Please can someone explain EE

SoundboxSoundbox Posts: 6,240
Forum Member
I have two phones, one is left at work and one for out and about and home. One is Orange, the other T-Mobile.

Now I get texts from T-Mobile and Orange, see EE on the mobile internet screen and on the shop fascia. The Orange and T-mobile shops have closed.

Going online I see Orange are showing their Dolphin and other plans as before - same with T-Mobile.
So what is it - are the services both the same but with still 'old' branding or are they still different entities?

Are the call costs the same?

Thanks for any help.

Comments

  • eljmayeseljmayes Posts: 1,096
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    They are essentially still the same two entities as they were before. Apart from coverage sharing, not much has actually changed with the two networks since the "rebrand".
  • Prof-xProf-x Posts: 297
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    Unfortunately what you have identified is a shareholder slanging match on how they take the brand forward.

    Tmobile and orange merged a year or so ago so cut costs by sharing masts (i.e. so they didnt have to erect new masts) and share costs of upgrades.

    EE was the branding chosen to run with for the merged companies and their initial offering was 4G contracts.

    Confusingly they converted all the tmobile and orange stores to EE branding and also changed the network operator symbols on peoples phones too (afaik).

    Last time i read the news about this, it was being discussed wether orange and t-mobile will continue offering native name contracts. I think the next step is to sell only EE branded contracts.

    I admit it is all a bit messy. Essentially for now you will still deal directly with the company you are signed up with. Despite the EE high street branding and mobile symbol branding it will still essentially be administered separately. Network sharing will still be in place.

    Eventually t-mobile and orange contracts may cease and only new contracts will come from EE.

    I think they decided to use their retail space on the highstreet and the top of peoples phones to push their new EE 4G brand, purely as an up sell to 4G opportunity. It's just confusing the the 10m+ people who are on the old name contracts.
  • finbaarfinbaar Posts: 4,818
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    They all use the same infrastructure but offer different experiences. So EE are supposed to be the premium service, Orange give you lots of extras and T-Mobile are for cheapskates like me. It is just a way for EE to capture more market share, they could have quite easily merged everything into EE.
  • SoundboxSoundbox Posts: 6,240
    Forum Member
    Thanks for the explanations - all the things that the company websites don't tell you but are important to understand.
  • mikey86ukmikey86uk Posts: 5,657
    Forum Member
    And there rubbish.
  • The Lord LucanThe Lord Lucan Posts: 5,054
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    mikey86uk wrote: »
    And there rubbish.

    *They are

    For you in your location & in your opinion.

    Quite easily the best at my home location and the locations I travel to in the UK, but that is only my opinion...
  • heskethbangheskethbang Posts: 4,280
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    From a purely aesthetic point of view, EE has a lousy logo. The most elegant and most recognisable symbol has to be the Orange logo. I'd have kept that personally.
  • The Lord LucanThe Lord Lucan Posts: 5,054
    Forum Member
    New technology, new logo and a new company.

    They didn't just want it as a bolt on option like O2 have said they are going to or like some of the Euro networks already do. Seeing as they have the highest uptake of 4G to date across Europe i think they are doing the right thing. I don't think Kevin Bacon will last much longer but a new set of adverts are due with more playing on his surname... <roll eyes>

    The Turquoise & Yellow combo with the Nobblee typeface was chosen due marketing or should i say buying psychology. On the online media and adverts it goes further (with the dots etc) to show the layers of a network. Sounds daft but it works.

    I agree that the Orange logo/brand was the groups strangest asset and the past "Futures bright" campaigns were catchy and still stick in the mind.
  • QuackersQuackers Posts: 4,830
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    From a purely aesthetic point of view, EE has a lousy logo. The most elegant and most recognisable symbol has to be the Orange logo. I'd have kept that personally.

    One of the worst things about EE is their logo/brand and choice of colours, VILE comes to mind and was one of the reasons i originally went T-Mobile instead.
  • mikey86ukmikey86uk Posts: 5,657
    Forum Member
    *They are

    For you in your location & in your opinion.

    Quite easily the best at my home location and the locations I travel to in the UK, but that is only my opinion...

    Sorry for the grammer :rolleyes:

    oh, i get signal etc etc, but customer service is shocking and for the cost its not worth it, but the last part is my own fault.
  • Zee_BukhariZee_Bukhari Posts: 1,335
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    EE is a disgrace.

    Customer service is the worst I've ever experienced and from more than one representative, the signal was the worst I've experienced (4G) and speeds were shockingly slow when compared to Ultrafast in several locations I visited in London.

    Prices are sky high and they want to put them up further, have they not noticed customers don't want to sign up, the ones who are signing up are customers they already have through Orange & T-Mobile, where they are being tricked into switching, I know I was lied to when I cancelled my mobile wifi.
  • The Lord LucanThe Lord Lucan Posts: 5,054
    Forum Member
    EE is a disgrace.

    Customer service is the worst I've ever experienced and from more than one representative, the signal was the worst I've experienced (4G) and speeds were shockingly slow when compared to Ultrafast in several locations I visited in London.

    Really? I found Three data dire (just over 1mb most of the time) anywhere in west and central London only a week ago. Saying that EE 3G was about the same!

    However i was getting consistent 20+ speeds with 4G (iPhone 5 on latest carrier update)
  • enapaceenapace Posts: 4,303
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    Really? I found Three data dire (just over 1mb most of the time) anywhere in west and central London only a week ago. Saying that EE 3G was about the same!

    However i was getting consistent 20+ speeds with 4G (iPhone 5 on latest carrier update)

    I'm guessing the 4G is taking the load. I hope we don't get to the point where people have to be on 4G just so they can get half decent speeds. 1Mb is awful I haven't had that slow a connection for ages.
  • The Lord LucanThe Lord Lucan Posts: 5,054
    Forum Member
    I don't think it is Backhaul. There were a good few sites out in London getting upgrades in a grit and bare it style mass upgrade. Think it just finished, calls & texts were ok.

    London is a hard city for the networks. Much like NYC/Berlin/Paris until recently had dire speeds, slow cell switch overs and call fails.

    A quick look at Vodafone's issues in London shows it's easy to get it wrong.
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