EE’s clearly feeling confident about a win this Sunday and is betting that its users can’t bring the whole network crashing down around its ears. From 6pm until midnight on Sunday the network is zero-rating all traffic on its data network, which for those who don’t speak “mobile network” means you won’t be charged anything for data during this six hour window.
The offer applies to anyone on EE, pay-as-you-go customers, anyone who has already used their month’s data up and people who have an allowance will all be able to use the service as much as they want, and they won’t be charged. If you’re within your allowance, anything you stream during this time won’t be counted toward your monthly use. Check out our guide to streaming Euro 2020 for FREE and watch from anywhere to see where the match is playing.
The only exceptions are EE’s MVNOs, so if you’re on Plusnet you won’t be getting free data. However BT Mobile customers will be able to take advantage of this offer. EE also points out that customers who are in “collections” will not be able to use the data for free, so you’ll need to be in good standing with the company first.
It’s certainly bold of EE to offer this to people at a time when many may well be relying on their mobile to keep pace with the game. If EE’s miscalculated this it could bring down entire portions of the network, turning a nifty publicity stunt into all kinds of fresh hell for the company.
For that reason it’s also warning that it may throttle speeds across the network if it can’t handle the amount of data being transferred. While it says you should still be able to watch the match on iPlayer, don’t expect to be able to tether your phone to a 4K TV and expect everything to be flawless throughout.
And what of EE customers who don’t care about football? Well they’ll be able use their device to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney+ while the country screams itself horse over the possibility of a rare win for the National team. Likewise, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish customers can either cheer for Italy or catch up on that box set streaming marathon they’ve been putting off.
Given that this is England’s first major final in 55 years it stands to reason this will be a big night for all mobile networks. EE said that the Champions League final in May set the previous data record for the network. It’s very likely that Sunday’s match will beat that record.
