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WiFi Coverage Boost

alapping
Explorer

Although I've seen other posts on this subject, none of them helped me so after several phone calls to EE tech support, team leaders and their partner company that run the hotspots I thought I'd share what I've learned. The page below states that "If you're an EE pay monthly customer with a WiFi-enabled device, you can connect at 150,000 locations across the UK"

https://ee.co.uk/help/mobile/manage-use/using-phone-features/how-do-i-access-wifi-coverage-boost

HOWEVER - that does not mean you can access any EE hotspot. These public hotspots are managed by a separate company and most if not all of the hotspots that have gone up since 2022 are not covered by the coverage boost feature - you need a broadband account to use them or you buy a voucher.

If you find you have to manually connect your iPhone to the hotspot and it brings up a login page - you've hit one of the 'not free' ones. If you're near a free one you wont have to connect to it at all (at least on iPhone - Android users do have a couple of extra hoops to jump through) - it happens automatically in the background. You don't even need to register to activate it any more (you used to have to text WIFI to 150 but thats no longer required) - as long as WiFi calling is enabled on your phone it will connect on its own and you likely wont even notice its done so.

Is there a list of access points that are free versus those that you have to pay for even as an EE customer ? Of course not. EE should publish that list at the very least. Even better would be if they made the 'public' access points chargeable for non-EE customers but free to use for those of us that are. In any case if you experience the frustration of entering your EE login details for the hotspot only to have it throw you straight back to the login page - now you know why !

4 REPLIES 4
XRaySpeX
EE Community Star
EE Community Star

Yes, there's a diff between the Public EE WiFi Network & WiFi Coverage Boost . The latter is a subset of the former.

The former is only available free to BT & New EE BB custs. The latter to EE mobile custs, on contract or PAYG.

Publishing a list of EE WiFi network hotspots would be difficult as it is very fluid being those BT & New EE BB users who allow their own BB routers to join or unjoin the network. The only way to find the current hotspots is see what are available at any time.

If you think I helped please feel free to hit the "Thumbs Up" button below.

To phone EE CS: Dial Freephone +44 800 079 8586 - Option 1 for Mobile Phone & Mobile Broadband or Option 2 for Home Broadband & Home Phone

ISPs: 1999: Freeserve 48K Dial-Up > 2005: Wanadoo 1 Meg BB > 2007: Orange 2 Meg BB > 2008: Orange 8 Meg LLU > 2010: Orange 16 Meg LLU > 2011: Orange 20 Meg WBC > 2014: EE 20 Meg WBC > 2020: EE 40 Meg FTTC > 2022:EE 80 Meg FTTC SoGEA > 2025 EE 150 Meg FTTP

But you could publish a list of the latter - those are not fluid right ?

Darwood
Investigator
Investigator

Yes c'mon EE! ALL EE public wifi hotshots should be free for mobile contract customers.

Arivaman
Contributor
Contributor

So the Public Wi-Fi Network is only available to BT and new EE Broadband customers.

So existing EE Broadband customers who have been through Wanadoo and other incarnations get diddily squat fot their loyalty. Like others have said, ALL EE customers should have internet coverage to EE hotspots.

Oh I forgot EE have given me Wi-Fi coverage on the London Underground.  Handy for Norfolk!