News - Everything Everywhere 4G pricing unveiled

[HEXUS]

Unlimited data? Don't make us laugh!

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[Raz316]

Two things...

1) Everything Everywhere is such a dumb name. I'm sure it's a calculated decision based on years of market blahsearch and stats and blah blah blah, but honestly... it's dumb.

2) How are these data charges not considered price fixing? The running costs for such bandwidth can't be anywhere near that.

[Biscuit]

Laughable really. Suppose thats what you get when you are the only player in the market though, i would have thought the sensible move would be to wait until the other networks have caught up.
3G aint all that bad anyway really, most of the time im connected to wifi so it barely matters!

[CK_1985]

Wowzer, that's seriously expensive... No way I'm going to be early adopting 4G then!

On the plus side, the Lumia 920 is listed as being slightly cheaper than the Galaxy SIII - that's good news for me since I really want the 920 but was worried it was going to be insanely overpriced.

[Saracen]

....

2) How are these data charges not considered price fixing? The running costs for such bandwidth can't be anywhere near that.

Price fixing is nothing to do with the relationship between the cost of materials and the price charged to customers. It's about two or more players in a given market colluding to, in short, abuse market power.

In short, if several suppliers of a service, or buyers of a product (like supermarkets) privately agree on what they'll charge (or pay suppliers), it's price fixing, but if they independently decide to charge high prices for a premium product, it's not.

For instance, I invent the world's most desirable techno-widget, everyone wants one and to get one, they have to buy from me. And I charge £1000 for a device that costs me £10 to make. That might be excessive profit-making, but it isn't price fixing. Your choice, in short, is pay up or do without.

If, on the other hand, three of us are all capable of making and supplying, and we agree privately to charge £1000, that is price-fixing, because it's anti-competitive.

New stuff, be it services or products, or both, are nearly always expensive when they come out, because, first, there's a lack of competition, and secondly, because there's a cadre of early adopters that'll pay silly money, either because they gain more in value (like business opportunities, or because they've more money than common sense and want the pose value.

Anyone remember what the first generations of mobile phones cost when they came out? And what competition did to those prices?

I agree, those prices seem excessive, but some people will pay them, and others will wait. Price-fixing? Don't see it myself? Greedy exploitation of a brief-ish period of market power due to temporary monopoly? Probably.

[Saracen]

.... Suppose thats what you get when you are the only player in the market though, i would have thought the sensible move would be to wait until the other networks have caught up.
....

Or .... milk it while you can, 'cos it won't last forever.

Very bad PR, though.

[jimbouk]

We should play the overly capped broadband game - how many seconds downloading at peak speed on a LTE phone would it take to eat all of your 500MB limit?

[3930k]

I need a £20-a-month plan...

[crossy]

Laughable really. Suppose thats what you get when you are the only player in the market though, i would have thought the sensible move would be to wait until the other networks have caught up. 3G aint all that bad anyway really, most of the time im connected to wifi so it barely matters!

That's pretty much my opinion - I'm not even considering a shift to 4G until Voda, O2 and especially Three have had their products in the market for a good few weeks.

I'd be interested to see what the relative uptake of each device would be after, for example, two months. From my experience the folks that are most gung-ho to go 4G also happen to be iPhone owners. And no, I'm not accusing iPhoners of "having more money than sense" or similar.

£36/month for a "mere" 500MB is far too rich for me, so I'll definitely be "slumming it" with mere 3G for the forseeable - especially if the availability of 4G forces the prices of 3G downwards.

[burble]

It's EE now, not Everything Everywhere.

Depending on what employee friends and family discounts are available I might switch but that's not been announced yet. As it stands I won't. I'm paying £36/month for unlimited data on T-Mobile and although I rarely use more than 500Mb I'd want a higher cap before switching and I don't need/want 4G bad enough to want to pay more each month.

[Nabobalis]

We should play the overly capped broadband game - how many seconds downloading at peak speed on a LTE phone would it take to eat all of your 500MB limit?

About 2-3 minutes.

[circuitmonkey]

This is all a moot point as I will not have access to 4G where I'm living at time of launch, so hopefully by then the prices will come down.

1) Personally I don't think these prices are THAT bad, have to remember that this is also for 'unlimited' calls and texts.

2) Shame they gave no indication of the Nokia 920 price, that's the phone that I'm really interested in.

3) I've yet to use more than my 500MB a month on my mobile contract (without tethering)

[Raz316]

Price fixing is nothing to do with the relationship between the cost of materials and the price charged to customers. It's about two or more players in a given market colluding to, in short, abuse market power.

Yeah I understand that, but I figure the only way any company could possibly justify such prices is with the cost to them for providing the service. It's disgusting, but it's easy money for all companies if they all stick to it.

[CK_1985]

...
2) Shame they gave no indication of the Nokia 920 price, that's the phone that I'm really interested in.
...

On the EE website it says 'from £19.99'. Given that this is £10 less than the 'from' price for the SIII, you can pretty much work out what the 920 prices will be.

[Spud1]

Glad to see pricing FINALLY released - and it's roughly what I expected. Expensive, but not unaffordable...

I'll be signing up to the 3GB plan as soon as I can, which will be on the 30th I guess. That is assuming that I can get the Lumia 920 of course - since there isn't really a viable alternative out there at the moment..but you know the most annoying thing? EE let orange customers upgrade without penalty if you are within the first 6 months of your contract. I am in my 13th month of a 24 month contract, so I won't qualify for this offer! Could make it more expensive than I would ideally like - but I need a new phone anyway since mine is on the way out and they won't fix it under warranty ;/

Kicker will be what is the price with the Lumia 920. What I am expecting is..£46/month for the contract, around £100 for the phone, and probably around £120 in disconnection fees after I barter with Phones4U. I am OK with that, as I saved up some money for the iPhone 5 and then decided against buying one..but if it's going to be much more than I will have to reconsider. Based on the "From £29.99" on the EE site though I might be in an even better position if I can negotiate that down to £FREE from P4U.

P4U may be an awful company to deal with but they do offer the best prices on the high street in my experience..hate to use them but even with their problems, they are easier to deal with than an online phone retailer if somethign does go wrong.

Still, looking forward to next week now


edit: price fixing? Not at all, but they will be higher than we'd all like (and certainly higher than 3G) until the market opens up - at the moment there is a first mover advantage, and the usual early adopter premium as with any new technology. You either pay a bit more up front and be a beta tester for the networks (but get it first), or wait 12 months and pay £5 a month less. They could easily have charged even more and started at £40/mo with 500mb and got away with it at this point!

[madmaca]

Isn't it cheaper to buy your iPhone 5 or Galaxy S3 LTE on Orange and then migrate to EE afterwards? Or have I missed something?