EE looks at its call charges, hikes a bunch, walks off giggling

UK telco EE will next month hike fees for people using their phones outside their price plans, with international calls increasing as much as 60 per cent.

Under the new price plan that will come into force from 28 September, UK calls to mobiles, landlines and voicemail will increase from 40p to 50p per minute, while international calls will rise from £1 to £1.60 per minute.

In an email sent to customers, and seen by The Register, the company said: “We do try to keep price changes to a minimum. We’re committed to providing you with the best experience, such as investing £1.5million in our network every day.”

This is the first time EE has increased out-of-bundle prices in more than two years.

An EE spokeswoman told The Register:

We’re contacting our pay monthly mobile customers to inform them of some changes we are making to the cost of calls and MMS outside of their allowances from 28th September. Only a small proportion of our customers will be affected by these changes, as the vast majority of EE customers have unlimited UK calls and call charges to the EU remain the same.

Under the plans, picture messaging will also increase from 40p per image to 50p.

Earlier this year, Three also hiked up its picture messaging from 17.4p to 40p. However, the operator suggested users could get round the costs by using over-the-top services such as Whatsapp instead. ®