EE offers its customers a free, swappable Power Bar mobile charger

Forgetting to charge your smartphone the night before will often mean that your device dies on you midway through the day, leaving you unable to play Plants Versus Zombies send important work emails. If you’re an EE customer though, the days of seeing your smartphone become utterly useless when the battery goes flat may be at an end, thanks to the UK carrier’s new customer reward scheme appropriately called “EE Power” that will roll out in the coming weeks. 

What is the EE Power scheme? Basically, EE gives you the Power Bar external charger which you can use to charge your smartphone. When the Power Bar is flat, you can either choose to recharge the device yourself or just pop into an EE outlet to swap out for a fully charged Power Bar, free of charge*.

So how do you join EE Power scheme? First you text the word POWER to 365 (*Texts cost 35p) and then EE will send you a unique code that you can then take to your most convenient EE outlet to collect your Power Bar charger. You must be an EE customer with a 30 day, 12/18/24 month contract, although if you have been a pay As You Go customer for at least 3 months you can also take part. If you aren’t an EE customer though, you can join the scheme if you pay a £20 fee. EE broadband users can also join in by texting JOIN plus landline number to 60005, and then following the instructions.

Power Bar features:

• 2,600mAh capacity
• Guaranteed lifetime of 500 charges
• Charging indicator lights
• Built-in LED torch
• Includes a MicroUSB cable
• Recharges in 4 hours

It isn’t the biggest portable battery I’ve ever seen, but you can’t really argue at the price if you are an EE customer.

Full Press Release

London, 2 April 2015 – EE, the UK’s most advanced digital communications company, has announced the launch of EE Power – a free portable smartphone charger with unlimited swaps in store – available to all active* customers on mobile and broadband plans in the coming weeks.  The innovative scheme is designed to ensure that EE customers stay charged at all times with ‘never ending power’. EE Power is the latest initiative to demonstrate the brand’s commitment to reward all new and existing customers and forms part of EE’s plan to become the number one network for service.

From launch, EE customers will be able to pick up a free Power Bar in any EE store by requesting a unique code via text. Once the EE Power Bar has been used to charge a device, customers can recharge the portable battery themselves or, if out and about, they can swap it for a fully-charged replacement bar at any EE store nationwide – for free and as many times as they like.

It has been just over two years since EE introduced 4G to the UK and network usage has grown exponentially in this short period.  Video streaming and social media engagement now accounts for over 50 per cent of all data use on EE’s network as customers access more content on the move.  However, this increased activity comes at a cost to battery life and recent research² shows that there is a genuine consumer need for more power –

• Nearly 60 per cent of UK smartphone users claim their battery doesn’t last a full day
• Over half of all smartphone users wish there were more ways to charge their phone in public places – this rises to over 70 per cent of 18-24 year olds

Pippa Dunn, Chief Marketing Officer EE, said: “Almost everyone’s experienced the frustration associated with running out of battery and it always seems to happen when you need your phone the most. With EE Power, we’re trying to help by giving our customers a Power Bar that can simply be swapped for a fully charged one at any of our stores, at any time, for free.”

All eligible^* customers can get their free EE Power Bar when the promotion launches in the coming weeks by texting ‘POWER’ to 365 to receive a promotional code. Texts cost 35p and customers can collect their free EE Power Bar by redeeming this code at any EE store across the UK. Each Power Bar typically gives one full smartphone charge per use.

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