22-02-2024 04:29 PM - edited 22-02-2024 04:31 PM
I had posted https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/SIM-cards-Porting/How-to-order-a-Trial-SIM/m-p/1359070/highlight/true#..., https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-As-You-Go/How-to-order-a-Trial-SIM/m-p/1694383/highlight/true#M332..., and https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Pay-as-you-go/How-to-order-a-Trial-SIM/m-p/2746533/highlight/true#M1..., and received functional trial SIMs via all of them, so I was able to evaluate their abilities — most could connect solely to 3G, with, even then, differing ability to connect to that.
In the case of EE, per https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/SIM-cards-Porting/How-to-order-a-Trial-SIM/m-p/1360880/highlight/true#..., I've ordered 2 x 10 GBP trial SIMs for my Fairphone 4 (although I've solely tested them in my brother's FP5). However, unlike the others, the EE SIM was able to load arbitrary URIs via LTE and LTE+ (see https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/SIM-cards-Porting/How-to-order-a-Trial-SIM/m-p/1360880/highlight/true#...)!
Consequently, I would like to switch from my current provider, SMARTY (which piggybacks off Three) to EE. However, https://ee.co.uk/help/mobile/getting-started/keep-my-number/transfer-my-number-to-ee appears rather non-specific to me. Specifically, I would like to have 5 accounts under a family plan managed by one person. You appear to provide the family plan, per https://ee.co.uk/mobile/family-account but I don't see any specifics about how it operates:
Solved! See the answer below or view the solution in context.
23-02-2024 12:21 AM - edited 23-02-2024 12:34 AM
The a/c you currently use is a PAYG a/c w/out any billing & cannot be transformed in a family a/c but in all other respects is similar to a family a/c. Remember I said & highlighted "contract".
You are overthinking the matter. An EE a/c just contains 0, 1 or more mobile nos. A mobile no./SIM is never an a/c itself other than the degenerate case of an a/c containing exactly 1 mobile no.
The idea of a "family" a/c is that parents (but not restricted to) can buy contract SIMs or phones for their kids (but not restricted to) & pay for them all on 1 bill. Also the parent may share data between them. In essence a "family" a/c is a billing a/c.
23-02-2024 03:35 PM
In which case, @XRaySpeX, how does my own account tie into this? I'm used to the Microsoft family configuration whereby I merely join a family group with my personal account, and consequently can leave or rejoin at will.
23-02-2024 03:37 PM - edited 23-02-2024 03:37 PM
So a family account would not involve me joining any kind of shared structure with my own credentials. Instead, were I to cease using my SIM owned by the family account, I would need to initiate a transfer to my own account, @XRaySpeX? That's not particularly versatile.
23-02-2024 03:37 PM
It doesn't! PAYG a/c's aren't family a/c's.
23-02-2024 03:39 PM
@XRaySpeX, I don't intend to use a PAYG. I only have a PAYG to test the network currently. My family shall all use automatically montly-paid (probably unlimited) SIMs.
23-02-2024 03:42 PM
Pay-monthly lines need to be attached to a pay-monthly billing account, it can either be separate individual bill for each line or you can collate multiple phones onto a single bill.