Mainy1129

I have our families phone contracts with the newly formed EE , Im advised these are now in US too , is this correct.

As I have 5 phones and an IPAD on contract im concerned when we move to US we will have a huge bill for ceasing contracts early unless of course EE has a US presence, any advice gratefully recieved

C

Jerseygirl

I remember having to pay to the end of my contract but that was mid 1990's. Maybe your company will help you with the cost of cancelling the contracts. It's all these unseen costs that make moving to another country so much more expensive than originally thought isn't it?

Bob

EE?

Some folks have been able to get out of the cancellation fee by showing the service isn't available in the new location.

Chances are if there is a US subsidiary, it'll be separate to the UK company, so might be worth a punt.

If that doesn't work, well that's the game you play signing a contract...see if your company will eat the cost as part of the relocation costs.

dlake02

EE is a UK branding/joint-venture. There is T-Mobile in the US, but that is T-Mobile US, a partly-owned subsidiary of T-Mobile. Some pretty archaic, draconian and protectionist laws ensure there are very few "foreign" owned companies in the US.

Orange (the other half of EE) haven't made it here at all - interestingly, they did used to own part of Voicestream, but couldn't make a go of it because the US government wouldn't let Hutchinson own more than about 20% of the company (and hence they couldn't control it). That 20% was by a special waiver - the foreign ownership cap is usually much lower for media companies.

They sold out to... T-Mobile USA.

The result of those laws in the US is that competition is you will find handsets are more expensive and limited in range, tariffs higher and coverage worse with less choice of operator than you are used to in Europe.

LinkTen

If you're actually with EE (and not Orange or T-Mobile)

EE offer 'roaming' for £5 extra per month. Switching to or adding roaming to your plan allows unlimited calls and texts in the US to other US numbers, UK and all of Europe. You can remove items from your account so the £5 is covered, resulting in the roaming costing you nothing (i.e. dropping from 8gb data to 5gb).

Plan details are here.

If you're with Orange or T-Mobile (who just use the EE logo)

You're SOL.

snufkinette

I'm in the same boat, my contract is until Nov 2013 and we should hopefully be moving by May.

These are the terms and conditions from when i signed up

terminating your Contract because Orange is no longer able to provide access to the Network
4.4 If, for reasons beyond our control, we are no longer able to provide the Services, we will at our discretion either:
4.4.1 make arrangements for you to be supplied with equivalent Services by another network at no extra cost to you, or
4.4.2 accept written notice from you that you wish to terminate your Contract. In such cases we will refund any pre-paid Charges that have not been used up.

Therefore it is beyond their control and they are unable to provide a service, ergo there is no penalty for cancelling the contract.

LinkTen

Surely there is a clause that this is only applicable within the United Kingdom? Otherwise people would simply get a free phone simply because they're moving abroad.

Phoodilicious

We had to continue paying our monthly fee on two iphones for 18 months to Orange (or the lump sum equivalent). I called them to explain that I had been asked to move to the USA by my company and there was no way where they going to let us off the remainder of our contracts even if we returned the 6 month old handsets etc. Then on arrival in the USA with no credit history here etc we had to pay $400 deposit on each handset! We did get the deposits back in full 12 months after we got the contract and without even having to ask for them back.

GeoffM

Services: Network and other Services, including Orange Additional Services, provided or procured by us for you to use.

Network: the electronic communications system by which Orange makes Services available in the United Kingdom.

Nice try.

stuexeter

This post should have been added on my log on, not my wife's!

richbogle84

Why didn't you get your iPhones unlocked by Orange before moving, and use your six month-old iPhone handsets when you arrived in the states? Surely that would have been cheaper, and avoided the $400 deposit

My wife and I are hoping to move to the states in the summer [visa pending] and take our UK iPhones with us. Admittedly we're now both on 'rolling contracts' so we won't face any contract termination costs, but we're hoping O2 will unlock our phones so we can take them in the states. Then we'll simply need to set up a service-only contract with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc when we get to America.

Is there any reason this won't work, or has anyone tried this before?

Many Thanks,

Rich.

civilservant

You can forget Verizon and Sprint, they are CDMA networks (ie No SIM cards in phones)

In terms of service only, T-Mobile are reasonable but large swathes of their network are not fully 3G, only Edge.

Ray

'Unlocking' your cellphone will be illegal starting Saturday


http://news.msn.com/science-technolo...rting-saturday

civilservant

I dont believe this would stand up in court - unless there are specfic provisions to allow you to do so at the end of your contract. Otherwise you effectivly tying someone into using one provider forever unless you change the phone, which is inherently anticompetitive.

richbogle84

Thanks, I wasn't even aware that something like this was coming into effect!! That said, I'm reading it to mean that it would be illegal for AT&T to unlock my phone for example. If however I arrive in america with a phone that has already been unlocked by O2 in the UK, then I doubt it's illegal for AT&T to provide me with service

That said, I could be completely wrong on all of this!

Rich.