Apple Watch Series 3 LTE Doesn't Work With Prepaid Wireless Plans

[manu chao]

It's ridiculous that it should cost extra at all.

• It shares the same number as the iPhone it's linked to

What does this have to do with anything? You know full well that on a technical level, the watch will have a separate phone number, that's how mobile phones work, but that things are merely forwarded/merged at the provider level.

• It is not going to be using data (via LTE) at the same time as the iPhone it's linked to is using data

And why would that be? Background app refresh will be working on the phone, regardless of whether the watch currently is connected to it (eg, for downloading emails). And more importantly, why should that be the only arbiter as to how much a plan costs?

• It shares the iPhone's data limits

And multi-device plans with a combined data allowance, using a base price plus a per device fee are such a new concept.

• It costs the networks nothing to enable this; they don't even have to provide a SIM!

Yeah, because providing the SIM is such a major cost for the carriers, which is why they charge you about six months worth of data plan costs if you need a new SIM.

There are two main factors which determine the price of something, what it costs the vendor to provide the product or service and how much utility the customer derives from it. When you pay for a 1 GB/month plan, you are not paying what it costs the company to provide 1 TB (plus there margin) but rather how much it costs them to provide something like 800 MB, because that is what the average 1 TB plan user uses. Any change that nudges that average data consumption up is thus something the carrier would need to charge something extra for, otherwise its margin would go down.

When you add an iPad to a phone plan, this according to your logic should not cost anything since you wouldn't use the the phone and the iPad at the same time. But new capabilities generate new usage, if only for background tasks. But for example also in the case of music streaming while exercising outdoors with only the watch with you. Therefore, if something nudges the average data consumption upwards, the carrier is going to charge you for it. Equally, if something provides you with extra utility, you are going to get charged for it, regardless if it costs the provider extra. It allows the provider to add price segmentation and thus to capture a larger group of customers.
[doublepost=1505657457][/doublepost]

Also, prepaid is good for customers. I am super happy with my prepaid plan, including 6GB of data, unlimited call and text both domestically and internationally, albeit only for limited countries (10!). The overall cost is similar to a postpaid plan but I don’t need to worry about receiving a bill with thousands of dollars charge.

The point of prepaid is not having any monthly commitments, of not paying for more than one is using the provider's services.

 

[RecentlyConverted]

For a watch that was supposed to give you all kinds of freedom with cellular, it sure has a lot of restrictions on it.

An Apple product with restrictions? I don’t believe it!

 

[bruinsrme]

Can't wait to get mine. $10 is no big thing. Hey, if you don't like it - don't buy one.

I’ve seen the Samsung Watch in action.

I think $10 plus taxes is outrageous.
Then again paying $5+ dollars for a cup of coffee is widely accepted by many.

Yes I will fork over the money for LTE and make my own coffee on weekend days.

 

[chenbaozhen]

I am on a prepaid ATT go phone plan with $42.5 after tax for 6GB of data.
I really like this plan.
There is no way I will switch to a postpaid plan to be able to pay for the $10/month for AW3.

I understood these carrier's strategy though.
When these new technology first roll out while the AW3 with LTE is still hard to get, for sure the carrier will take care of the post-paid customer first, who are loyal and contributing more profit to the carriers.

However, as the most of the postpaid customer already get their AW3, I can expect these carrier will then begin to provide services to prepaid customer to increase their revenue. For sure!

It's like the publisher who always publish a new book with a hard copy first and a soft copy one year letter. Those who are eager to get the new book need to pay twice the price to get the hard copy then the soft copy. If you really want it, you get to pay. If you can wait, you can get the soft copy with the same contents.

So I will probably buy one AW3 with LTE from BestBuy this month, use it as without LTE, and wait till the carrier begin to provide AW services to prepaid customers.

 

[mwjdavies]

I am on a prepaid ATT go phone plan with $42.5 after tax for 6GB of data.
I really like this plan.
There is no way I will switch to a postpaid plan to be able to pay for the $10/month for AW3.

I understood these carrier's strategy though.
When these new technology first roll out while the AW3 with LTE is still hard to get, for sure the carrier will take care of the post-paid customer first, who are loyal and contributing more profit to the carriers.

However, as the most of the postpaid customer already get their AW3, I can expect these carrier will then begin to provide services to prepaid customer to increase their revenue. For sure!

It's like the publisher who always publish a new book with a hard copy first and a soft copy one year letter. Those who are eager to get the new book need to pay twice the price to get the hard copy then the soft copy. If you really want it, you get to pay. If you can wait, you can get the soft copy with the same contents.

