Mobile operator EE said Britain’s first 4G service will cost from 36 pounds ($57.72 or R499) a month under a pricing strategy designed to lure smartphone customers to its superfast network before rivals are able to launch competing products.<\/p>\n
Chief Executive Olaf Swantee said the company’s tariffs, which range from 36 pounds for 500MB of data to 56 pounds for 8GB, were about 10-20 percent more than for equivalent 3G plans. He said it was a small premium to pay for up to five times faster connections.<\/p>\n
He declined to say how many customers the group, owned by France Telecomand Deutsche Telekom, expected to switch to 4G, which launches in 10 cities on October 30.<\/p>\n
But he said EE had decided not to price 4G at the high premium seen in some other European countries.<\/p>\n
“Our business model is more built around a fast adoption of 4G services … because of our whole tariffing structure and tariffing strategy and because the UK in general has a big appetite to move to new technologies,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n
EE, which leads the British market with about 27 million customers, is able to roll out 4G before its rivals because the regulator has allowed it to re-use existing spectrum.<\/p>\n
Telefonica’s O2, Vodafone and Three will have to wait until next year to obtain the spectrum they need for their own 4G offers.<\/p>\n
Swantee said the new service had already attracted a lot of interest from corporate customers, which currently provide just 14 percent of the group’s revenues.<\/p>\n
“We have a big opportunity on the back of a better, stronger, bigger 3G network, and being the first with 4G to get us into some new large accounts,” he said.<\/p>\n
Companies wanted fast mobile broadband so they could offer video conferencing and other business applications to workers, he said.<\/p>\n
EE, previously know as Everything Everywhere, said it was spending tens of millions of pounds on publicity for the launch, including a television campaign fronted by film star Kevin Bacon, that will first air during the “X-Factor” on November 3.<\/p>\n
All of the 24-month price plans available to consumers include unlimited calls and texts, the company said, although none includes a free smartphone, a stance taken partly to reduce fraud rates.<\/p>\n
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