EE Prices iPhone Handoff at £5 a Month — Free on Full Works Plus

EE Prices iPhone Handoff at £5 a Month — Free on Full Works Plus

EE becomes the first UK carrier to price Handoff

EE has published UK pricing for iPhone Handoff, making it the first British network to do so. The eSIM feature, introduced by Apple in iOS 27, lets one phone number be used across two iPhones. EE customers on the Full Works Plus plan get it at no extra cost; everyone else can add it for £5 a month on a rolling contract. 9to5Mac, MacRumors and PCMag UK all picked up the announcement on October 17, days after EE opened iPhone Duo pre-orders.

What EE actually said

In its newsroom post, EE described the offer as "included with EE's Full Works Plus plan which includes Fast Lane, or available for £5 per month on a rolling contract," adding that Handoff is "coming soon" and offers a level of flexibility "that isn't available anywhere else in the UK." The wording matters: EE has confirmed a price and a plan structure, but not a launch date.

One number, two iPhones at a time

Handoff shares a single number between two handsets, with only one active on the network at any moment. Unlocking the idle phone moves the number to it, and calls, voicemail, iMessage, RCS, SMS and MMS, plus Find My location, follow. A "Switched to this iPhone" banner confirms the move. Both phones need iOS 27, the same Apple Account and Wi-Fi. Card payments carry across, though some transit passes, IDs and corporate badges stay tied to one device. Disabling Handoff entirely requires contacting the carrier.

Why the price lands now: the iPhone Duo arrives

EE timed the pricing to the iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable. UK pre-orders opened at 1pm on October 16, with general sale on October 23, at £1,999 for 256GB and up to £3,199 for 2TB. Verizon has said Handoff works with the iPhone Duo and the iPhone 18 Pro, and swapping a number between a foldable and a slab phone is precisely the use case carriers are selling.

Who pays, and how much

Full Works Plus customers — a plan PCMag UK puts at £47 a month — pay nothing extra. Other EE users either add £5 monthly or move up a plan tier. The split is plainly designed to reward the top tier, and analysts quoted in coverage call it a well-positioned premium perk. For occasional second-phone users, the value depends on how often they actually switch.

A wide international spread

T-Mobile, the first carrier to launch Handoff, charges $5 a month in the US. Verizon has confirmed $10 a month — double T-Mobile's fee — while AT&T says it is focused on existing eSIM activation and transfer options instead. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom routes Handoff through MultiSIM at €6.95 a month, and includes it on MagentaMobil L (€59.95) and XL (€84.95). PCMag UK notes EE's £5 works out to roughly $6.70.

Rivals stay quiet, timing still vague

AppleMust reports that EE is the first UK network to announce support, with no word yet from Vodafone, Three or O2, which now operate as one company. EE still lists the feature as "coming soon," and carrier comparison tables flag that no confirmed EE launch date exists. Apple has only said publicly that Verizon and EE will add support later this year.

The bigger bill behind the £5

The handset is the real cost. EE is ranging the Duo on a 24-month contract with a SIM from £81.21 a month, per Radio Times. Express reports four-year deals with handset payments from £44.57 a month plus £30 upfront, and up to £624 off with a trade-in. Seen against a £1,999-plus phone, £5 a month is small — but it is a recurring line item users did not have before.

What to watch next

Three open questions: when exactly EE switches Handoff on; whether Vodafone, Three and O2 follow and at what price; and whether Verizon's $10 versus EE's £5 becomes a talking point once US support goes live. Apple has given no finer timetable than "later this year."