So I will probably buy one AW3 with LTE from BestBuy this month, use it as without LTE, and wait till the carrier begin to provide AW services to prepaid customers.

Basically I'll be doing exactly the same here in the UK.

Im on PAYG, and no intention of moving to a Pay Monthly deal with EE. Will wait it out for other providers, and just use watch without LTE

 

[DeepIn2U]

I think it's time for a 52-62mm Apple Watch to emerge next year.

The size will greatly benefit users and engineers for having a larger battery, increased battery life. Of course smaller 7FinFet process will be more miserely on power consumption while the AMOLED screen power consumption is negligible if at all.

More data and more user friendly interactions can also occur on a larger screen. Stronger interactions through the UI's and better apps will flourish.

I'd LOVE to see a military ruggerdized grade AW4 series as well.
[doublepost=1505675589][/doublepost]Just had a thought, sorry if already discussed.

What about Do Not Disturb While Driving?!!

How does Apple Watch ⌚️ S3 +LTE manage calls and SMS and other alerts while driving?!!

I mean it's on your wrists and over he steering column too. More "in-ur-face" distraction.

 

[uwdude]

I think it's time for a 52-62mm Apple Watch to emerge next year.

The size will greatly benefit users and engineers for having a larger battery, increased battery life. Of course smaller 7FinFet process will be more miserely on power consumption while the AMOLED screen power consumption is negligible if at all.

More data and more user friendly interactions can also occur on a larger screen. Stronger interactions through the UI's and better apps will flourish.

I'd LOVE to see a military ruggerdized grade AW4 series as well.
[doublepost=1505675589][/doublepost]Just had a thought, sorry if already discussed.

What about Do Not Disturb While Driving?!!

How does Apple Watch ⌚️ S3 +LTE manage calls and SMS and other alerts while driving?!!

I mean it's on your wrists and over he steering column too. More "in-ur-face" distraction.

What we really need is basically a wrist cuff with a large screen on it that would essentially replace both the iPhone and the watch.

 

[Dan From Canada]

I had assumed that when the watch got cellular it would essentially be just a data connection (well technically it is), but it’s actually tied on your account through your carrier with the cellular number for your iPhone. Nice that they’ve gotten at least some carriers on board. I really thought we’d be using FaceTime audio or maybe some crazy relaying of a cellular call over iCloud / the internet. Anyway, does look like the voice calls portion uses VoLTE.



I’m in Canada and while only a single carrier is offering it at the moment, they’re charging $5/month for it and the first 3 months are free. Quite shocked actually, usually we get hosed with cellular plans.

Give Bell an excuse to raise it another $5.00 and for sure they will.

Meanwhile the LTE phone is early technology and we all know what happens to it and hardware. It gets DRAMATICALLY better a couple of years down the road.

No thanks to being an early adopter. I went without one for my whole life, I think I can hold off for a bit longer.
[doublepost=1505688297][/doublepost]

What does this have to do with anything? You know full well that on a technical level, the watch will have a separate phone number, that's how mobile phones work, but that things are merely forwarded/merged at the provider level.

And why would that be? Background app refresh will be working on the phone, regardless of whether the watch currently is connected to it (eg, for downloading emails). And more importantly, why should that be the only arbiter as to how much a plan costs?

And multi-device plans with a combined data allowance, using a base price plus a per device fee are such a new concept.

Yeah, because providing the SIM is such a major cost for the carriers, which is why they charge you about six months worth of data plan costs if you need a new SIM.

There are two main factors which determine the price of something, what it costs the vendor to provide the product or service and how much utility the customer derives from it. When you pay for a 1 GB/month plan, you are not paying what it costs the company to provide 1 TB (plus there margin) but rather how much it costs them to provide something like 800 MB, because that is what the average 1 TB plan user uses. Any change that nudges that average data consumption up is thus something the carrier would need to charge something extra for, otherwise its margin would go down.

When you add an iPad to a phone plan, this according to your logic should not cost anything since you wouldn't use the the phone and the iPad at the same time. But new capabilities generate new usage, if only for background tasks. But for example also in the case of music streaming while exercising outdoors with only the watch with you. Therefore, if something nudges the average data consumption upwards, the carrier is going to charge you for it. Equally, if something provides you with extra utility, you are going to get charged for it, regardless if it costs the provider extra. It allows the provider to add price segmentation and thus to capture a larger group of customers.
[doublepost=1505657457][/doublepost]
The point of prepaid is not having any monthly commitments, of not paying for more than one is using the provider's services.

