EE reveals 4G price plans

Contracts range from £36 to £56 a month

Mobile operator EE has revealed price plans for its 4G services, with contracts ranging from £36 to a hefty £56 a month depending on data allowance.

4G is set to be launched in the UK from 30 October and will be five times faster than current 3G technology, allowing users to easily download and stream data from mobile devices.

The two-year contracts with EE start at £36 a month with a limit of 500MB of data, which is around £5 a month more than current 3G contracts. The price rises to £41 per month for 1GB of data, £46 for 3GB, £51 for 5GB and £56 for 8GB. Each package comes with unlimited texts and calls.

According to Steven Hartley, principal strategy analyst at Ovum, the pricing suggests aggressive targeting of some of EE's competitors.

"The pricing positions the brand very much at the high-end of the customer spectrum," he said, "but the premium to legacy services isn't as high as those seen elsewhere. This suggests that aggressive targeting of its rivals' most valuable customers awaits.

"The lack of a high premium means that EE can emphasise LTE's benefits. These should prove popular in the UK, where network performance is generally poor compared to the rest of Western Europe," Hartley continued, adding that while 4G offers advantages over 3G, there's unlikely to be a big shift towards it soon.

"Instantly available high-quality video and web pages give EE a big marketing advantage over its rivals," he said.

"Combined with a limited price premium, EE's rivals will no doubt be nervously awaiting its impact on high-spending, high-margin customers. Nonetheless, the emphasis on the high-end means that we don't expect seismic shifts in customer numbers in the short term," he concluded.

EE's rivals need to wait for an auction to bid for 4G services before being able to roll it out themselves. With a proposed date of January 2013 set by Ofcom, 4G would become widely available by next May.

Some believe that 4G will provide a big step forward for business, with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff arguing that the service will enable enterprises to run on an iPad.