LTE transmitter on cellular watches

[macman4789]

Hi,

I’m aware you can disable cellular and obviously if you don’t set up a cellular plan on your watch then you won’t activate cellular. But does anyone know if the cellular transmitter is activated intermittently for things like location services even if you don’t have a cellular plan set up? Or will it just use the WiFi/GPS built into the watch?

Thanks

 

[Azathoth123]

IIRC, if it’s LTE equipped it must be able to call 911/emergency services even if there is no service plan, at least in the US. Typically an unactivated LTE phone can also call a customer service number (so they can sell you a plan). I don’t know about location services with an unactivated device.

 

[macman4789]

Yeah that’s a good point regarding the emergency calling. I wonder if that applies if cellular is turned off on it.

I’ve had a look on Apple’s website but it just talks about having an LTE plan with a carrier and being able to disable by turning off cellular on the control panel.

 

[Azathoth123]

Should be easy enough to test, though I would not actually make the call! I would imagine that if you cannot make the 911 call the option would not appear or be ‘greyed out’.

 

[Topher227]

Emergency SOS calls do work on an unactivated watch.

See: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-activating-data-works.2076686/#post-25215933

Also see the post before for exact steps to perform a test call, should you be so inclined.

 

[Julien]

If the cell device is turned on it MUST be able to call 911. The only way to cut the cell off is to cut the device off.

 

[macman4789]

That’s interesting, thanks for that. So I wonder to what extent the cellular transmitter is ‘used’ or active on a watch that doesn’t have a cellular plan / cellular turned off?