EE has announced an extension to its own-brand device range with the release of a new 4G-compatible wireless hotspot.

Looking very much like an iPhone 4, the Kite device will be available from today, both online and in-store, available, across EE’s range of 4GEE price plans.

It will be free on 24-month 4GEE and 4GEE Extra plans of £15 and over, or for £69.99 on a PAYG plan. Customers can also add the Kite to any one of EE’s Shared Plans, meaning they can team it up with their Wi-Fi enabled tablets, smartphone or laptops to ensure wireless connectivity on the move.

EE Kite

Customers purchasing the Kite (pictured above) will be able to hook up their device to EE’s wide-ranging 4G network, which currently covers 73% of the UK population, including 250 towns and 2,500 villages across the country.

The operator will be hoping that customers pair the Kite with its similarly avian-monikered smartphone, the 4G-enabled Kestrel, which was launched in March. Made by Chinese manufacturer Huawei, the Kestrel is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, a 1GB of RAM and comes with support for LTE cat-4 4G connectivity.

The operator revealed last week that it has 4.2 million customers on 4G, and expects this to rise to around six million by the end of the year.