topic Re: No 5G for Pay as you go in Pay as you go

No 5G for Pay as you go

Cmckue — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 21:48:35 GMT

There is no 5G available for those EE customers on Pay as you go which I am highly disappointed about especially when EE are supposed to be prideful on there strong reliable speeds, EE please change this because is not fair that we do not get the value that we pay for regardless of being on Pay as you go.

P.S. I do not even get full bar 4g sometimes it is like 1 or two bars which further agitates me

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

bristolian — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 22:25:16 GMT

Jut out of interest, what do you want to use 5G for, that 4G is insufficient?

There's nothing inherently wrong with "only 1 or 2 bars" - what service problems are you having with using your phone?

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

Cmckue — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 22:31:55 GMT

It is because sometimes I can be tethering to multiple devices, whilst maybe playing a game such as COD Warzone on the highest graphical settings because of this I would like to have access to 5G LTE full bars.

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

bristolian — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 22:48:50 GMT

@Cmckue wrote:

I would like to have access to 5G LTE full bars.

4G is LTE, 5G is NR.

It's not full-bars that guarantees the best speeds, but having a large amount of spectrum available on your serving site/sector. You can do that without any reference to the on-screen bars.

This is true regardless of 4G or 5G.

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

Cmckue — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 22:51:05 GMT

EE should allow there pay as you go customers 5G.

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

Ali_A — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 11:24:03 GMT

Hi @Cmckue

If you're occasionally using tethering , would it not be more cost effective to take one of our SIM only deals which currently has a double-data offer?

That way you'd get access to 5G too.

Ali

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

darren111 — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 21:42:09 GMT

EE should allow there pay as you go customers 5G. Some long standing pay as you go customers might want to leave EE because of the lack 5G, I can't use a feature my new phone has and is partly why I bought it. We should be able to use all the features of our devices.

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

Chris_B — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 08:21:39 GMT

@darren111 what bandwidths your device supports has nothing to do with EE. what features your device has has nothing to do with EE, if the network doesn’t support that services that’s up to the network not just because your device has a certain feature the network has to support it
All devices sold now are likely support 5G regardless of what you purchase.

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

Person_Mobile — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 22:02:07 GMT

Has this issue been fixed please ? Can you get a 5G Pay as you go Esim from EE?

I'm looking to move from another provider. This is the only things stopping me.

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

bristolian — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 22:05:19 GMT

EE PAYG supports neither 5G nor eSIM

You can "only" get 4G via a physical SIM. Out of interest, what do you want to use your phone for, that 5G & eSIM is essential?

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

Person_Mobile — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 22:15:20 GMT

@Bristol Internet! Streaming, games, video calls etc

5G is standard now and a 100 times faster than 4G.

4G and physical sims are obsolete.

Pity, I was quite keen on trying EE.

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

Matt_124 — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 22:28:16 GMT

EE's PAYG SIMs are capped at 25 Mbps Speed, so if speed is your concern then it will not be any faster than this on PAYG, regardless of what type of network configuration you are connected to.

The more important factor instead of 4G vs 5G or on-screen signal bars is the Frequency Band you are connected to and the bandwidth available. This will determine the performance, as it is possible to have better experiences in some areas on 4G than you would in another area with 5G NSA.

5G NSA (Non-Standalone) relies on the 4G LTE network as the anchor until 5G Standalone becomes commonplace, 1800 MHz is EE's base coverage layer on 4G in most areas. 4G is far from obsolete.

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

bristolian — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 22:40:59 GMT

After damaging a perfectly good keyboard (that could easily be termed obsolete) Matt, I concluded "troll". That, or a marketers dream.

4G1800Mhz *is* EE's base-layer except in low-band-only areas.

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

Chris_B — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 07:30:10 GMT

@Person_Mobile What you state you need 5G for all work perfectly fine over 4G and 4G is far from obsolete as why are Phones still being manufactured to support 4G and why is there a 4G network? and SIM cards are far from obsolete as again phones are made for Sim cards to be installed in them. 5G isn’t the standard now it’s from from it. I’m happily using 4G over 5G and I can use 5G.

and as stated PAYG is limited to 25meg so you’ll not be any better if you could use 5G it’s still 25Meg. So not 100 times faster at all

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

samhiorns — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 19:11:45 GMT

You shouldn't have to upgrade your pack, you can pay less with Three for a 1 month rolling plan than EE and get 5G and more data. So the only reason I'm with EE is because I get more reliable reception. Otherwise it's just not competitive.

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

Chris_B — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 07:37:01 GMT

@samhiorns using a different pack still will not give you 5G. And you’ve stated why you’re not with a different network as no network has 100% coverage. And you’ll not get any faster network speeds if on PAYG with 5G it’s still limited to 25meg if it was available. Once I figure out why 5G is going to be better for a PAYG user instead of 4G with a limited network speed of 25meg I’ll get back to you. Be prepared for a very long wait.

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

samhiorns — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 11:27:11 GMT

My point is why the unnecessary restrictions anyway? We’re stuck on 4G where equivalently priced plans elsewhere give you 5G. In my area EE has the best coverage, it really is a lot better, apart from one station nearby where I get none (I would be more likely to if I had more than just 4G to connect to). Data speed limits are just old fashioned.

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

bristolian — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 14:24:51 GMT

@samhiorns wrote:
We’re stuck on 4G where equivalently priced plans elsewhere give you 5G. In my area EE has the best coverage, it really is a lot better, apart from one station nearby where I get none (I would be more likely to if I had more than just 4G to connect to).

It's not the "G" that dictates coverage patterns to the degree you believe, but the radio frequencies in use.

EE's base coverage layer is 1800Mhz. This is extended, on 4G & 5G, by the use of low-bands 800Mhz & 700Mhz respectively. Furthermore, unless you're using 5G-Standalone, then you're using 4G as the anchor layer in any case.

All meaning - the only way you'll get 5G coverage where no 4G exists, is where there's a 5G-Standalone layer running 700Mhz but no corresponding 4G800Mhz layer. The tower & antenna rigging works are shared between the two (driven by frequency not technology), meaning 5G without 4G should be very rare in practice.

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

Leothereal — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 18:24:32 GMT

What do you mean by out of interest? This unbelievable ! You’re supposed to have 5G what is it with people in the UK? Do They like to live miserably with terrible service and infrastructure ? The UK infrastructure is a joke! is terrible. Nothing works here and I’m talking because I’m an American and in America. oh my God, in America our infrastructure 1000% better than that of the UK and Europe altogether. My average 5G speed back home goes from 250mbps to normally 900 to a terabyte any time of the day. On 4G which is ancient back home, it runs from 200 to 500 mbps.
hellooo UK! Wake up! Get ready for the future! Lolol

Re: No 5G for Pay as you go

robh661 — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 20:38:14 GMT

You’re not alone, I’m on pay monthly contract, and when I’m indoors, I don’t get a signal at all and the phone switches to Wi-fi calling. So I end up using my broadband, even for text messages.
And at work it’s the same problem, when indoors all I get a satellite signal for outgoing emergency calls. Nothing else works.
Compared to the old BT Cellnet network, EE has very poor coverage, and they don’t seem to want to improve it either.