EE sets iPhone Handoff at £5 a month in the UK, and includes it free on Full Works PlusEE sets iPhone Handoff at £5 a month in the UK, and includes it free on Full Works Plus

EE has priced iPhone Handoff for the UK at £5 a month on a rolling contract, and will include it at no extra cost on its Full Works Plus plan.

The price appeared in EE's own release on the iPhone Duo, which opened for pre-order on the network on 16 October, and 9to5Mac and The Apple Post reported it on 17 October. EE calls itself the first UK network to offer the feature and describes it as coming soon, without a date. Apple had already named EE at its September keynote as one of the carriers that would support it, 9to5Mac noted.

What does iPhone Handoff do?

It is an iOS 27 feature that lets one mobile number move between two iPhones. One phone is the main iPhone and the other the secondary; whichever one you unlock takes the number, and only one is live on the network at any moment. EE lists three requirements: two compatible iPhones, iOS 27 or later on both, and the same Apple Account signed in on each.

Apple's own description, as MacRumors set it out, adds limits that matter day to day. Call Forwarding and Caller ID can only be changed on the main iPhone, an Apple Watch stays paired to one phone, and some Wallet items such as transit passes and IDs may work on only one iPhone at a time. We covered setting up iPhone Handoff on two iPhones, step by step, so the steps are not repeated here.

What do other carriers charge?

Telekom has no separate Handoff price: the feature runs on its existing MultiSIM, a second SIM that shares the main plan's number and data, and the figures come from mobiFlip and iphone-ticker.de. That makes EE and Telekom the two networks that fold the feature into a top plan rather than charging everyone. Verizon's price, which we reported on 17 October, is still the highest, and AT&T has not committed to supporting Handoff at all.

Our take

We read EE's release ourselves. It is dated 15 October, two days before the coverage, and it names Full Works Plus as the plan that includes Handoff without giving that plan's price, sending readers to ee.co.uk instead. So the sum is yours to do: if moving up to Full Works Plus costs more each month than the add-on over the plan you are on, the add-on is the cheaper route. The upgrade only earns its gap if you also want Fast Lane, which EE describes as a dedicated 5G+ lane for when the network is busiest.

Added up, the add-on is £60 a year, or £120 across a typical 24-month contract. EE announced it alongside the iPhone Duo, which costs from £1,999 on Apple's UK store when we checked on 18 October, and the obvious buyer is someone pairing that foldable with a smaller iPhone for the gym or a night out. Against two phones, the Handoff fee is the small part of the bill.

Two details matter more in the UK than the price. London commuters can tap through with a bank card in Wallet, and Apple's description says payment cards work on both iPhones, so the problem with transit passes should mostly pass them by. And rolling does not mean it switches itself off: Apple says Handoff stays active until you ask the carrier to turn it off, so leaving the second iPhone in a drawer will not stop the charge. Unless Fast Lane already appeals, APPDOOK thinks most EE customers should take the add-on month to month once it goes live and cancel it with EE the month it stops earning its keep.

Customers on Vodafone, Three and O2 have nothing to weigh yet: we found no announcement of Handoff support from any of them on 18 October. Until one arrives, a UK owner who wants the feature has to be on EE, and an iPhone moved to another network loses it.