After much criticism from rival networks, the combined force of Orange and T-Mobile rebranded and reemerged late last year as Everything Everywhere (the name of both firms parent company) and became the first provider to bring LTE and 4G mobile data speeds to the U.K. The Gadget Helpline, like many others, thought that this would create booming business for the newly named EE. But we were surprised today to discover that the Brits are clearly not as data hungry as expected with EE activation figures dwindling compared to the past two years.
Even a range of stunning smartphones the likes of the 4G compatible HTC One XL, Samsung Galaxy SIII, Nokia Lumia 920 and Apple iPhone 5, as well as some star backing from a former Hollywood A-Lister in an ad campaign, hasn’t brought home the bacon for EE. The Q4 (October to December 2012) figures since the time 4G came to Great Britain which became public knowledge this week reveal that the number of quarterly network activations for customers joining Everything Everywhere has actually lowered by 49,000 compared to that of Q3 (July to September 2012). Looking back even further to the same period in 2011, the 2012 number is a massive 112,000 activations below the year prior proving a large decline.
A number of mobile data users taking to forums and other online soapboxes attribute this disappointing opening season to EE’s restrictive network use and somewhat pricey data packages, whereas other networks are still able to provide the ‘near 4G’ experience for a slightly lower cost. There is also the fact that there is still a considerable lack of 4G coverage in the UK and EE looks to add a further 27 areas under its radar by this coming June.
4G or not 4G – that is the question.. Do our readers buy into super-speed mobile data hype? And have you yourself upgraded?