Apple Watch Series 3: LTE Plan Prices on Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Bell, EE, and Deutsche Telekom

[mhedstrom]

Considering this utilizes your same phone number and your same data plan that you're already paying a monthly fee for, I'm not entirely sure what the $10 extra/month is other than a money grab. I'd get if it were completely separate...but it's not. Kind of lame honestly, I personally won't be upgrading mine.

 

[tex210]

Do you have a link to that page on T-Mobile's Web site?

https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/t-mobile-digits


My mobile phone number already works on all my Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac). How is this different?



Continuity is restricted to the iOS ecosystem. DIGITS allows calls and texts to work on any device in which you have enabled your DIGITS lines, regardless of the operating system. If you use Apple devices exclusively, then there’s no need to use the DIGITS app.

 

[QCassidy352]

I know people who spend $100 a month on Starbucks. To each his own. I'll gladly pay $120 a year for watch connectivity.

I absolutely agree with "to each his own." I'm not saying it couldn't be worth it to some people.

What I'm saying is that $120/year is a substantial percentage of the total cost of the watch, so you might well have people who are happy to be on board at $330 but not $520, and that's a perfectly rational position.

 

[CEmajr]

Disappointing pricing from the carriers. Especially T-Mobile. Interesting how the Samsung watches were only $5/mo but the Apple Watch will be $10.

 

[Syk]

If you got the service and turned it off but later turn it back on. Would they charge you an activation fee again?
I agree with another poster it would be nice to have during summer months, swimming, amusement parks where you could leave your phone in the car. I'm in the gym normally 5 days a week. It would be nice to leave my phone in the car instead of sticking it in my pocket while working out

 

[deany]

Well I've seen it all now.
$10.00 a month EXTRA for using same iPhone 'plan' you already have and a 1 hour talk time....before the battery is dead, you have to be kidding.

It seems we got off lightly in the UK with £5.00 EE.
What a Joke. I'm sticking with Sport 1st gen, recommend others follow suit.
PS
No need to give the Starbucks latté comparison.

 

[macs4nw]

Wow, people have been bitchin' about the lack of cellular on the AppleWatch since it came out in 2014-- "not interested until it has built-in cellular", "talk to me when I can make a call without my iPhone", "no cellular, no sale", etc., etc. Now the damn thing has cellular and suddenly everybody is whining about added charges. Simple solution, take your anger to the carriers, or buy the WiFi/Bluetooth version.

Having said that, since you're only using one device at a time, not sure why the carriers couldn't just charge you a one-time nominal activation fee and let you share your airtime/data allotment between your iPhone and AppleWatch. They're not providing you a Sim-card (built-in, non-removable), or incurring any other charges over and above what you're paying them already. They are the greedy party here.

 

[pedregosa]

https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/t-mobile-digits


My mobile phone number already works on all my Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac). How is this different?



Continuity is restricted to the iOS ecosystem. DIGITS allows calls and texts to work on any device in which you have enabled your DIGITS lines, regardless of the operating system. If you use Apple devices exclusively, then there’s no need to use the DIGITS app.

This is different, because Continuity surely only works when the iPad or Mac are on the same wifi network as the phone and the phone is turned on. With the watch, one is talking about the watch being able to make/receive calls with the phone turned off or miles away. That does not involve Continuity. At the launch, they said it uses T-Mobile's DIGITS feature. But hitherto, that feature has not worked with iMessage. Hence my concern.

 

[deeddawg]

Now the damn thing has cellular and suddenly everybody is whining about added charges.

No, people wonder why carriers were charging a reasonable $5 for other watches yet now want to charge twice that for an Apple Watch. That's as much as adding a tablet, for something with far less functionality and which will use far fewer network resources

Simple solution, take your anger to the carriers, or buy the WiFi/Bluetooth version.

Who says many people aren't doing both?

 

[ipedro]

Do you also frequently skateboard through busy train stations to catchy music while everyone else seems oblivious to your presence and newspaper stands explode in the background?

Every day. How'd you know?

I also surf in slow motion while slowly gliding my Apple Watch poetically through the waves.

 

[JGIGS]

$10/month for a watch, that will be tethered to a phone 90% of the time. No video, only audio streaming (Much of which will be cached anyways) and a handful of short phone calls at most. No thanks, come up with something more reasonable please.

Plus I'm going on an assumption there are many like me that rarely even make phone calls on there phone let alone need the function on a watch though I guess it could come in handy for runners who need to contact someone and don't want carry their phone.

 

[MrGuder]

I would assume the data is drawn from the account since it's tied to the number and not a separate account with it's own bucket of data. The question you should be asking is will VZW let you do this on a grandfathered account or require you to change to a current account. For example ATT doesn't allow tethering on the original iPhone grandfathered accounts only the current unlimited account with access fees and such.

I'm sure your right, most likely Verizon's going to say the Apple Watch 3 will not work on my old grandfathered unlimited iPhone plan since they don't allow tethering on the unlimited plan. This will be a deal breaker for me, I don't mind paying the extra $10 a month but I'm not paying for an additional monthly data plan just for the watch on top of that.

 

[Infernal182]

Definitely don't need to pay $120 for the rare occasion where I don't have my phone with me. If you are a serious athlete, then maybe it's worth it, but even for a very active person like me, the ratio of cost to benefit is going to be small.

[doublepost=1505429808][/doublepost]This is going to be great for running. Now I can leave the phone behind so a little less weight to carry. Plus $10 per month is practically free, if $10 bucks a month is going to make or break you, probably shouldn't be in the smart watch category anyway.

 

[ipedro]

Keep this in mind. Without an iPhone attached to your account, you will NOT get a $10/mo charge. If you notice, while you don't have to have your iPhone WITH YOU, you pretty much still need to have an iPhone ON YOUR ACCOUNT to get that price.

