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EE are now offering £50 early cancellation credit if you choose to leave your current provider early and switch to EE Broadband. Just claim on the EE site after you've switched and provide evidence of paying additional fees to cancel before the end of your previous contract.
Reasons to choose EE
Fibre packages available - speeds averaging 67Mb available in some areas
Ultrafast fibre rolling out in some areas - Fibre Max 2 has an average speed of 300Mb (but has very limited availability)
Fibre products come with the cutting edge Smart Hub router with the lastest 802.11ac wireless technology
Truly unlimited broadband - you don't have to worry about how much you download each month
Free mobile data - get 5GB or 20GB free mobile data when you take a SIM and broadband plan together, or if you're an existing mobile customer with a pay-monthly or SIM-only plan
£50 early cancellation buy out for switchers - offered if you're still within your contract and want to switch to EE
Possible downsides
No standalone broadband available - you cannot get EE broadband without taking line rental from them, too
Longer contracts - EE's shortest contracts are 18 months, this may not suit your needs if you intend to move house or will only use the service at certain times of the year
Older wireless tech on standard broadband - you get the old Bright Box 1 router, supporting 802.11n wireless tech, on standard broadband deals
Annual CPI plus 3.9% price rises - prices for broadband, line, call plans and call charges will increase with the Consumer Price Index plus 3.9% in June 2021, March 2022 and then annually each March onwards
Features at a glance
10Mb average speed standard broadband, 36Mb average for Fibre and 67Mbps average speed for Superfast Fibre
12 and 18 month contracts available
Truly unlimited downloads
Free activation and equipment, or £50 new line engineer charge if you require telephone line installation
Bright Box 802.11n router as standard or 802.11ac Smart Hub with fibre
Apple TV 4K packages available for EE mobile customers
Competitive range of phone packages including inclusive mobile calling on some bundles
£50 early cancellation credit if you choose to leave your current provider early and incur exit charges when you switch to EE Broadband (must be claimed)
Sometimes the best way to get a feel for a broadband provider is to read what those who are already customers think of the service they're receiving. Below are all the reviews we've received for EE.
Ratings are left by users of our speed test as well as by reviewers. Recent star ratings summarise the last 12 months of ratings or the last 100 placed, whichever is largest.
Pathetic speeds, poor support. Basically the product is poor- hence the customer support team has nothing to help with - hence hiring or deviating
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
1 star
Speed
1 star
Reliability
1 star
A Pannu
Kingston upon thames
EE
2021-10-19
I pay for super fast fibre of around 80mps,I get 50 or sometimes lower, useless
Satisfaction
2 stars
Customer Service
3 stars
Speed
1 star
Reliability
2 stars
Gemini
South Wales
EE
2021-09-23
I have never received such bad service in my life, I was given a slot to transfer my EE broadband today from 1-6pm which, we waited at the vacant empty apartment and no one showed or even called, the guy then arrived at 6.45 after we waited 5 hours for him and we had left the vacant apartment at 6.30. The Engineer that arrived was rude and obnoxious implying it was our fault for not waiting longer and has now cancelled our session which we booked in 2 weeks ago, due to his incompetence and inefficiency. My partner and I are looking at canceling both our cell phone contracts and broadband. Disgusting service and behavior!
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
1 star
Speed
1 star
Reliability
1 star
james Saks
sw19 3aa
EE
2021-09-21
Absolutely shocking service. They advertise 1mbps upload speeds and when they turn out to not exist (given the upload is basically non-existant) they say it's not a promise.
Terrible company, don't sign a contract with them.
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
1 star
Speed
1 star
Reliability
1 star
Tom B
London
EE
2021-08-11
Average between 0.80 and 2.45mb slow beyond believe have received better service on Caribbean Islands disgusting
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
1 star
Speed
1 star
Reliability
1 star
Barry Mostran
Devon
EE
2021-07-30
We were persuaded to change to EE as it would have saved us money from our previous provider for the same service. The router was tiny and the signal was absolutely terrible. They also wouldn’t let us leave our contract so we had to get a new provider to pay out our contract. I can’t stress how bad the internet was.
