“EE’s decision to offer both a relatively lower-priced tariff at the entry level and a plan with more data at the top end is clearly in response to customer feedback. More importantly though, it is a pre-emptive strike aimed at its competitors who are soon to launch tariffs of their own once the long-overdue auction of 4G licences is completed.
“It’s fair to say that EE has attracted a fair degree of criticism not so much for the price of the 4G tariffs, but rather on the amount of data bundled at each level. EE was always going to have a difficult role to play being the first mover. However, its peers may be grateful for attempting to move away from an all-you-can-eat world for data to an attempt to monetise it. Offering a more generous (but capped), data allowance for ‘super-users’ is still consistent with that pragmatic move.
“Trying to convince consumers to buy into something they haven’t yet seen or had experience of is a difficult task, and is further complicated by EE’s desire to both make the most of its headstart over the other mobile operators, and to clearly differentiate the 4G offering from the rest of its offering. In the end it has gone for the middle ground and priced services at a premium but not at levels completely inaccessible to the mass market.”