EE Broadband Review - Deals, TV & More

Contents

1 EE Broadband Review: Overview
2 EE Broadband Review: Packages
3 EE Broadband Review: Coverage
4 See Related:
5 EE Broadband Review: Performance
6 EE Broadband Review: Summary

EE Broadband Review: Overview

EE has been voted the best mobile network in the UK for the past 5 years running, with the fastest 4G speeds and lowest latency out of them all.

In this EE Home Broadband review we will be looking at the five different packages that EE offer and going over their coverage, customer service, reliability and more.

As well as showcasing the best EE broadband deals, making it easy for you to see the best package for you.

EE also offers some impressive EE broadband and TV deals too, which gives you access to over 70 Freeview channels plus Internet services such as YouTube and BBC iPlayer. Now TV is built into the TV box making it super easy to download a day/week pass to enjoy your favourite films or TV series.

All EE Home Broadband packages also offer 1 year of FREE Norton Security to use on a laptop or PC of your choice worth £79.99.

Switching over to EE from another provider is made extremely easy, EE does all of the work for you and even offer a £50 credit if you are still in the last month or two with another provider.

The EE broadband customer service team are great, we spoke to them for this review and they exceeded our expectations of what customer service should be here in the UK.

If you don’t already know, British Telecom (BT), meaning that their broadband services are available in most houses in the UK.

EE currently offers a 10GB Data Boost on mobile plans if you switch over to their home broadband services, this will be boosted to 20G if you opt for one of the there faster broadband packages.

Let’s take a closer look…

EE Broadband Review: Packages

EE has 5 different broadband packages for you to choose from, all come with a minimum of 10GB of mobile data completely free on your mobile phone too.

All of their plans are completely unlimited and offer a landline with them, so prices include their award-winning router, data boost and line rental.

The speeds for each package are as follows:

Offering a range from either 10MB – 300MB, EE does well to offer a service for every type of broadband user, from those who barely use the web to those who have bigger households or rely on the web for there work.

Each package offered is an 18-month contract, we found that this works really well if you are currently an EE mobile customer.

As you can see the EE broadband deals are impressive, giving you a low cost with speeds that are plenty to keep the whole family connected at all hours of the day.

This is because if you are looking to upgrade your mobile device or simply drop down to a SIM-only deal, then you can power the SIM or mobile from the FREE 10GB Data Boost that EE offer, resulting in a cheaper phone deal as well.

Especially if you are going to be opting for a higher plan, as this will give you 20GB of mobile data which is shareable through the My EE app.

There is a small setup fee required on the low-end packages, on the standard broadband you would be required to pay a £10 cost, and on the fibre package, a £15 cost would need to be taken too.

However upwards from the fibre package, there is no upfront cost required, meaning if you already have a BT line installed it will be a completely free setup fee to get EE home broadband installed.

EE Broadband Review: Coverage

With EE leasing the line from their parent company BT, this means that if you’re currently with BT then you have the option to switch to EE.

We found that the coverage for EE was generally widespread across the UK; it’s only in rural areas where you may not be able to use this ISP.

One thing we did notice is that the Fibre Max plans which are 145MB – 300MB is only available in very few areas.

Meaning if your someone who relies heavily on home broadband, then you may want to check out some of our other Home Broadband Reviews as EE may not be able to support the speeds you need.

EE does have an AVAILABILITY CHECKER which allows you to go onto their website, type in your postcode to see what speeds are available in your area.

We recommend you do this before opting for EE broadband as your area may not be able to support the speeds that you require for work or leisure etc.

For the most part, we found that most areas of the UK, especially cities were eligible for their Fibre Plus plans, which offer 67MB on average.

This is generally enough to cover the average household and is perfect for those with kids who connect up Xbox’s and PlayStations etc.

EE Broadband Review: Performance

EE Home Broadband does require the individual to take out their line rental too that comes with home phone services.

This come free with the broadband side of things but it doesn’t come with any included calls as standard.

EE does offer the option to take out call add-ons for there landline which range from £2-£10 per month.

Here are the add-ons that can be applied to the home phone services:

Weekend calls to UK landlines: £2 per month
Inclusive anytime calls to UK landlines: £4 per month
Inclusive anytime calls to UK landlines plus 1500 minutes to UK mobiles: £8 per month
Anytime UK and international calls (this includes everything in the £8 add on, plus landline calls to 50 countries and a 30% discount on landline calls to the rest of the world): £10 per month

All of these plans include calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers free of charge but calls to premium-rate numbers such as 084, 087, 118 and 09 will be subject to EE’s access charge which is currently 55p per minute.

If you do not opt for a calling add on, the standard rates are as follows:

21p call set up charge for UK landlines and mobiles
UK landline cost 13.5p per minute
UK mobile calls cost 16p per minute
Calls to 084, 087, 118 and 09 cost 11p per minute

EE offers a ‘Call Plus’ service that costs £5 per month and comes with multiple calling features and the ability to call divert, three-way call and anonymous call rejection.

EE Standard Broadband

EE’s cheapest and most basic package is their Standard Package, this is a basic ADSL2+ connection that is ideal for those who live on there own or aren’t big internet users.

It is perfect for browsing the web and downloading video, however if you are a gamer you may find that it starts to lag and won’t offer the fps (framer per second) that you would find on one of the higher packages.

This package comes with EE’s Bright Box router that has four built in Ethernet ports and a built in dual-band antenna.