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
1 star
Speed
1 star
Reliability
1 star
Alice Walker
London
EE
2021-07-16
Ee as a company don't look after their customers as I have been with them nearly 14 years as it was orange before.Trying to cut off all my contracts with them as I got three mobiles contacts and one line rental plus the broadband.
Satisfaction
2 stars
Customer Service
3 stars
Speed
2 stars
Mevin
Orpington
EE
2021-06-22
Moved here six months ago and had constant problems, apparently the line to this community is ancient and needs replacing so our speeds are rubbish and very inconsistent download speed often crashes and our neighbours told by BT that we will have to fund a new cable ourselves, so what are we paying line rental for ? a knackered old cable shared by several houses.
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
2 stars
Speed
1 star
Reliability
1 star
James Buchanan
TRURO
EE
2021-06-20
Iv been with talk talk, sky and Plusnet and I got to say EE is far better! Iv been with them over a year now and iv not had one issue, it's always been fast and never drops out! I will be staying with then in the future 100%
Satisfaction
5 stars
Customer Service
4 stars
Speed
5 stars
Reliability
5 stars
Kyle
Leicestershire
EE
2021-06-18
They just like the limit your expectations until you feel this is all you deserve.
The reviews published on this page are those of the individual authors who have warrantied that they abide by our review guidelines. Reviews are not the opinion of Broadband.co.uk.
Ofcom's latest figures on broadband complaints are out - and it's bad news for Virgin Media. The company has rocketed to the top of the list as the major broadband supplier that gets the highest rate of complaints.
The report covers January to March this year, and counted the number of complaints made to Ofcom about providers with a market share of 1.5% or more.
It shows that Virgin Media generated 33 complaints per 100,000 customers, an increase of 20 in just a year. That puts them a long way ahead - or should that be behind - the next two worst performers, with Vodafone and TalkTalk both getting 24 complaints. Vodafone had been the worst ranking provider in six of the last seven quarters. Plusnet also generated complaint levels above the industry average.
And that's not the end of the bad news for Virgin Media. They also racked up the highest complaint levels for their landline service (19 per 100,000) and their pay TV service (17 per 100,000), and were second worst for mobile (5 per 100,000) behind Three.
The biggest reason why customers complained to Ofcom about Virgin Media was failings in the broadband provider's own complaints handling system - amounting to 39% in total. A third complained about faults and issues with the service, and a further 13% about billing problems.
Industry-wide, faults, service and provisioning issues accounted for 42% of reports, followed by complaints handling and billing.
Sky and EE were the least complained-about providers, generating just seven apiece. They've been in the top two positions for the last two years. The only other provider to beat the industry average was BT, with 15.
In good news for the industry overall, the average number of complaints has more than halved over the last decade, from 40 per 100,000 in the first quarter of 2011, to 19 now. The numbers are up from a record low of 10 in Q2 of last year, perhaps in part a consequence of pandemic disruption and the increasing importance of internet access for work, school and entertainment.
Broadband complaints per 100,000 customers
EE: 7
Sky: 7
BT: 15
Industry average: 19
Plusnet: 21
Vodafone: 24
TalkTalk: 24
Virgin Media: 33
In pay TV, Virgin Media generated 17 complaints against an industry average of 6. Sky performed best with just two. For landlines, Virgin had 19 complaints, eight more than the average, and EE and Sky tied as best performers with five each.
Mobile complaints were largely flat, and at much lower levels. Three performed worst with six complaints, while Tesco Mobile, Sky Mobile and EE had just one each.
Service reliability, billing, and complaint handling are important factors you should consider when choosing a new broadband provider. Our site contains thousands of customer ratings and reviews that can give you a true feel for how each provider performs. Currently, Zen top our list for customer satisfaction.
