Networks like 1pMobile, IQ Mobile, Lyca Mobile and Talk Home Mobile piggyback on EE’s network for coverage.
It isn’t always necessary to be an EE customer to get EE’s coverage on your mobile phone. This is because a number of other mobile networks also offer coverage from EE.
For instance, you can access EE’s mobile signal when you’re using a SIM card from 1p Mobile, IQ Mobile, Lyca Mobile or Talk Home Mobile. That’s because the four networks piggyback on EE for coverage.
In this article, we’ll look at the mobile networks that offer coverage from EE. We’ll start by looking at the best value deals with EE coverage including SIM-only deals, unlimited data plans and Pay As You Go deals. We’ll then look at each mobile network in more detail, including the specific features and benefits they offer.
| EE Coverage: | 99% UK population coverage |
|---|---|
| Networks Using EE: | |
| 5G Coverage: |
Available in 1000+ UK towns and cities from:
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| Best Unlimited Data Plan: | £9.99/month for 6 months, then £25/month on Lyca Mobile (no contract, no credit check & 5G coverage from EE) |
| Best Pay As You Go Plan: | 1p/minute, 1p/text & 1p/MB on 1pMobile (no credit check and no need to top-up every month) |
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Overview Of Networks Using EE
Besides EE themselves, there are currently four other mobile networks that you can join to get coverage from EE. These networks are 1p Mobile, IQ Mobile, Lyca Mobile and Talk Home Mobile.
If you’re using one of these alternative mobile networks, you’ll get the same coverage as customers on EE. However, you might have different features available on your plan and there might be other benefits available (e.g. more flexibility or inclusive international calls).
The following table shows a side-by-side comparison of mobile networks that use coverage from EE:
| Mobile Network | Plans From | EE Coverage | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1p Mobile | 1p/minute, 1p/text & 1p/MB | 4G & 5G |
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| EE | £14/month | 4G & 5G |
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| IQ Mobile | £7/month | 4G & 5G | |
| Lyca Mobile | £3.99/month | 4G & 5G |
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| Talk Home Mobile | £5/month | 4G & 5G |
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SIM Only Plans
If you’re looking for a low-cost SIM-only plan, it’s worth comparing EE’s SIM-only deals to what you can get on 1pMobile, IQ Mobile, Lyca Mobile and Talk Home Mobile.
- Lyca Mobile offers one-month rolling Pay As You Go plans with 4G & 5G coverage from EE. There’s no contract and no credit check on Lyca Mobile. You can also benefit from an introductory price for up to six months.
- Talk Home Mobile also offers 4G & 5G coverage from EE.
- EE offers a choice of No Frills, Essential, All Rounder and Full Works SIM-only plans. On their All Rounder and Full Works plans, you’ll get an Inclusive Extra with your plan such as Apple Music or Netflix. EE’s cheaper No Frills plans have a maximum download speed of 25Mbps.
- 1pMobile and IQ Mobile also offer 5G coverage from EE with no credit check required.
The following table shows a selection of the best value SIM cards with coverage from EE:
| Network | Minutes | Texts | Data | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 250 | Unlimited | 1GB | £0.45 for 3 months, then £3.99/month 1 month |
| Unlimited | Unlimited | 3GB | £0.99 for 3 months, then £4.75/month 1 month |
| Unlimited | Unlimited | 20GB | £1.99 for 3 months, then £7.85/month 1 month |
 | Unlimited | Unlimited | 60GB | £5.50 for 3 months, then £12/month 12 months |
| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | £9.99 for 6 months, then £25/month 1 month |
Unlimited Data Plans
If you’re looking for an unlimited data plan, your options are currently to get a plan from either Lyca Mobile or EE.
On Lyca Mobile, you’ll pay £9.99 per month for six months to get unlimited data with 5G coverage on EE. You’ll also get unlimited UK minutes, unlimited UK texts and 100 international minutes per month.
| Network | Minutes | Texts | Data | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | £9.99 for 6 months, then £25/month 1 month |
After the first six months, the price of this plan will go up to £25 per month. However, there’s no contract and no credit check, so you can change or cancel your plan at any time. There are no speed restrictions on Lyca Mobile’s unlimited data plan. This is a special offer for new Lyca Mobile customers in November 2023.