I should have worded that differently. I'll still have an iPhone — after all, I need one to set up an Apple Watch — but my daily driver will be my Apple Watch.

I'm going to try it out. I might eventually get a new iPhone to use as a sort of iPad Nano that I'll carry with me for work but for daily use, I have a feeling that I can live with just an always connected Apple Watch.

 

[Mactendo]

$10. US carriers seems to be in a collusion agreement. So much for democracy and a free market.

 

[ipedro]

Streaming Apple Music without having to take my phone while on a run is the bigger draw to me and I would guess it will be a big deal to others also.

This is only going to be worth it for people who think that they can live without constantly staring at a big screen and can routinely leave their iPhone at home. An always connected Apple Watch can accomplish quite a bit with Siri. Have a question? Ask Siri. Unless it's one of those "Here's what I found on the web" questions, Siri can search for the answer for you and not need a large screen to display the results.

Of course, one of the big things you'll miss is the camera but I'm a photographer and carry an SLR with me most of the time anyway. If you're a social media addict, this won't work for you because it won't be any fun scrolling through Facebook or Instagram on an Apple Watch.

For myself, I personally look forward to disconnecting from the constant attention hogging drug of scrolling social news feeds. An Apple Watch will make me more present in life and I have a feeling that's where Apple is going with wearable tech. The power of the internet is always with you but you're not hiding behind a screen all of your life.

 

[predation]

I get that most people aren't thrilled with the rates. My take is that since T-Mobile is covering my Netflix $10/mo cost, it's like getting the watch LTE for free.

$10 is $10

I get a $75 tablet data line for free at T-Mobile, doesn't mean I'm going to go spend $75 a month on other stuff.

#makegains

 

[Techwatcher]

I like my Apple Watch and I was on the fence about this functionality, but I think I just realized that I don't care enough about it to pay $10 extra a month. I always have my phone with me anyhow.

I know a lot of people really wanted the watch to work independently from their phone, so we'll see if they're willing to pay more for it.

You definitely care and you will be converting soon.

 

[geoff5093]

I'm definitely surprised at the price for T-Mobile. I thought they were the uncarrier I would have guessed $5/mo at most. Wouldn't have even been shocked for it to be free or $1/mo. Maybe at some point they will offer some sort of purchase/installment plan of a cellular Apple Watch and include it's data for free during the installment plan?
[doublepost=1505416929][/doublepost]
When did Apple say special rates? Maybe I missed it

When they talked about pricing, they said the carriers will have special rates for the new AW3. I think most people thought that meant deals, not increased prices...

 

[someoneoutthere]

But now I’m thinking about not owning an iPhone at all. In this scenario, my Apple Watch and AirPods would be the computer that I always have with me. I’d use it for messages, phone calls, music and would ask Siri questions for what ever else I search on my iPhone for today.

How long do you realistically think that the battery is going to last for all that? It's a WATCH.
[doublepost=1505432942][/doublepost]

If $120 a year is causing you consternation, you probably shouldn't be an Apple Watch owner to begin with.

I see where you are going, but I believe you worded it poorly. AW3 w/o LTE is just as good of an upgrade for some of the people out there. Not everyone needs a connected AW; so not everyone will justify the $120/year extra expense. You do, it's great. Some people won't.

 

[JohnDoe98]

When they talked about pricing, they said the carriers will have special rates for the new AW3. I think most people thought that meant deals, not increased prices...

I wonder if people threatened to cancel their contracts and leave their current carrier for another network if the customer retention teams would start to throw this feature in for free...

In any case this is no different then when personal hotspot was introduced. When you use tethering you are using data from your already existing plan and don't even require any kind of activation on the carrier's side, nevertheless they often charge extra, at least they did when the feature was first announced. Typical telecom BS.

 

[splogue]

Well I guess that makes the LTE Apple Watch a no go for me. I was really excited about it - I would love to be able to leave my iPhone at home in certain circumstances, but $10 a month for service is just absurd. I was really hoping that at least T-Mobile would undercut the other telecoms as they typically do, I could definitely handle $5/month. The worst part is, other LTE watches out there are only $5/month. I guess the carriers think, because it's an Apple device, they can charge more for the same service and people won't care. Hopefully they're wrong, and the pricing will drop soon.

Yeah, I had this same thought, though I was thinking $8 a month given that the other guys all charge $10. I was genuinely surprised to see that T-Mobile is charging the same as the evil empire.

I like the idea of it because it means the watch would work in an emergency situation where the phone might not be available, but $10 is making me really think hard about a feature I would rarely use.

The watch uses so little data that this feels very similar to the old charges for text messages, which bugged me so much I refused to send any until the surcharge eventually went away.

I'll probably hold off just on principle alone.
[doublepost=1505434892][/doublepost]

Every day. How'd you know?

I also surf in slow motion while slowly gliding my Apple Watch poetically through the waves.

View attachment 717755

This is the primary reason I hang out here. Seriously.

Best post, ever.

 

[tigres]

Easy decision for me. Nope.

 

[splogue]

For myself, I personally look forward to disconnecting from the constant attention hogging drug of scrolling social news feeds. An Apple Watch will make me more present in life and I have a feeling that's where Apple is going with wearable tech. The power of the internet is always with you but you're not hiding behind a screen all of your life.

Sir, I like the cut of your Jib.

That's absolutely where they should be going with this.

 

[deeddawg]

I like the idea of it because it means the watch would work in an emergency situation where the phone might not be available, but $10 is making me really think hard about a feature I would rarely use.

Remains to be see if an inactive watch will be able to make 911 calls like a phone can in the US. That could be a reason to buy the LTE version yet not activate it.