If you aren't happy with the service you're getting from your supplier, and you're coming to the end of your contract, it's easy to switch. Use our postcode checker to find the best broadband deal available in your area today.
With the upgrade to our broadband infrastructure being accelerated, ultrafast broadband is becoming more accessible with each passing day.
So you might now be wondering, is it time to upgrade to a faster deal? But what exactly do you get, and what are the benefits to ultrafast broadband? Let's take a look.
What is ultrafast broadband?
Anything with a download speed over 100Mb can be classified as ultrafast.
There are a lot of different technologies that are able to deliver these faster speeds, including upgraded street cabinets that use the G.fast technology, Virgin Media's cable and fibre network, and the growing number of full fibre, or fibre-to-the-home, services that are being rolled out across the country.
Coverage is still quite patchy, but a majority of UK homes can get an ultrafast service from at least one provider, with as many as 59% able to get speeds of at least 300Mb.
Do you need ultrafast broadband?
While faster is very much better, the normal fibre broadband connections that most of us still use are extremely capable.
A 67Mb connection is good enough to allow you watch Netflix or Amazon Prime in 4K, and can download a 1GB file in just a touch over two minutes. You shouldn't experience too much in the way of problems, even with a fairly busy household.
But remember, your available bandwidth is divided between all the devices connected to your network. The more devices you add, the more likely you are to experience slowdowns on some of your tasks - your videos drop to a lower resolution, your downloads take longer, and so on. Ultrafast broadband reduces the chances of this happening, and the faster your connection, the less likely it gets. It allows you to connect more devices, and more people, without putting any limits on what they can do.
So while you might not have a desperate need for ultrafast, right now, there are lots of good reasons why it will benefit you.
Your browsing in general will speed up. You'll notice it especially with complex web apps like Google Docs, or photo heavy sites. You get a shorter ping rate, too, which means better online gaming.
You will experience much faster downloads. This isn't just files you're actively downloading on your laptop, but other things like those Windows 10 updates that happen in the background, video game downloads, and even Ultra HD movies you load on your Sky Q box. For reference, a 5GB file will take over 10 minutes to download on a 67Mb connection, and just 42 seconds with gigabit broadband.
Along with faster downloads, you also get much faster uploads. Full fibre broadband is symmetric, which means the upload and download speeds are the same. If you work from home, especially, this could be a huge benefit.
Ultrafast broadband is future-proof. Internet use on the Openreach network, which covers most UK broadband suppliers, more than doubled throughout 2020. Yes, it was driven in part by lockdown, but it was also the continuation of a long established trend that's unlikely to change any time soon.
In some cases, ultrafast broadband might also be your best option. Lots of rural areas, as well as new build homes, have frankly terrible options when it comes to fibre-to-the-cabinet broadband - and some don't have it at all. But full fibre is independent of the old copper-based network, so you might increasingly find that it's your best, and maybe, only choice.
Can you get ultrafast broadband?
The provider with the widest ultrafast broadband coverage throughout the country is Virgin Media. They're available to approaching two-thirds of the UK and they offer speeds up to an average 630Mb. Vodafone, EE and Sky are among the other big providers that can offer ultrafast broadband at varying speeds.
There's also a big growth in the number of specialist full fibre providers, some focussing on specific regions. These include Community Fibre in parts of London and TrueSpeed in the South West, while Gigaclear target rural areas in 22 counties across the Midlands and south of England. Coverage is improving all the time, as are the range of options available to everyone.
Are you ready to upgrade to ultrafast broadband? Use our postcode checker to find out if it's available in your street already.
EE Home Broadband Buyers Guide - Is EE right for you?
Can I get EE?
EE broadband uses the Openreach network so is available countrywide. You should be able to get it in all but the most remote areas.
Coverage extends to over 95% of UK homes, with the same service and price being available whether you're in a major city or a rural village (although speeds will, naturally, vary). Use our postcode checker to see if EE is available where you live.
