As this is not intended to be a 4G product, you've probably found a configuration loophole that EE will close fairly quickly. It may be a limited range of non-4G IMSIs (i.e. SIMs) that weren't barred from the 4G network, or they may act to ensure you can't use the only APN accessible on 4G from these SIMs.

At the moment, I suspect that very few people will have these 'unlimited data' phone SIMs in a 4G capable phone without being in an EE 4G contract, because few people will have a 4G device covering the correct bands in the UK at this stage (the exception being recent iPads and iPhones). You may just have drawn EE's attention to their failure to block a range of iPad IMEIs from using these SIMs.

"My reseller said" is hardly an official T-Mobile statement. EE sell 4G as a premium product at present - my understanding was that only those with EE 4G tariffs were supposed to have access to the 4G network. In particular, EE can hardly have intended a cheap unlimited data (with a downloading FUP) to have access to their premium network - or why would people buy the premium product?

There may be something in the terms and conditions of that SIM not to use it in a device other than that it was supplied with.


The iPhone 5 has very limited 4G support, as has the iPad Mini - of all the UK 4G bands, these devices will only work on 1800MHz, the band that EE's current service uses. Three are likely to use most of the 1800MHz spectrum they're acquiring for 4G, but both EE and Three will likely expand into other 4G bands over time, which your devices don't support. I have no way of predicting the outcome of the bandwidth auction, though there is advantages to the lower frequencies for better in-building coverage.

The situation with the iPhone 5 and 4G is a bit like using O2's 3G service on a device that doesn't support 3G on 900MHz - there's useful 3G coverage that you can't take advantage of. My laptop's mobile broadband card supports 3G on 900MHz, which is useful as a mast near a family property in Norfolk was upgraded to 3G 900MHz last year. There's not a sniff of O2 3G on 2.1GHz in the area (the original UK 3G band), so without 3G 900MHz support I'd be limited to EDGE from the same mast.

If it is a PAYG mobile sim, it's always possible that there is a content lock active on it. I have had problems in the past using twitter on a T-mobile PAYG sim, where it just will not let you get onto the web page but doesn't tell you why!
It could also be that the IP address assigned to you at the time is on a blocked range, T-Mobile used to do that a lot when trying to get an old Windows Phone 6 used as a modem on a PC, switching off and on usually assigned another address which was OK.