I remember a time a couple of dozen years ago when the telco companies were in dire straits. They were a mature business model with very little room for growth and small profit margins.

Today there is mana falling from heaven for them. They can charge whatever the market will bear and like the saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted.

I am gonna wait a few more years until the technology matures and the competition increases.

 

[coolfactor]

Bell Canada is offering the service for only $5/month and first three months free. Surprise it is more in United States.

I think we should rename this publication AmericaInsider, because this article only talks about the US carriers.

I switched to Bell a year ago, after 8 years with Rogers. Guess it was a good decision. Apple Watch, here I come!

 

[BaltimoreMediaBlog]

Clearly Timmy is for the poor people. TimMAY! TimMAY! TimMAY!

6 Months from now we'll all look back and think, "How did he last THIS LONG as Apple's CEO?"

 

[Robert.Walter]

Don't know/recall which body controls regulations in the US but they should do something about this colluding of above telecom providers, it's clearly the case, all of them are charging the same amount.

“...control the telecom providers...”

That doesn’t exist. LoL.
[doublepost=1505730931][/doublepost]

Clearly Timmy is for the poor people. TimMAY! TimMAY! TimMAY!

6 Months from now we'll all look back and think, "How did he last THIS LONG as Apple's CEO?"

?

 

[justperry]

“...control the telecom providers...”

That doesn’t exist. LoL.
[doublepost=1505730931][/doublepost]
?

I think it's the FCC in the states so it does exist.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Bell Canada is offering the service for only $5/month and first three months free. Surprise it is more in United States.

Sweet Christmas on the research, thank you!

I think we should rename this publication AmericaInsider, because this article only talks about the US carriers.

I switched to Bell a year ago, after 8 years with Rogers. Guess it was a good decision. Apple Watch, here I come!

I too will be switching. Freedom Mobile (formerly Wind) is a joke even as a pre-paid carrier option. Missing SMS's daily and with signal coverage blanketing Toronto there are so many data dead spots even though I see 3G with 3 dots (iOS 10 is current) on my iPhone 7. They don't fully support iPhone so makes NO damn sense.

 

[ZepFloyd]

so basically if you have a pre paid plan on any carrier...the cellular option watch is rendered useless? with the GPS only that means you gotta have your phone with you to do stuff on your watch?

sorry total newb to the watch series.

 

[talmy]

so basically if you have a pre paid plan on any carrier...the cellular option watch is rendered useless? with the GPS only that means you gotta have your phone with you to do stuff on your watch?

Yes, the cellular option is useless. But there are things you can do with your watch without the phone present, you just can't do things that need the Internet, like stream music or use Siri.

 

[Wolfpup]

Like everyone I'm feeling like $10 is kind of pricey...I mean it would cost them SOMETHING as both devices could be connected simultaneously at least polling the towers, and I suppose both would be using some background data at the same time, but...

But also, it doesn't work on so-called "prepaid" accounts? I'm not spending $100 more a month just to add a watch. Why ANYONE is using a "postpaid" plan anymore is beyond me. They just like spending more money for no reason?

 

[talmy]

But also, it doesn't work on so-called "prepaid" accounts? I'm not spending $100 more a month just to add a watch. Why ANYONE is using a "postpaid" plan anymore is beyond me. They just like spending more money for no reason?

I guess it isn't really true anymore but the postpaid plans used to require less upfront cost since you didn't have to come up with the full price of the phone to get started. Anyway, at least with T-Mobile the penalty for the watch is only $50/month not $100 (single phone, penalty drops with additional phones.) And T-Mobile's postpaid has the advantage of higher data limits, data roaming, correct caller ID since prepaid accounts aren't associated with a name, and I expect other perks.

 

[MisterAndrew]

I bet a ton of people have been going to prepaid plans because they're a much better value. I agree that it doesn't make sense to go with postpaid unless maybe you have an old grandfathered unlimited plan or need roaming out in the sticks because you save a lot of money buying an iPhone full price up front and paying less month to month, not to mention they don't offer subsidized phones with contracts anymore. So the Apple Watch cellular will help the carriers make more money forcing people who want it back to expensive postpaid plans.

 

[David_S]

I have plan to visit US for a month. I'll pick up applewatch3 LTE on coming Saturday.
Usually I use prepaid plan for mobile while I stay in US before. In case of Applewatch 3 LTE doesn't work with prepaid Plans, how can I use my APPLEWATCH3 LTE during my staying?