EE are best known as a mobile network. You don't need to be an EE mobile customer to sign up to their broadband services, although you will get some added benefits on your phone plan if you are, such as a 5GB boost to your EE mobile data allowance. In addition, you can get good EE mobile broadband deals in our mobile broadband section.
EE was bought by BT in 2016. There are plans to merge the networks of the two companies over the next few years, starting in 2020.
What packages are available?
EE offer three core home broadband packages, with different speeds to suit your needs and budget.
Standard broadband - unlimited broadband with an average speed of 10Mb. It comes with the older Bright Box 1 router
Fibre broadband - the entry level fibre package offers unlimited usage and an average speed of 36Mb. It includes the cutting edge Smart Hub router, with fast 802.11ac performance
Fibre Plus broadband - the high-end fibre deal has unlimited downloads and an average speed of 67Mb. It also comes with the latest Smart Hub router
All three deals come on 18 month contracts, although a more expensive 12 month contract option is available for 10Mb average speed standard broadband. Line rental is included in the price - there's no option to buy without line rental - and there's no setup fee. If you're an EE mobile customer with a SIM-only or pay monthly deal you'll also get 5GB of free mobile data added to your plan each month.
You can add a call plan from around £5 per month for weekend calls. There is also the option to sign up for EE TV products. EE TV offers 70+ Freeview channels (some in HD), catch up TV, On Demand services, and the ability to watch on your smartphone or tablet.
Speeds are given as averages because they can vary depending on a range of factors such as how busy the service is (peak times such as evenings are busier than late at night) and how far you are from either your local telephone exchange (for standard) or your street cabinet (for fibre), with longer distance decreasing your broadband speed. The average speed is in fact the median, achievable by at least 50% of EE users on the same product during peak time hours of 8pm to 10pm. You can use our postcode checker to find out your likely distance from your nearest exchange, and estimate how fast your package could be (we're currently unable to give fibre speed estimates for most postcode areas, but EE will give you an accurate estimate before you sign up).
On top of these three offers, EE have two extra plans that run on the new G.fast service for ultrafast broadband. These are Fibre Max 1, with an average speed of 145Mb, and Fibre Max 2, averaging 300Mb. Both come with a bonus 20GB per month data added to your mobile plan. However, the G.fast rollout is a long-term project and coverage in early 2019 is limited to just over a million homes. The plan is to cover 5.7 million homes by the end of 2020.
Which package should I choose?
All of EE’s home broadband packages are truly unlimited, so you don't need to worry about choosing a download cap. Instead, you should focus on the difference in broadband speed - and whether it is worth paying for a faster connection.
If you're close enough to the telephone exchange to enjoy them, EE’s standard broadband speeds averaging 10Mb would be more than enough for most online activities such as using social media or e-mail, or even heavier uses like gaming, video calling or streaming TV and films, and so may be sufficient for many Internet users, especially those who live alone.
You may benefit from faster internet speeds is you do a lot of online gaming, watch a lot of streaming TV and films or regularly download a lot of large files, especially in larger households where more than one person might be doing these things at any one time. The faster speeds available with fibre also help prevent slowdown when a lot of people are using one connection - especially if these people are heavy Internet users. This can be the case for student flats or homes of large families.
Ultimately is a trade-off between cost and speed - and there is no point paying for more than you need.
The other factor to consider is whether you use your landline enough to benefit from inclusive anytime and mobile calls, or whether the standard evening landline calling option will be sufficient.
Points to consider before you choose
How far do you live from a BT telephone exchange, and will this be a problem for your standard broadband speeds?
How many people will be using your broadband connection at any one time, especially for heavy downloading, streaming video or online games?
Is the extra expense of fibre broadband really worth it for you?
Will you save money on calls by opting for the anytime and mobile calls option?
It's always good to know upfront what you'll get when signing up with an ISP so you know what you can enjoy for free, or to budget for any extras you may want.
