EE 4G network goes live in the UK TODAY

Finally! After having its heels dragged by regulators and networks alike, today smartphone owners here in the UK can access a faster, more consistent mobile internet service through EE’s 4G network, which is now live.

EE has allowed people to sign up to its new service over the past few weeks, but today marks the official launch of the new 4G mobile internet service here in the UK.

All contracts go on sale from today (Tuesday 30 October), with all data plans also coming with unlimited SMS messages and calling minutes. All contracts are 24 months long, and all handsets but the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE require an upfront cost for the hardware itself.

Prices are as follows:

SIM-only 4G plans (which launch on November 9 and last only 12 months) are as follows:

Lets break it down by handset. The Huawei Ascend P1 LTE then is the only EE 4G phone that you can get for free, but requires that you get on the £41 a month 1GB plan. You can get the Samsung Galaxy S3 for £29.99 on a £46 a month contract that bags you 3GB of data, which isn’t too much more than 3G contracts. Similarly, £49.99 for a 16GB iPhone 5 on a £46/3G a month contract isn’t far off of 3G prices.

Other handsets, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note II and HTC One XL are also available through EE’s 4G plans. Click here for full pricing breakdowns.

If you have already pre-purchased a 4G-ready handset from EE’s subsidiary networks Orange or T-Mobile, all you’ll have to do is pick a new 2-year contract from EE and they’ll sort out the details for you to swap over.

If blazingly fast mobile broadband speeds aren’t enough to grab your interest, EE are also launching other services to go along with their plans. Clone Phone is a comprehensive, tiered insurance coverage option, backing up phone data and contacts and at the most expensive tier offering 24 hour handset replacements for lost phones. Then there’s EE Films, which will tie into existing offers like Orange Wednesdays, as well as offering reduced rate rentals of over 700 movies, starting at 79p a go.