The standard package gives you an average speed of 10MB, its completely unlimited and does come with the 10GB data boost on your mobile phone.

This package is ideal for those who aren’t using broadband heavily, its designed to give you the cheapest possible price whilst maintaining strong connectivity.

EE Fibre and Fibre Plus Broadband

The next step up from the Standard Package is the Fibre; this runs at an average of 36MB and is more than capable of keeping you connected even when multiple devices are hooked up to the broadband.

This package also comes with EE’s new Smart Hub; it’s an award-winning router that allows you to stay connected at each end of the house.

This is ideal for those who have loft conversions or gaming setups in the basement, the hub has several internal antennas, dual Wi-Fi bands and four Ethernet ports.

The Smart Hub also allows you to restrict certain devices access to the internet, meaning if its past 9 pm on a school night you can restrict the kid’s access to there Xbox.

One thing you should note is that because the Standard Package comes with a different router, if you regrade up to the Fibre or Fibre Plus Packages then you may be required to pay another activation fee as another router is needed to be sent out.

Fibre Plus is generally the most high performing package that is available to most of the UK, this package gives you speeds of up to 67MB and also comes with a huge 20GB data boost on your EE mobile.

This package doesn’t have a setup fee either, meaning it won’t cost a single penny to switch from your current provider as long as you currently have a BT line installed.

EE Fibre Max 1 and Max 2 Broadband

These packages are the top of the EE broadband ladder, offering fantastic speeds that were previously only seen from extending the fibre cable directly into your home.

We did find that these packages are not available in many parts of the UK, but you can use the Postcode Checker to find out if its eligible in your area.

The Fibre Max 1 offers speeds of up to 145MB; costing £40 per month on an 18-month contract this is still significantly cheaper than what you would find these speeds for with other providers.

Fibre Max 2 offers whopping speeds of up to 300MB; perfect for those who are intense gamers or work from home and need speed coupled with reliability.

The Fibre Max 2 package is up to 30x faster than the average standard home broadband, so it really will blow your socks off!

Now of course at the top end of the EE broadband spectrum both of these packages do come with the 20GB data boost and are a completely free setup fee.

That being said you’ll be lucky to find that your area will support either of these 2 packages as we tried a range of different postcode all over the UK and rarely found one that was compatible.

EE Broadband Review: TV

EE offer some impressive EE broadband and TV deals, and you can often grab yourself a great entertainment set up without too much extra cost.

EE TV gives you over 70 free channels, access to loads of on-demand entertainment and some of the best Pay TV out there.

This includes Sky Sports, Movies, Box sets and more, the TV packages are not quite as extensive as what you will find with the likes of Sky, but its plenty for those who still want the option to watch TV.

We found that the NOW TV passes are an excellent way to get the best value for money out of your TV package, as you can buy a day pass for your favourite channels without paying for it all year round.

This means that you can plan your pass around your favourite shows, so if you know you want to watch Game of Thrones for a couple of months, you can simply but a pass that allows you to watch Sky Atlantic.

Overall EE TV is strong and offers easy setup and some great channels to keep all of the family entertained.

We recommend combining EE broadband and TV to get the best deal possible, and always renegotiate at the end of your contract for a more competitive price.

EE Broadband Review: Setup

When it comes to the setup fee of EEs’ Home Broadband packages they are generally very small, providing that you already have a BT line installed.

Here are the setup fees you can expect from each package:

Standard Package – £10
Fibre Package – £15
Fibre Plus – FREE
Fibre Max 1 – FREE
Fibre Max 2 – FREE

These setup fees aren’t going to break the bank, and they are a one-off payment that is applied to the first EE bill.

EE pride themselves on how easy it is to switch from your current provider, you won’t need to contact your current provider at all, as EE do all of the leg work for you.

However, if you do not have a BT line already installed then an engineer will need to be booked in to come out to your house to install one.

The engineer fee is £50 that again is applied to your first EE bill.

EE Broadband Review: Customer satisfaction

When it comes to customer satisfaction, EE is doing a whole lot better than they were a couple of years ago.

They only have UK based call centres and the customer service ratings are strong too, with 79% of customers being satisfied with EE overall.

We called the EE broadband customer service team to have a chat with the them to gather some more information for this review, we were greeted with a local accent who spent 30 minutes on the phone with us going through the speeds, price and more.

EE really have stepped it up a notch from previous years and there EE broadband customer service team weren’t pushy on trying to get us to sign up.

We were extremely impressed by the level of customer service delivered from EE, a prime example of what you expect here in the UK.

EE Broadband Review: Summary

The EE broadband deals are impressive, and they have packages from those who rarely use the Internet to those who are working from home and gaming long periods of the day.

The fact that they offer a Data Boost on each package is incredible, especially if you are an existing EE customer for your mobile.

They offer some great EE broadband and TV deals too, meaning you can get a cheap entertainment set up without breaking the bank.

The performance for each package is strong, however, if you do have a household of 4 or more then we would definitely recommend starting off at a fibre package as 70% of there customer on the standard plan call back up to regrade to fibre within the first 6 months.

The EE broadband customer service team are awesome, we had a great chat with a nice man who gave us plenty of information on all of there packages without being pushy or rushing us off the phone.

Overall EE Home Broadband is great and offers superb value for money thanks to its data boost for your mobile

We hope you enjoyed our EE Home Broadband Review and feel free to check out our other Broadband Reviews and leave a comment.

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