of data for £931 over two years.

And EE isn’t any cheaper when it comes to its SIM-only deals. These start at a whopping £16/mth for the 25GB Essentials plan on a 24-month contract. Even the 2GB No Frills plan costs £18 to £19 on a 12-month or monthly term. EE’s cheapest Unlimited plan doesn’t seem like bad value at £23/mth on a 24-month term – until you realise that speeds are limited to 100Mbits/sec. That’s fast, but not full-fat 5G. The unrestricted Unlimited Max plan comes in at £35 to £38 a month.

EE offers extras on its most expensive plans, including free Apple Music, Apple TV+, a Basic tier Netflix subscription, a Roam Abroad pass for international roaming or an Xbox Games Pass Ultimate membership. Some of these freebies are expensive if paid for separately, so they might push things EE’s way if you’re considering signing up. Just make sure you work out the full costs before you do so.

High pricing doesn’t necessarily mean poor value for money, as long as customers feel they’re getting what they pay for. However, it can make it difficult to meet expectations. While 74% of the EE customers we surveyed told us they were satisfied or very satisfied with the value for money of their service, 22% were actively dissatisfied. To put that in perspective, 97% of Giffgaff customers were satisfied and only 2% dissatisfied. Both Voxi and Smarty received 100% satisfaction scores.

EE review: Customer service

EE performs better on customer service. Over three-quarters of the EE customers we talked to were satisfied with the network’s customer service and support, beating Three, Vodafone and O2, not to mention Smart, Voxi and iD Mobile. With nearly 11% of users dissatisfied, it falls behind winners Tesco Mobile and Giffgaff, not to mention Sky Mobile, but this is still a good outcome for EE.

This is backed up by Ofcom’s most recent research on customer service and satisfaction, where EE scores high overall and has fewer complaints per 100,000 customers than its major network rivals. In the last published complaints data, EE had two complaints per 100,000 customers. Only Tesco Mobile did better, with one.

EE review: Coverage, reliability and speed

Speed is EE’s biggest selling point. In RootMetrics’ latest round of UK-wide performance testing, EE won its UK Overall RootScore award for the 11th straight year. Its UK median download speed, 79.8Mbits/sec, is 10Mbits/sec faster than it was in 2023 and over 35Mbits/sec faster than the next fastest network, Three, with 44.5Mbits/sec. EE also had the fastest speeds in 14 of 16 cities, and the best combination of 5G availability and performance. There are areas where Three’s 5G services are faster, but EE’s more consistent speeds and higher availability give it the win. Both networks exceeded 60% availability across the UK in the first half of 2024.

This isn’t necessarily reflected in our survey results, where EE achieved good results rather than outstanding scores. For example, 39% of respondents told us that they always had a fast-enough connection for general web browsing, putting EE well above the average, but 41% of Smarty customers and 48% of Voxi users told us the same thing. EE’s results for video streaming, with 23% always getting a fast-enough connection and 39% often having enough bandwidth, put it behind Smarty, Three, Voxi and Vodafone.

EE review: Roaming

EE no longer offers free EU roaming, instead charging £2.47 a day to use your monthly allowances – unless you have a Roam Abroad pass. The latter provides roaming across the EU plus the USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, either as an extra on high-end plans or as a £25/mth add-on. Without this, calls can be expensive – typically between £1.66 and £2.52 per minute, depending on the region, and 76p to 82p per text. Roaming data is only available through a Travel Data Pass, which provides 500MB of data per day in Canada, USA, Australia, China, India, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and the UAE for £6.75 per day, or 150MB in other destinations for £8.45 per day. Regular travellers may want to think twice.

EE review: Other features, services and spending caps

EE does have some useful features, including Data Gifting, where you can take out several contracts on the same account, then gift data from those who aren’t using it to those who can’t stop running out. This is controlled by the main contract holder, so you don’t need to worry about the kids drinking the data well dry.

EE’s pay-monthly customers can also use its Underground Wi-Fi, complete with Wi-Fi calling on the London Underground; a real bonus if you live or work in the capital.

EE also supports data caps, and you can configure them online or by sending a text message. However, these caps don’t include add-on purchases or payments to certain premium numbers or subscriptions, so you’ll still want to keep an eye on how everyone on a family contract uses, or abuses, their phone.

EE review: Verdict

Nobody matches EE for speed, but it’s questionable whether customers always feel the advantage when its survey scores for performance and reliability don’t top the charts. And while its customer service is better than most rivals, EE still isn’t winning any prizes in this year’s awards. This is a problem when it’s such an expensive network, and when so many of its customers don’t seem sure that they’re getting great value for money. If you want the best, most consistent 4G and 5G performance, EE is the network to go for, but the smaller networks are still ahead of the network everywhere else.