Cellular Question

[STevil 39]

I've read the "radiation thread" and didn't post there because it become a health debate, which was interesting but not my question.

My understanding is that the cellular is disabled when your watch is connected to your phone (and your phone is on), meaning that for most of us most of the time there is no cellular signal being received or emitted by the watch. Is this true?

 

[Julien]

If cellular account it active it must ping the tower(s).

 

[STevil 39]

Are you sure? My cellular takes about a minute to activate on the watch after leaving my phone's range, which I assumed was the time it is 'pinging the tower'. So it doesn't seem to be active until required.

 

[Julien]

Cell towers send out a "can you hear me" signal to all devices. All devices that are in range then ping the (closest) tower so the service provider knows the location and status of the device. I assume the Apple Watch follows this protocol too.

 

[STevil 39]

Thanks Julien

 

[Julien]

Just to add what your cell provider is talking about. Your Apple Watch has a different/hidden phone number. So the cell provider must call forward to the Apple Watch's phone number once it is out of range of the iPhone. This switch over takes time.

 

[STevil 39]

That makes sense.

So your thought is that the cellular provider is in constant contact with this hidden phone number, but has to call forward to that number once my watch is not paired to my phone?

 

[dave006]

I've read the "radiation thread" and didn't post there because it become a health debate, which was interesting but not my question.

My understanding is that the cellular is disabled when your watch is connected to your phone (and your phone is on), meaning that for most of us most of the time there is no cellular signal being received or emitted by the watch. Is this true?

Yes you are quite correct. There is no cellular activity from your watch until it is forced to switch to cellular or you force it to use cellular. The normal function of the cellular capability is for it to be in "standby" mode until needed and only then power up the actual cellular modem and connect to your Carrier network.

The way the cellular function on the Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) is designed to operate there is no active signal unless or until the watch is forced to activate cellular. The watch is designed to use Bluetooth first, then Wi-Fi and finally as a last resort, enable cellular LTE. This processed is used to keep watch battery usage to a minimum.

Of course you can force LTE at any time by disabling BT or being out of range of your paired iPhone and you can also disable Wi-Fi to force the watch to switch to cellular but that is not the normal mode.

Dave

 

[STevil 39]

Thanks Dave, that's both informative and reassuring.