Good bye, Auf Wiedersehen, Au revoir & Arrivederci...

[stephen5000]

Well after more than a decade of being with EE, just got a text from them telling me my £8/month legacy SIM only tariff is ending in 4 weeks. They'll be raising it to £15/month, an 88% price hike, for EXACTLY the same benefit, unlimited calls, unlimited texts, 5Gb data, free EU roaming!

With the most cursory of searching I have found 3 x networks (Lebara, Talk home, Spusu) offering the same SIM free benefit at only £5/month. Ironically one using the EE network.

Can't understand the business logic, if EE had not bothered me, I'd have happily given them £96/year, instead of nothing. I'm sure they must have some kind of tax dodge to make that worth them while to lose revenue LOL

Oh well, it's been a blast, I still don't get an EE signal at home despite annual promises for 'improvement', but with WiFi calling, I really couldn't give a toss what network I'm on, they're all disappointing.

[Northerner]

Hi @stephen5000 

As you say you're on a legacy tariff and economically your service cannot be maintained at the current price. £16 is the cheapest SIM only plan offered from what I can see but you could try calling EE on 150 to see what they can offer. 

If not good luck with your move.

Thanks 

[stephen5000]

---

@Northerner wrote:

Hi @stephen5000 

As you say you're on a legacy tariff and economically your service cannot be maintained at the current price....

---

That's the thing, 'Talk Home' use EE, yet can offer me the same tariff at only £5/month. Something isn't right, but hey, I don't really care where my monthly DD goes to as long as my phone works!

[Northerner]

Hi @stephen5000 

They are an MVNO and likely subsidise their service which will have caveats. That said if you are a low user why not move if you can save money. 

I would still try speaking to EE first. 

Thanks 

[stephen5000]

Unsure what 'caveats' there would be, but yes, I'll give EE a call tomorrow and see what they say...

[bristolian]

Budget MVNOs don't always have access to additional services such as VoLTE - which can make a difference to coverage & service. Some do, some don't - but those that don't won't be drawing attention to the fact.

For one, VoLTE is required in order for WiFi-calls to handover to or from the macro network. I've also known some MVNO's have VoLTE access but not B20-800Mhz.

[stephen5000]

---

@bristolian wrote:

Budget MVNOs don't always have access to additional services such as VoLTE - which can make a difference to coverage & service. Some do, some don't - but those that don't won't be drawing attention to the fact.

For one, VoLTE is required in order for WiFi-calls to handover to or from the macro network.

---

Have already checked. Both Spuso & Lebara specifically state on their web sites, that their SIM only deals include free Wifi/VoLTE activation.(Talk Home am awaiting an email response of same question|)  Useless to me otherwise as I don;'t get mobile reception at home...

[stephen5000]

Well, as suggested, I called EE on a delightful 37 minute wait till they answered LOL They did offer me a retention deal of £12/month for 20Gb, which I was half way through accepting. Till I asked does that still include FREE EU roaming. I live in Northern Ireland and travel to Southern Ireland 5+ times a year so I use roaming. They have now decommissioned FREE EU roaming on new deals LOL My god - even Tesco & Asda include FREE EU roaming!!

They really do want to clear the swamp of customers like me...

Oh well, EE aren't interested in customers like me. Good luck to all you rich folk who spend all day on your phones. EE is just the ticket for you 😂

[bristolian]

If anything, the recent tariff refresh is resulting in more users with inclusive roaming. Also inclusive roaming in the Eire is not dependent on any add-on, roaming charges there have been zero-rated for many years.

I wanted to be sure before responding further, but access to low-band 800Mhz coverage is not universal across MVNO's even with VoLTE access, I seem to recall this being an issue in a previous thread with the OP.

All that said, budget MVNO's - Tesco & Asda included - target a different demographic to EE, and network quality is not a major part of their proposition. There's plenty of other elements that EE do very well, but neither Tesco nor Asda even attempt - those may not be important to you, but will be for others.

If your primary purchasing criteria - as appears to be the case here - is the cheapest price, then you're absolutely correct to say that there are far better choices than EE. Good luck.

[stephen5000]

---

@bristolian wrote:

If your primary purchasing criteria - as appears to be the case here - is the cheapest price, then you're absolutely correct to say that there are far better choices than EE. Good luck.

---

It wasn't primarily price as I was ready to accept the retention deal of £12/month with 20 Gb till I was told EU roaming wasn't included. I'm sure your comment on lack of network quality of Asda who use Vodafone will be appreciated by them 😂  I have now researched this to death and think I'll be going with Asda as for just £6/month they offer:

5Gb/month, automatically rolled over any unused data

VoLTE/WiFi calling FREE

Free EU Roaming

Unlimited calls & texts

(This was exactly what I got from EE on my current tariff - apart from the rollover data)

As you can see, I am not a heavy phone user, but would have been quite happy to remain with EE should they have not proposed to doubled my tariff cost (also an extra annual £1.50 increase every March) making my current £8 into £16.50, and then tried to cut my service (dropping EU roaming) on me about to accept today a 50% cost increase.

Thanks for all the input...