 

[talmy]

I have plan to visit US for a month. I'll pick up applewatch3 LTE on coming Saturday.
Usually I use prepaid plan for mobile while I stay in US before. In case of Applewatch 3 LTE doesn't work with prepaid Plans, how can I use my APPLEWATCH3 LTE during my staying?

You can't use the cellular service, but otherwise can use the watch. However when you get home you may not be able to use cellular either. It will probably be configured for US carriers only (you can't change out the SIM).

 

[nitramluap]

Like everyone I'm feeling like $10 is kind of pricey...

Sure is.

In Australia, with Telstra, it's an extra $5 (AUD) per month - ie. $4 USD

 

[Wolfpup]

We should all buy a LTE version then return after 1 week use. During the return, cite "underwhelming, lack of carrier LTE support, etc" A couple of thousand returns should get Apple's attention?

Why? Just because of the fee, that Apple has no control over?

And luckily it's not too much extra to add LTE...I'm really surprised by that.

We have prepaid service and I'm not surprised at all by this. Now do I want to go from $30/phone/month to $60/phone/month just to be able to pay an additional $10/phone/month to use the watch without the iPhone? I think not!

Probably a lot more than that even.

Again, I think a lot of that monthly charge is not by the carrier itself, but by the government fees and taxes imposed. Have you looked at you cell phone bill lately to see all the charges, user fees and taxes? It adds 20-30% onto the bill.

Most of that's just the phone companies coming up with a way to charge more, and look like the price is cheaper than it is.

Why would they make it available to pre-paid customers who are able to up and leave them at any second? It's a great incentive to get loyal customers on plans.

That makes no sense IMO. If anything it's the reverse of that-if people can leave any time, you need to keep them with a good product.

They are using these wearables as a way to keep people on postpaid plans. People have started leaving for prepaid, getting tired of the huge bills. So we will see more and more of "you must have the latest postpaid plan to have feature X" as they try to keep people on the cash cow.

Yep. I'd probably buy an Apple Watch + LTE if I could get it on my current plan, but I'm not spending 4x more money for the same thing just for the privilege.

6 Months from now we'll all look back and think, "How did he last THIS LONG as Apple's CEO?"

Why? He seems like he's doing a great job so far...and at this point for quite a long time. I doubt anyone could do better given he's already doing better at what he's doing than anyone.

I guess it isn't really true anymore but the postpaid plans used to require less upfront cost since you didn't have to come up with the full price of the phone to get started. Anyway, at least with T-Mobile the penalty for the watch is only $50/month not $100 (single phone, penalty drops with additional phones.) And T-Mobile's postpaid has the advantage of higher data limits, data roaming, correct caller ID since prepaid accounts aren't associated with a name, and I expect other perks.

Problem is their network stinks, from what I've seen, at least around here. I don't have roaming (although some so-called "prepaid" does) but I've already got a vastly superior network, and can't be booted for using it while roaming.

I bet a ton of people have been going to prepaid plans because they're a much better value. I agree that it doesn't make sense to go with postpaid unless maybe you have an old grandfathered unlimited plan or need roaming out in the sticks because you save a lot of money buying an iPhone full price up front and paying less month to month, not to mention they don't offer subsidized phones with contracts anymore. So the Apple Watch cellular will help the carriers make more money forcing people who want it back to expensive postpaid plans.

Yup

Sure is.

In Australia, with Telstra, it's an extra $5 (AUD) per month - ie. $4 USD

$4/month sounds way more reasonable...

Try it yourself. Go to the T-Mobile site and add an iPhone 8 + Apple Watch S3 with no credit check. It works.

View attachment 718163

That's not their "prepaid" (so-called) plan though, I don't think. Though T-Mobile doesn't have much distinction between the two, to their credit!

 

[vita330]

Will a jailbreak allow the Apple watch series 3 to work on a prepaid service?

 

[Wolfpup]

Will a jailbreak allow the Apple watch series 3 to work on a prepaid service?

I doubt it. It's up to the carriers as to whether they want to support it, not Apple. I figure they want to have SOME weapon to try to entice people to pay for a pointlessly overpriced plan :-/

 

[vita330]

I remember years ago when you could not use an iphone on a prepaid plan straight out of the box. I had to unlock the phone, then perform the jailbreak. I even had to purchase a sim card cutter to cut the sim card to the size that would work with the iphone.

I was hoping that this would be similar and that by jailbreaking the watch and "adjusting" a patch that it would work :/