EE CEO Olaf Swantee has defended the network’s 4G pricing plans and said he remains confident it can sustain the premium even when other mobile operators launch their LTE services this spring.
Speaking at the Huawei Broadband Forum, he said that by convincing users of the benefits of superfast mobile broadband and by creating services around its offering, it can differentiate itself from the rest of the pack.
“Today is a very exciting day, I’m very, very pleased and also proud of my 15,000 employees to get this infrastructure into the UK,” he said. “I’m very confident that not only will we have caught up with some of the other countries, but that we can start establishing the benchmark for 4G connectivity in the months and quarters ahead.”
“It is clear that we need do more work to create awareness about superfast broadband, whether it is 4G or fibre and to try and get out of the ‘techno-talk’ and really try to explain what you can do with it,” he explained. “But when people actually see what you can do with it, it opens their eyes, both from a consumer perspective as well as businesses.”
When the operator revealed its price plans last week, many reacted negatively to the high cost. The cheapest deal costs £36 a month for 500 MB of data. Swantee said that for such an increase in performance, it is necessary to pay a “10-20 percent” premium.
He called the initial reaction to the price plans and the feedback on social networks “quite interesting”, but insisted that the most intensive mobile data users only use between 1GB and 1.5GB a month. Swantee said mobile tariffs in the UK were too complicated and that EE wanted to make things simple.
When it was suggested that when all operators are able to launch 4G networks, one of them might be tempted to offer it for the same price as 3G, Swantee said that by offering services around mobile, EE could differentiate itself from its competitors and maintain the premium.
“Today is just the start of the plan,” he stated. “I can’t guarantee it, but we have plans that give me confidence that in the foreseeable future we can sustain some differentiation.”
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no its not
Very reassuring! Most of my friends are laughing at the bare-faced greed. A lesson in how to throw away your advantage...
I see no point of having fast speed with so tiny and expensive data allowance. I wonder how many contracts they have sold in the past two days !! I work and living in Glasgow city centre and we have three EE stores in town, all I see is they have so many staffs standing in the shop yet few customers. Perhaps EE you should reconsider your price plan ? 3G are more than capable of doing anything, Spotify streaming almost no delay, Netflix 1-2 seconds delay.... Also add more benefits for young people like what Orange offers for under 24 yrs old ??
Im proper annoyed at this i went and bought an iphone 5 64gb on launch day from apple and now i cant even get a sim from ee to use there 4g instead ive got to take out a contract which is what i wanted to avoid in the first place buying my phone out right .what a crock of crap this is. Two word for it. Legal Extortion.
The only reason the prices are (extremely) high is because they have 1 year before competitors get some of the bandwidth UK forced them to sell
During this 1 year they will milk this temporary monopoly over 4g
They will milk it as hard as possible, and no, they don't offer anything special or premium that anyone wants
No worries, I may buy your sim for a few months if I can't wait, but you are marked and will be replaced due to your greed. Best of luck
JD