As an alternative, EE’s unlimited data plans start from £27 per month on a 24-month contract. There’s a maximum download speed of 25Mbps on their cheapest No Frills unlimited data plan. You can upgrade this to an Essentials plan for a maximum download speed of 100Mbps. Alternatively, the All Rounder plan comes with uncapped download speeds and an Inclusive Extra for the lifetime of your contract.
| Tariff | Minutes | Texts | Data | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Frills | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited 25Mbps max | £27.00 24 months |
| Essential | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | £30.00 6 months half price 24 months |
| All Rounder | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | £36.00 6 months half price 24 months |
| Full Works | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | £43.00 24 months |
For more information, see our full guide to unlimited data plans in the UK.
Pay As You Go Plans
If you’re looking for a Pay As You Go plan with coverage from EE, there are currently three main options:
- 1p Mobile offers a traditional Pay As You Go service with no need to top-up every month. You’ll pay just 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/MB. You’ll need to top-up with at least £10 of credit every 120 days but there’s no obligation to spend it. You’ll get access to 4G and 5G coverage from EE.
- EE offers a range of Data Pack bundles on Pay As You Go. This gives you access to 4G coverage on the EE network. You won’t, however, get access to other EE customer benefits such as 6 months Apple Music.
- Talk Home also offers a traditional Pay As You Go service with no need to top-up your phone every month. You’ll pay 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/MB on this plan. You’ll need to manually opt-in every 30 days and you’ll need to use your mobile phone for a chargeable activity at least once every 90 days.
For more information, see our guide to the best Pay As You Go SIM cards in the UK.
Mobile Networks Using EE Coverage
In the following section, we’ll look at each mobile network that uses coverage from EE in more detail.
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1p Mobile
There are no regular monthly charges on 1p Mobile. You’ll just pay for what you actually use at the rates of 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/MB. Alternatively, smartphone owners can buy a one-month bundle such as 10GB data for £10 per month or 50GB data for £15 per month. One important requirement of 1p Mobile is the fact you’re required to add at least £10 of credit every 120 days. Whilst there’s no obligation to actually spend this credit, your Pay As You Go balance would simply grow over time if you didn’t use up the credit. 1p Mobile is operated by Telecommunications Management Limited which is part of the FTSE 250-listed Telecom Plus PLC group. The network has been in operation since September 2016.
For more information, see our full 1p Mobile review. |
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EE
There are four different types of SIM-only plan that you can choose from on EE: No Frills, Essential, All Rounder and Full Works. On EE’s No Frills SIM cards, you can pay as little as £14/month for your plan. This will have a maximum download speed of 25Mbps (roughly equivalent to 4G speeds):
For download speeds of up to 100Mbps, EE’s Essential SIM cards are available from £17/month. With Essentials, you’ll also get Stay Connected Data, along with Data Gifting if you have multiple EE SIM cards on your account.
EE’s All Rounder plans start from £26/month and come with a Smart Benefit for the entire length of your contract (e.g. Apple Music or Netflix). You’ll also get EE’s fastest available speeds.
Meanwhile, EE’s Full Works plan is available from £43/month. It comes with unlimited data and 3 Smart Benefits for the entire length of your contract. You’ll also get EE’s fastest available speeds on the Full Works plan.
It’s also possible to use EE on a Pay As You Go basis with no contract and no credit check. The disadvantage is that EE’s Pay As You Go Packs will only give you access to 4G coverage. You also won’t have access to benefits like Apple Music on your plan.
Alongside their SIM-only plans, EE also offers a range of 4G & 5G phones on a 24-month contract. For more information, see our guide to EE’s Pay Monthly plans. |
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IQ MobileIQ Mobile offers SIM-only deals from £7/month, with access to EE’s 4G and 5G network included. When you sign up for IQ Mobile, you’ll need to pay for the first 3 months upfront. After that, it’s a one-month rolling agreement so you can cancel at any time.
IQ Mobile offers inclusive EU roaming on all of their plans and promises “bespoke and personal service from a small expert team” based in Bath, Wells and London.
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Lyca Mobile
As a special offer for November 2023, you can get a Lyca Mobile SIM card from just 45p/month for 3 months. Some of our recommended deals include the 20GB plan (£1.99 per month for 6 months), the 100GB plan (£7 per month for 6 months) and Lyca Mobile’s unlimited data plan (£9.99 per month for 6 months). The following table shows Lyca Mobile’s SIM-only deals:
There’s no contract and no credit check, so you can change or cancel your Lyca Mobile plan at any time.
