The UK's only 4G network, Easy Everywhere (EE), is now offering the HTC One SV LTE smartphone starting at £36 for a 24 month contract.

The handset is HTC's second 4G phone available in the UK, following last year's launch of the HTC One XL, and is in many ways the younger sibling of the HTC One S but with 4G capabilities thrown into the mix.

The phone itself is a mid-range device powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM and features a 4.3-inch super LCD screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 2. It also comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as standard with 4.2 Jelly Bean update expected at some point.

Because EE is still the only carrier offering 4G on its networks, it seems that the provider feels happy to charge exceptionally high prices for its LTE devices. The cheapest contract of £36, although offering unlimited talk time and SMS messages, limits you to 500MB of data each month. That's tiny considering the super-fast download speeds 4G phones promise you.

With a two-year contract, and provided that you don't go over your data usage, the phone will cost a total of £864. For £56 per month, EE is offering 8GB data allowance which puts the price of the phone at an astonishing £1,344 by the end of the two year contract.

Compared to the HTC One S, which came out last April, the new model adds 4G connectivity and a microSD card slot, though other specifications are downgraded: the screen resolution is 800x480 pixels compared to 960x540 pixels, the camera is 5-megapixels compared to 8-megapixels, and onboard storage is 8GB compared to 16GB on the One S.

UK shoppers can get their hands on the phone here.