Smart Hub or Bright Box 1 wireless router - EE broadband customers receive a free wireless router to manage their internet at home. Fibre customers receive the latest Smart Hub with the fast wireless ‘AC’ technology that enables it to provide strong coverage around your home using hyperfast speeds and the best frequencies to avoid interference from any other devices. It supports multiple devices, is quick and easy to set up, and it's backwards comparible with 'N', 'G' and 'B' rated wireless devices and wired connections. Standard Broadband customers get the older Bright Box 1 router. This supports the slower 'N' technology, although will still be fast enough to deliver your broadband service at top speed.
Nortion Security Premium - EE customers get one year’s free use of Norton Security Premium, worth £79.99, providing anti-virus tools, firewalls, and parental controls, to help you monitor your connection and keep it safe.
Biggest 4G mobile broadband network - EE were the first provider to offer 4G superfast mobile broadband in the UK and are now following suit with the rollout of their 5G network. 4G can rival home broadband speeds in some areas, while 5G is putting ultrafast broadband through its paces. Those combining their home broadband package with mobile deals can therefore benefit from high-speed broadband on the go as well as at home.
Free support by phone and online - EE offer free online support around the clock with their comprehensive guides and Ask the Community option. If you need telephone support, this is also available for free between 8am and 9pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 8pm on weekends.
What are the benefits of EE?
The benefits offered by an ISP may be what seals the deal in your decision to buy a package from them.
Wide range of mobile options - As the UK's largest mobile network, EE bring a great deal of mobile phone expertise to the table. You can get your home broadband packaged with landline deals, mobile deals and even phones themselves, all together in one convenient package. Only TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Vodafone of the big ISPs offer similar levels of mobile options with your home broadband.
Truly unlimited broadband in all areas - EE’s unlimited broadband is truly unlimited for customers, meaning you can download or upload as much as you want each month without being artificially slowed down.
Advanced technology wireless router for fibre - Fibre customers receive the cutting edge Smart Hub wireless router which supports 802.11ac connections for faster speeds over longer distances.
£50 Early Cancellation Credit - If you're still within your contract for another supplier and want to switch to EE early, just claim on the EE site after you've switched and provide evidence of paying additional fees to cancel before the end of your previous contract, and they're provide you with £50 bill credit to cover some of that cost.
TV options - When you sign up you can also choose to take the EE TV service. The basic services consists of the freely avaiable Freeview channels with a set-top box that allows you to record shows and access on-demand and catch-up services. These come through a combination of your TV aerial and your broadband service. You can augment this with subscriptions to premium channels including Sky Sports.
Vastly improved complaint levels - Having been one of the most complained about broadband providers just a couple of years ago, Ofcom data for late-2019 shows that EE now receive the fewest number of complaints among all the big providers.
What are the drawbacks of EE?
Let's face it, not everything can be perfect, and even the best deals may have a downside.
No standalone broadband - EE do not offer any standalone broadband contracts, meaning that you have to get your home broadband with phone service and line rental. This is only really an issue for those who do not plan to use a landline or do not wish to change phone provider - especially given EE’s free inclusive weekend and evening calls.
18 month contracts - EE’s contracts have a minimum of 18 months for fibre, which can be a problem for those who have short tenancies or do not want the commitment of a year-long contract. The lack of shorter deals is not necessarily a problem however, as the long contracts can be a plus to those who live in one place and do not wish to renew on a regular basis. 12 month contracts for standard broadband are often significantly more expensive than their 18 month equivalent.
Older wireless tech on standard broadband - For a standard broadband product averaging 10Mb, you'll be provided with the older Bright Box 1 router, supporting 802.11n wireless technology. This tends to have poorer range that the 802.11ac tech used in the EE Smart Hub routers and tend to achieve slower connections further from the router.
Annual CPI increases apply - Prices for broadband, line, call plans and call charges will all increase in June 2021 by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate of inflation published by the Office for National Statistics in April of that year plus 3.9%, and then will raise again on the same CPI plus 3.9% basis each March from 2022 onwards. Other prices, content and terms may also change during your contract.