For more information, see our Lyca Mobile review. |
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Talk Home MobileTalk Home Mobile also offers low-cost Pay As You Go plans with access to 4G & 5G coverage from EE. The following table shows Talk Home Mobile’s SIM-only deals:
There’s no contract and no credit check on Talk Home Mobile. This means you can change or cancel your plan at any time. It’s also possible to get a traditional Pay As You Go plan on Talk Home Mobile. On their Penny Pro plan, you’ll pay just 1p/minute, 1p/text and 1p/MB. There are no regular monthly charges on the Penny Pro plan. However, you’ll need to manually opt-in to this plan every 30 days and you’ll need to use your mobile phone for a chargeable activity at least once every 90 days.
For more information, see our Talk Home Mobile review. |
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Other NetworksThere are also a number of very small mobile networks that offer coverage from EE. They include Ecotalk, RWG Mobile, Utility Warehouse and Your Co-op Mobile. There are also a number of specialist mobile networks for calling abroad to other countries such as CMLink, CTExcel and Vectone Mobile. Some of the other mobile networks offering coverage from EE include the following:
In the past, there were several other mobile networks that also offered coverage from EE:
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If you’re looking for access to EE’s 4G & 5G network on a Pay As You Go basis, 
At present, you can 
In the UK, 
Frequently Asked Questions
| Who uses the EE network? | In the UK, the following mobile networks offer coverage from EE:
Alongside these, there are also a number of very small networks such as Ecotalk, RWG Mobile, The Phone Co-Op, Utility Warehouse and Vectone Mobile. |
|---|---|
| Will I get the same coverage on another mobile network that piggybacks on EE? | You’ll get access to EE’s 2G, 3G and 4G network if you’re using another network that offers coverage from EE. This means you’ll be able to get a mobile signal in the same places you can get a signal from EE.
On the 5G-ready plans from 1pMobile, EE, IQ Mobile, Lyca Mobile, and Talk Home, you’ll also have access to EE’s 5G network. |
| What coverage does EE offer in the UK? | EE currently offers the following coverage in the UK:
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More Information
For more information, read our full guide on EE’s network and coverage. We also have in-depth reviews of 1p Mobile, EE, Lyca Mobile and Talk Home.
David Armstrong said:
I’ve just switched to Lycamobile which is working well but I’ve just discovered they don’t provide WiFi calling, which I need at home. Do any of the other companies using the EE network provide WiFi calling as I can’t find any information about it?
Ken replied:
Hi David,
Thanks for my comment. There’s more information about Wi-Fi Calling and 4G Calling in my full guide here. However, my understanding is that Lyca Mobile are going to launch this feature imminently, now that they’ve moved to the EE network.
Ken
Richard Driscoll said:
I’m more than a little confused about whether or not these virtual networks do actually offer the self same coverage as EE itself. For my home postcode I have looked at the 4g coverage maps for Lycamobile, RWG mobile, 1p mobile, IQ mobile and EE itself. Each map gives the information in the form of ‘signal bars,’ text, and map colours.
For the text report only EE itself says the coverage is great outdoors and good indoors; the four virtual networks say the coverage is good outdoors and variable indoors.
For the signal bars only EE gives four bars; the other four networks give only 3 bars.
The map colours are dark green for indoors/outdoors and light green for outdoors only. EE and Lycamobile show dark green while the other three show light green.
What is the explanation for all this I wonder!
I read somewhere that net all the virtual networks offer EE 800 MHz band 20 but I also read that Ofcom says that they must offer the same service.
The best I can come up with is that users of the virtual networks have lower priority than EE users so that during busy periods they may be unable to get on the network (perhaps onto band 20 which is good indoors). This might tie in with the word ‘variable’ in the description of the indoor coverage and also in the difference in map colours.
Any other explanation appreciated.
Ken replied:
Hi Richard,
Thanks for your comment. I believe some EE MVNOs don’t have access to band 20 LTE (800MHz) as this is only available to customers with a VoLTE-compatible plan and phone (VoLTE is also known as 4G Calling). Therefore, if you’re using a VoLTE-compatible phone on a network/plan that doesn’t support it, your indoor coverage may be worse than on an EE plan where VoLTE is supported.
Having said that, the 3G switch-off is about to kick off this year. As such, I expect 4G Calling to be available more widely very soon (including on the MVNOs), so the discrepancy in 800MHz coverage is likely to reduce.
Hope this helps!
Ken
Ian said:
Hi Ken
Have you looked at RWG Mobile based in Wales, only support 4G at the moment but prices look good