Personal Fair Usage - EE 4G LTE Essentials Unlimited - Contract Issues

WattNext

Quoted from: EE Pay Monthly Plan Terms and Price Guide. Effective from 10 April 2024

Unlimited Data Plans
50GB fair usage policy applies outside UK. Personal, non-commercial use only. If you regularly tether 12 or more devices, we will consider this non-personal use and have the right to move you to a more suitable plan. We will consider usage above 600GB/month to be non-personal use and have the right to apply traffic management controls to deprioritise your mobile traffic during busy periods or to move you to a business plan. You can gift up to 100GB. Data usage on an unlimited plan will decrement from giftable allowance. Any data boost allowance will be added to the giftable allowance.

Personal Plans are limited to 12 or less tethered devices. Business Plans are limited to less than 50 lines or devices. When the above says "we will consider this non-personal use and have the right to move you to a more suitable plan" there are no such plans available. This is unfair.

When the above says "or to move you to a business plan" this is not possible because the signup process requires proof of established business namely:

• Bank statement / credit card statement or letter from bank (dated within the last 3 months)
• Company Utility Bill
• Cheque Book

This is unfair.

Nowhere in EE's Terms or elsewhere is there a mention of routers which in theory can connect 250+ devices to the internet. Connecting a router is only within terms if the number of devices is less than or equal to 12. EE knows how many devices are connected because they can see their MAC addresses.

With nowhere to go, router customers must suffer applied traffic management controls which deprioritise mobile traffic during busy periods accompanied by slow connection speeds.

Well, actually there is somewhere to go: BT/Openreach maintained full fibre networks or if they are not available Starlink or other satellite networks at considerably more cost.

Why is there no middle ground between 12 devices and fifty lines or devices when a home these days with Alexa and other IoT devices see counts approaching 30?

user1977

Given you're posting here, I presume you're asking whether this breaches any consumer rights? I don't think it does, if the limits are stated upfront. The limits don't need to extend to every conceivable consumer scenario.

Browntoa

I think a tethering limit of 12 is very generous as it goes for the average family 

Olinda99

12 devices and 600 GB sounds very very generous to me !

On-the-coast

600 GB - probably adequate for a family of 4 - but easy to exceed with several HD tv streams. And intermittent PC or iCloud backup / download could easily wipe that out during occasional months. 

12 devices is problematic. In my family (adult children still just at home) all of us have a pc, a tablet and a phone.  That’s 12 devices right away.  In reality there are at least 20 devices regularly connected to my mesh WiFi. 

Olinda99

you say it is unfair but basically what they are saying is that for £x a month (whatever you are paying) you can get 600 GB and 12 devices

if you want more you'll have to pay more

Grumpy_chap

On-the-coast said:

600 GB - probably adequate for a family of 4 - but easy to exceed with several HD tv streams. And intermittent PC or iCloud backup / download could easily wipe that out during occasional months. 

12 devices is problematic. In my family (adult children still just at home) all of us have a pc, a tablet and a phone.  That’s 12 devices right away.  In reality there are at least 20 devices regularly connected to my mesh WiFi. 

Just to be clear, though, is the EE plan that the OP refers to a mobile plan or a land line / fibre plan?

I read it as a mobile plan in which case, tethering 12 or more devices is probably a lot.

born_again

Given a few do not allow tethering at all on mobile contracts.

400ixl

Essentials is a mobile plan rather than a 5G broadband plan I believe.

user1977

Grumpy_chap said:

On-the-coast said:

600 GB - probably adequate for a family of 4 - but easy to exceed with several HD tv streams. And intermittent PC or iCloud backup / download could easily wipe that out during occasional months. 

12 devices is problematic. In my family (adult children still just at home) all of us have a pc, a tablet and a phone.  That’s 12 devices right away.  In reality there are at least 20 devices regularly connected to my mesh WiFi. 

Just to be clear, though, is the EE plan that the OP refers to a mobile plan or a land line / fibre plan?

I read it as a mobile plan in which case, tethering 12 or more devices is probably a lot.

Yes, 4G in the subject line. And while it's obviously possible to have 12+ devices in a house (or rack up 600GB in a month), I would expect that's still well above the average. It doesn't feel unreasonable as a limit.

WattNext

user1977 said:

Given you're posting here, I presume you're asking whether this breaches any consumer rights? I don't think it does, if the limits are stated upfront. The limits don't need to extend to every conceivable consumer scenario.

GenX thanks for taking the time to reply and you are of course right in what you say however, there are some issues with the wording of the terms. They say "or to move you to a business plan", this is a unilateral declaration that EE  can do this. The reality, and I have this from a reliable source, is that this is not the case. On application to EE Business, the process is called Change of Ownership, they will send a form to be completed. The form requires:

Proof of business (which shows the Business Name, or ‘Trading As’, or that it’s for a business account):

• Bank statement / credit card statement or letter from bank (dated within the last 3 months)
• Company Utility Bill
• Cheque Book

Plus a covering letter.

Another issue arises when they say " If you regularly tether 12 or more devices, we will consider this non-personal use and have the right to move you to a more suitable plan." The reality is there are no such plans that accomodate 12+ connected devices. On both counts there is room for better and clearer wording within the Terms.

With customers having nowere to go, EE can contractually do whatever they like and have the right to apply traffic management controls to deprioritise ones mobile traffic during busy periods. Indeed, if one researches this on the likes of forums like EE Community, there is a great deal of dissatisfaction on the part of customers about the sudden onset of persistent low speeds and EE staff are at a loss to explain why. Research shows that EE are unlikely to disconnect instead they will slow speeds to less than 10Mbps.

A more likely reason for poor or slow connections is that automation operating within BT or EE infrastructure is automatically applying traffic management because the terms of service have been breached as a result of the MAC address count.