international roaming, eSIM, etc

[jpn]

i will be interested what, if any, progress is made in making apple's eSIM more broadly available.

apple watch:
- currently needs pairing with an iPhone contract
- can only pair it with iPhones that have contracts with a limited list of authorized carriers

right now, apple watch cant be used internationally for LTE roaming
right now, no MVNO plan can be paired with an apple watch

i went with an MVNO a few years back and it has saved me a lot of money.
i really would like to buy the apple watch Series 4.
but cant see myself going back to dealing with a huge and costly contract through one of the big carriers in order to do it

it is going to be a long wait i think before an apple watch has direct plans being offered by low cost carriers.

but key to the process of going in that direction is what steps apple is taking on its own servers to provision eSIMs directly over the air. thats what i am hoping i see some change in this year.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

right now, apple watch cant be used internationally for LTE roaming

The cellular modem used in series 3 LTE watch supports a limited amount of frequency bands only intended for your current territory, from what I recall reading, so there's separate models for the americas, europe and asia with a different flavor of modem in each one. Which would be why roaming isn't supported.

Maybe if series 4 has a modem with wider frequency band support this would be different.

 

[jpn]

hi
yes.
globally there are currently 3 "areas".

current frequencies for apple watch:

the 1st list is the "North American Model" LTE and UMTS Frequencies

• 2（1,900 MHz）
• 4（AWS）
• 5（850 MHz）
• 12（700 MHz）
• 13（700c MHz）
• 17（700b MHz）
• 18（800 MHz）
• 19（800 MHz）
• 25（1,900 MHz）
• 26（800 MHz）
• 41（TD 2,500）
• UMTS
• 800 MHz
• 850 MHz
• 1,700 MHz
• 1,900 MHz

this 2nd list is the "rest of the world (except china)" LTE and UMTS frequencies

• 1（2,100 MHz）
• 3（1,800 MHz）
• 5（850 MHz）
• 7（2,600 MHz）
• 8（900 MHz）
• 18（800 MHz）
• 19（800 MHz）
• 20（800 DD）
• 26（800 MHz）
• UMTS
• 800 MHz
• 850 MHz
• 900 MHz

really area (country) focused.

 

[ukms]

The cellular modem used in series 3 LTE watch supports a limited amount of frequency bands only intended for your current territory, from what I recall reading, so there's separate models for the americas, europe and asia with a different flavor of modem in each one. Which would be why roaming isn't supported.

Maybe if series 4 has a modem with wider frequency band support this would be different.

The lack of support for roaming is not specifically because of the modem it’s the carriers AFAIK.

My S3 LTE that I use in the UAE is the same model sold in the UK but it doesn’t roam between the two countries.