The cheapest 4G price plans

O2 and Vodafone have now launched their 4G mobile phone tariffs – although only in a handful of cities. And Three has also confirmed that it will be launching its own service in December, with 4G tariffs available at no extra cost.

Up until now, if you wanted access to 4G your only option was to go with EE (a joint venture between T-Mobile and Orange). It has been the only network with the service since October last year – a ten-month head start on its rivals.

But EE has been criticised for its expensive tariffs (one is an eye-watering £81 a month) and limiting data allowances.

So let’s take a look at what O2, Vodafone and Three are bringing to the 4G table.

O2 tariffs

O2 is rolling out its 4G service in three cities: London, Bradford and Leeds. Ten more will be in-line for the service by the end of the year.

The network provider has launched two sets of plans: three deals on a 24-month airtime contract with O2 Refresh; and three deals on O2 Simplicity, which are 12-month SIM-only contracts.

The SIM-only plans don’t come with a handset and start from £26. The O2 Refresh deals start from £22 a month – but these are airtime-only plans and require you to get a 4G-ready handset deal separately, where prices start from £10 a month.

O2’s deals come with unlimited minutes and texts, with data allowances of 1GB, 5GB or 8GB. But the beefier 5GB and 8GB deals are only available if you sign up before 31st October. Thereafter the allowances drop to 3GB and 5GB respectively.

As an incentive O2 is offering a 12-month subscription to O2 Tracks, which gives you access to the Official Top 40 songs in the UK, as well as access to priority sports videos and exclusive online gaming. O2 says the music and sports video service will use up data, but online gaming is exempt.

Vodafone tariffs

In contrast Vodafone will only launch its service in London to start with, but claims 12 cities will be up and running on the network by the end of the year.

Vodafone is offering 12- and 24-month pay monthly contracts that come with 4G-ready handsets, as well as 12-month SIM-only deals.

Those 12-month SIM-only deals start from £36 a month, 24-month plans which include a handset are available from £34 a month while the shorter 12-month version starts from £52 a month.

Like O2 all the plans on offer come with unlimited texts and minutes, and only differ by the data allowances.

Vodafone is offering 2GB, 4GB or 8GB allowances (double what is available on existing Red plans). But for the first three months of a deal customers will be given an unlimited data allowance which allows them to see how much they actually tend to use and adjust the deal accordingly.

Those that sign up or upgrade will get the choice of a free Sky Sports 1 & 2 Mobile TV streaming service or Spotify Premium membership for up to two years. They’re attractive incentives, but streaming music and live sports will count towards your data allowance.

Three tariffs

For those on the hunt for unlimited broadband there is hope from Three.

And it's no extra charge for 4G guarantee means people will be able to get unlimited data from as little as £15 a month from Three's all-you-can-eat data plan on the 12-month SIM-only deal. And because Three allows unlimited tethering you can spread your 4G service to other devices at no extra cost.

How they compare

So how do the new deals from Vodafone and O2 compare with EE? Below is a table showing how the 12-month SIM–only deals from each provider stack up.

Deal	Minutes/Texts	Data	Extras	Monthly costs
Three	200/500	500MB	None	£6.90
Three	600/5,000	1GB	None	£9.90
Three	2,000/5,000	Unlimited	None	£15
EE 4GEE 21 Plan	Unlimited	500MB	None	£21
EE 4GEE 26 Plan	Unlimited	1GB	None	£26
Vodafone Red 4G-ready SIM Only	Unlimited	2GB (unlimited for three months)	Six months of Spotify Premium or Sky Sports 1 & 2 Mobile TV	£26
O2 4G Simplicity	Unlimited	1GB	O2 Tracks for 12 months, Priority Sports, exclusive online gaming	£26
EE 4GEE 31 Plan	Unlimited	3GB	None	£31
Vodafone Red 4G-ready L	Unlimited	4GB (unlimited for three months)	12 months of Spotify Premium or Sky Sports 1 & 2 Mobile TV	£31
O2 4G Simplicity	Unlimited	3GB (5GB for 12 months if you sign up before 31st of October 2013)	O2 Tracks for 12 months, Priority Sports, exclusive online gaming	£31
EE 4GEE 36 Plan	Unlimited	5GB	None	£36
Vodafone Red 4G-ready XL	Unlimited	8GB (unlimited for three months)	12 months Spotify Premium or Sky Sports 1 & 2 Mobile TV	£36
O2 4G Simplicity	Unlimited	5GB (8GB for 12 months if you sign up before 31st of October 2013)	O2 Tracks for 12 months, Priority Sports, exclusive online gaming	£36
EE 4GEE 41 Plan	Unlimited	8GB	None	£41
EE 4GEE 61 Plan	Unlimited	20GB	None	£61

4G battle

O2 and Vodafone seem to have the edge when it comes to 4G packages for now, but two factors might let them down.

Neither O2 nor Vodafone can support the iPhone 5 on their frequencies, leaving EE as the only provider that can.

But EE’s iPhone’s exclusivity will fall away when the new model is launched and with similar handsets available across the three network providers, for some choosing a 4G plan the decider will be network coverage.

EE has had a while to build up its coverage to nearly 100 towns and cities, while Vodafone and O2 will at launch only be able to cover one and three respectively.

But Vodafone and O2 seem determined to battle for customers, and aren’t about to go down without a fight. As well as incentives and slightly more data, both are offering to break some line rental contracts early and shoulder some of the cost.

O2 will pay 25% towards customers’ remaining line rental if they want to move mid-contract, which for those with a 4G-ready device makes the switch onto an O2 Refresh airtime contract much easier. Existing O2 Refresh contracts will allow you to upgrade at no extra cost.

O2 suggests trading in your old handset using its O2 Recycle service, where customers can get up to £300 to help pay off the remainder of their existing contract, or to put towards their next 4G-ready device.

Elsewhere any customer on a Vodafone Red deal can upgrade to the Red 4G-ready plan for an extra £5, giving them access to Spotify or the Sky Sports deal as well as double the amount of data they already have without having to sign up to a new contract. You just need to have a 4G compatible device.

And Vodafone has a special 4G Promise. Customers that have bought an iPhone 5 or a Samsung Galaxy SIII from Vodafone from September or October last year can bring them back and get 75% off the remaining cost of the plan as well as a new 4G-ready phone. The offer lasts until 31st December.

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