EE UK Finally Brings 5G Support to Pay As You Go Mobile Plans UPDATE
Broadband ISP and mobile operator EE (BT) has recently begun to inform existing customers on their Pay As You Go (PAYG) mobile plans that both they and new subscribers can finally access their 5G (mobile broadband) network, which wasn’t previously available to the plans (i.e. the best you could get was 4G, until earlier this month).
Some of EE’s customers (credits to John and Mark) reported to ISPreview that they received a cryptic text message yesterday, which said: “Great news! We’ve updated some of your network settings, please restart your phone to make sure it’s up to date.”
The message was followed-up today by another one, which clarified exactly what had changed: “Hi from EE. Great news, 5G is now included with your Pay As You Go plan at no extra cost. If your device supports 5G, just restart it and enjoy!”
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A quick search also revealed that EE had very recently added a new page about the change to their PAYG section, which provided the following details and confirmed that existing customers would be fully upgraded by 31st January 2026 (i.e. they seem to be rolling out support for it in phases).
5G on EE pay as you go mobiles
No complicated steps, no extra cost—just fast 5G when you need it. New pay as you go customers get instant 5G with a ready-to-go SIM, and if you’re already with us, you don’t need to change a thing.
Simple setup and no extra charges
Instant 5G access: If you join us after 10 December 2025, your SIM will come prepped and ready for 5G.
Existing customers: No need to switch SIMs or upgrade your plan. Once we’ve let you know that 5G is available for you, switch your mobile off and then on again, and you’ll be connected to 5G. You will have access to 5G by 31 January 2026.
No extra charges: 5G is included in your existing PAYG plan.
Same SIM, 5G as standard: Your current SIM is 5G-ready.
Nationwide coverage: Access 5G in all our supported areas across the UK.
Naturally, you’ll need a 5G supporting Smartphone to benefit, which these days are extremely common, even at the low-end of the handset market. At present, there’s no mention of 5G+ (Standalone) support, so this probably only extends to their vanilla 5G (NSA) network. Indeed, the current PAYG page for new customers mentions a “Max speed of 25Mbps“, which seems to remove a lot of the performance benefits that 5G could otherwise bring.
UPDATE 23rd Dec 2025 @ 10:11am
Credits to one of our readers (Ryan) for spotting that the PAYG plan page also mentions that “5G Calling and WiFi Calling are available on our pay as you go devices.” True 5G Calling tends to require a 5G Standalone network, otherwise some 4G may still be involved.
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Don’t know why we should be bother about BT (EE) pay as you go. EE has lost me as a customer a long way back because of stupid 4G only. This is the main reason I switch to 1p mobile for 5G.
Sorry BT (EE) not good enough in my view. Far too late.
Let’s say you are in a rural area and only B20 (800MHz) is available. That sometimes can be very slow, lower than 25Mbps. With this, you can aggregate B20 with n28 (700MHz) and get more acceptable speeds (assuming your phone can aggregate these bands, of course).
It can also be useful in a city during a busy period. Even the mighty EE struggles sometimes and having n78 available is certainly a good thing.
With this said, where EE’s 4G is always good, I agree that there’s not much point in having access to 5G NSA.
I presume you mean on PAYG phone, or you don’t have 5G where you are? If it is for a phone, do you really notice any difference between 4G and 5G? On my new phone with Smarty i can get something called 4G+, sometimes, suppose to be faster, but I have not noticed any difference. It is supposed to get 5G, but 5G around here for Three is pretty naff.
By all accounts, EE is the best around here for 5G, but unless Vodafone mucks up Smarty, I will stay as I am.
Unfortunately this will be the finish I fear of 1pmobile. Up until now it operated in a grey area it had a long negotiated contract with EE which gave 1pmobile access to spectrum no other mvno on EE had. Now here is the tech bit whilst ee pay monthly I believe operates pure 5g SA across the board. So their pay as you go been 4g and limited to 25mb ment that the mvnos like 1pmobile had access to 5g NSA which….. actually I could go on and on point is 1pmobile has until now on pay as you allowed the enjoyment of all the cloud gaming platforms at maximum available settings. Positive news is that even limited to 25mb if that can be guaranteed especially as you move around. As I see it with the upcoming freely I see these will one day be the drum beat that is IOT. 25mb is the 4k minimum I see in the UK and that is even a bit overkill as the codecs get ever more efficient. I have noticed most streaming platforms for 4k require this. 5g in any form is the way forward the battery savings. What I do not like is the I believe ability the network end to basically emulate replicate these things see above 5g calling option has vanished from most of the mvnos as it was obviously aware that it’s users hd worked out if it’s 5g NSA isn’t 5g calling an exclusive feature of 5g SA but like the hd logo on calls, yet it can be enabled by the network and then the codec can be adjusted to even lower than what it would be without. All very making way for that killer service that is coming. Imagine if you have used the service shadow which is a cloud pc or whatever you want it to be on any device app or web browser. So if you have a solid stable connection which ultimately 5g and eventually 5g SA. Its the reliability of this 25 mb that’s the question.
@KWB lol end of 1P Mobile? No… people could not care less about aggregated speeds, they care about getting a signal in the first place and 1P Mobile does that just fine, along with 50GB data and unlimited calls and texts for £10 a month with no contract. The consumer will see that more than EE’s speeds and its MUCH more expensive pricing for less being included such as text and minutes. MVNO’s offer value the main 3 providers wouldn’t dare offer, especially EE.
BT (EE) pay as you go 5G all sims only get Max speed of 25Mbps!
What the point of 5G then?
Exactly it’s like they put a speed limit on a Bugatti Veyron..
Only if you signed up after a certain date. I signed up back in 2017 and still get faster speeds.
i wish three didn’t have to share towers with EE then three would run a lot better 🙂 and EE wouldn’t get any 5g LOL
Most towers of 3 mobile are shared between EE. EE itself didn’t really suffer any disadvantages as they still managed to reform 3G to 4G without any physical upgrades unlike 3. Since the beginning of time 3 have historically shared sites under MBNL which back then is Orange, T mobile. Now is EE and 3.
I’m afraid you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the arrangement if this is your conclusion.
You don’t understand how the various flavours of RAN-sharing work, do you? (LOL)
I very much rather that EE increases their 500 minutes calls to unlimited as base standard. Most consumers probably won’t increase this amount but it will bring nice peace of mind.
If the speed is still at 25mb is this up and down. This would be satisfactory if it was and with a plan to implicate 5g SA asap and this is a much needed upgrade. It should be remembered that 5g is not allowed about that how fast but how reliable. I would prefer 25mb up down 5g SA as a national norm. This is what will eventually or maybe the 4g will become EE internet of things. Just in time for freely to cripple the UK network over the next two years. As it improves something comes along that adds more contention.
I disagree with you. 4G is easily 25Meg down and up but what the point of 5G if still max speed of 25meg? Should be max speed of 100Meg. Come on EE, you know these peoples won’t bother with EE payasyougo with speed max of 25Meg!
The point, Phil, is to be able to aggregate with 5G bands where 4G is too slow.
I understand you wanting faster speeds, but you’re assuming EE’s 4G is at least 25Mbps fast everywhere and all the time. That unfortunately isn’t the case and so this is still useful.