EE 1 Gbps broadband - new customer. Pricing. 47.99 ok? varies

planetf1

I'm looking at taking out EE broadband 1 Gbps service (I have openreach fibre already with another provider).

Until about a week ago the summer offer was 44.99 (I think, could be 45.99). I actually went to order on the last day, but it was about 2245 and the website went down - not to come back until later where the prices had gone up (annoying!). I bailed

Currently the price is 47.99, though a few months ago it was 57.99

Whilst we can't predict the future, any thoughts on how variable EE's pricing is here. Do we think we may see it lower? I'd love to see a graph of recent prices to help answer that!

I'm not desperate to switch, so black friday may be another option - what were the BB offers there like?

EE also does cashback over time. I'm not a big fan as it's not guaranteed. Quidco.topcashback are showing none currently, but my employee portal (smart spending) is showing £90. At best that's a bonus not to be replied on.

I have EE perks, but think this only applies to mobile.

I am an EE mobile customer, but the app fails (Sorry, a technical problem) on all devices/connections I've tried when trying to link through to broadband sales. Calling up so far has elicited just the standard price as per website.

I've already analyzed other suppliers. I have a short list, this is a lot about technical characteristics, the price isn't critical

Any input appreciated - thanks!

planetf1

I did some searches with wayback machine, and it looks as if 49.99 has been the price for the last year or so, other than the 44.99 I missed, occasional free month or xbox pass.

Peter999_2

Is there a reason you need 1Gbps?    Is it a work thing or do you just want the really fast speeds for downloading big files very quickly?

I currently pay £31 a month for 1Gbps with Vodafone as I'm in an area with CityFibre (the 1Gbps is up and down whereas I have a feeling you'll only get about 200Mbps up).     The contract I was in before this was £39.99 a month and the prices do seem to be steadily going down at the moment.     

I've never been with EE so can't comment on them, however, I've been with 4 suppliers with CityFibre (including TalkTalk, haha) and they were all completely fine and I couldn't really tell the difference between them apart from the customer service but obviously if things rarely go wrong you don't ever speak to them.

Is there much of a price difference between 500Mbps and 1Gbps?   if it were me and there was a difference of say £7 or £8 then I would have that instead (there aren't that many sites that deliver things at 100MB/s, only torrents really).   For some reason Vodafone is the same price for 500Mbps and 1Gbps so obviously I have 1Gbps.

jbrassy

I was going to say, do you really need 1gbps broadband? Very few people actually need those speeds. 

JSmithy45AD

If you really do need (or just want) that speed then the MSE Unbundled tool has 5 other companies all cheaper for that sort of speed. Vodafone is cheapest at just £34.55 equivalent per month.

Edit: £26.25 equivalent pcm for their 500Mbps service

Rob5342

Do you have any altnets available? I get 1gbps with Brillband for £35 a month, and Fibrehop offer 150mbps for £26 a month (both with CityFibre) 

HaroldWhistler

planetf1 said:

I'm looking at taking out EE broadband 1 Gbps service (I have openreach fibre already with another provider).

Until about a week ago the summer offer was 44.99 (I think, could be 45.99). I actually went to order on the last day, but it was about 2245 and the website went down - not to come back until later where the prices had gone up (annoying!). I bailed

Currently the price is 47.99, though a few months ago it was 57.99

Whilst we can't predict the future, any thoughts on how variable EE's pricing is here. Do we think we may see it lower? I'd love to see a graph of recent prices to help answer that!

I'm not desperate to switch, so black friday may be another option - what were the BB offers there like?

EE also does cashback over time. I'm not a big fan as it's not guaranteed. Quidco.topcashback are showing none currently, but my employee portal (smart spending) is showing £90. At best that's a bonus not to be replied on.

I have EE perks, but think this only applies to mobile.

I am an EE mobile customer, but the app fails (Sorry, a technical problem) on all devices/connections I've tried when trying to link through to broadband sales. Calling up so far has elicited just the standard price as per website.

I've already analyzed other suppliers. I have a short list, this is a lot about technical characteristics, the price isn't critical

Any input appreciated - thanks!

@planetf1

Relative to EE/BT itself, then £47.99 is a good price for the 1Gbps Full Fibre (FTTP) product. I think you could be right about the £45.99 around the time of November sales. The thing to keep in mind though is the price is for the 24 months contract with 2 price increases each year of £3 each year in April (so from April 2025 it's £50.99 and from April 2026 it's £53.99). If you work that out to get an average monthly price over the 24 months (assuming a start date of let's say 1st September 2024), you'd get an average price over the entire 24 months of £50.74 a month. 

EE/BT is the largest broadband provider by size, though isn't necessarily rated highest in terms of customer service, but has improved (from what I understand) over the years when it comes to FTTP so possibly better than Sky, TalkTalk etc. Of the "larger names", and if you want to go for a 24 months contract, the £47.99 price is a decent one, although Vodafone will sometimes be cheaper than BT.

The wholesale price of Broadband has gone down over the years. If you take the BT Full Fibre 900 product several years ago, it was in the £60 (for new customers) or even £70 range (for existing customers) on 24 month contracts with CPI increases as well. Meaning that someone who started out on a contract may well end up paying over £85 a month for broadband in their second year in contract. Whereas by that point, the "new customer" price was in the £40-50 range. Competition has increased and after a long long time the price rises based on CPI is now gone. Price rises during a contract are not completely gone yet, but that may come either when the regulator finally gets its act together or simply through market competition. There are providers offering fixed prices now. Generally speaking with FTTP, what you're looking for is good customer service and a reliable company that is going to stick around. The Alternative wholesale networks (CityFibre, B4RN etc) are often cheaper, but not nationally available, so sticking with the Openreach providers, you could go with EE (or BT) or perhaps the below 2 suggestions might be better.

If you have a property served by Openreach, you can check the highest rated (by customer service) providers on a website called ISPreview here: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top10.php

That includes those who offer 30 day rolling contracts like IDNet. Their Gigabit package is £55 a month on a 30 day rolling basis. 

By comparison, if you take Aquiss Broadband - which is on that above list in the top 6 - that's a family run broadband business just under 20 years old with excellent customer service and completely fixed prices. Even their CEO works the customer service phones himself. Their current FTTP 1Gbps product (Pure Fibre 1000) is £55 a month on a 12 months contract with the first 6 months half price (at £27.50 a month). That works out to an average price of £41.25 a month and on a 12 months contract rather than 24 months. At that point you could stay at £55 a month rolling (since the price does NOT increase after the contract ends, it stays the same), or see what offers are around on the market then.

I'd personally go for Aquiss on a 12 months contract out of those options. I do understand though that EE/BT offer other extras/discounts for certain services like TV, or EE Mobile or Games Pass etc that some might benefit from bundled together.