Well firstly they do have half the spectrum in use for 4G so half the speeds is really to be expected. They also specifically say they weren't going for speed (and weren't advertising speed) but rather consistency of service.

That's exactly what they did

They put on more call centre staff. More call centre staff costs more money and are giving you the option to pay extra to use them.

To be fair I'd rather they give me the option to pay extra to get the benefit of extra services (in this case call centre staff) than have it bundled into a flat rate that I pay for nomatter whether I want it or not (like unlimited calls on a 4G plan when 4G can't even make calls)

In fairness the lower speeds are to be expected because they are using only 2x10MHz of 800MHz instead of 2x20MHz of 1800MHz. For coverage in fairness even though it is 800MHz EE still likely have more fill in coverage for 4G up by now in major areas where as Vodafone/O2 haven't had time.

I do agree with you about Vodafone and EE elite CS line being free for 4G customers.

Sky is free from a Sky phone, BT is free from a BT phone, Npower my energy company have an 0800 number and an 0300 number for mobiles so it comes out of your allowance. Every mobile network's contract support is free to my knowledge.

Charging when you are paying over £40 a month to EE is a shocker, wait in a call queue or pay us more and we'll support you better. The desire should always be to give customers the best support you can, especially your high value 4G customers that are paying extra.

If you are going to charge just charge, but when a customer is being forced to hold trying to get more money out of them to actually help you is a kick in the teeth.

i take back what i said!

just phoned them and they wanted me to pay 50p to speak to customer service!

i no its only 50p but when you pay £50+ a month, its a bit of a kick in the teeth.

Hilarious, having to pay for customer service that is usually crap....so glad i'm free of them

Its a trial for 8,000 customers only.

For £42 a month I would expect to be retarded!!

Every time I have called them on 150 which is free I normally get a UK customer advisor or failing that somebody from South Africa which I don't mind as many in SA English is a native language anyhow.

However EE do have problems with demand during evenings and weekends and at times you wait for 20 minutes on the phone and you are cut off with a message stating they cannot connect you.

That is being addressed as we speak.