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New Apple Watch 5G Feature Missing in Multiple Countries at Launch

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Apr 12, 2001
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The Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple Watch SE 3 all feature an upgraded 5G modem and antenna architecture, but 5G connectivity won't be available in some countries.

apple-watch-s11-5g-phone.jpg

5G is not listed as a supported feature for the new Apple Watch models in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and several other countries in Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia.

The upgraded connectivity is available in the United States, UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, UAE, Thailand, Japan, China, Singapore, India, and more.

It is not clear why 5G connectivity isn't an option in some countries, but it could be due to a lack of regulatory approval or carriers that simply haven't added support. During yesterday's event, Apple showed a slide with carriers that are supporting 5G on the Apple Watch at launch. These were the carriers depicted:
  • Verizon (US)
  • AT&T (US)
  • T-Mobile (US)
  • Orange (Europe/Global)
  • EE (UK)
  • Three/3 (UK/International)
  • Sunrise (Switzerland)
  • AIS (Thailand)
  • SoftBank (Japan)
  • NTT Docomo (Japan)
  • au (Japan)
  • SmarTone (Hong Kong)
  • CSL (Hong Kong)
  • CTM (Macau)
  • Singtel (Singapore)
  • M1 (Singapore)
  • Zain (Middle East/Africa)
  • du (UAE)
  • Boost Mobile (US)
  • US Cellular (US)
  • Metro by T-Mobile (US)
  • China Unicom
  • China Mobile
  • China Telecom
  • Jio (India)
Canada's major carriers like Telus, Bell, and Rogers were not included, nor were Telstra, Vodafone, and Optus, which are the three main carriers in Australia.

You can go to the technical specifications page for the Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, or Apple Watch SE 3 in your country to see if 5G will be available. In areas where 5G is not listed as a feature, the new Apple Watch models will rely on LTE.

Apple does not have separate Apple Watch models for different countries (except for China), so there is a good chance that the Apple Watches being sold in countries where 5G is currently unavailable do have the same 5G modem as Apple Watches in the U.S. and other locations where 5G is available. If that's the case, 5G connectivity could be enabled later when carriers begin offering support.

Article Link: New Apple Watch 5G Feature Missing in Multiple Countries at Launch
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/09/10/apple-watch-5g-availability/
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Is it an Apple-made modem? I’m guessing not or they would tout it, but I’m surprised because the Apple Watch is the device that would benefit from the efficiency and low-signal-performance the most
 
MacRumors said:
It is not clear why 5G connectivity isn't an option in some countries, but it could be due to a lack of regulatory approval or carriers that simply haven't added support.
Click to expand...

Probably because those are tiny markets? Look at the list of supported countries. They're all big markets. Canada is tiny. A single Chinese megacity exceeds the population of Australia.
 
I know in Canada, Bell and Telus currently don't allow non-phones and tablets to access the 5G network. Other IoT devices and smartwatches are limited to LTE.

I don't think this applies to Rogers, though? I'm pretty confident I've seen in the past in promotions that they say smartwatches can use the 5G network if hardware allows. They also did announce at the start of June that they were beginning the rollout of 5G RedCap, but didn't specify where/how long until it's widely available.

This could be a case where the hardware can do it, but carriers need to catch up.
 
In the UK, EE throttles 5G connections down to 4G speeds. Overall, it is therefore actually worse than 4G.
 
Meh it sucks but personally my series 9 is chugging along perfectly fine, should last another couple years.
 
There was a 3/Three logo on that slide in the keynote, but looks like it’s Three (Drei) Austria, not UK, which has the 5G footnote in the cellular compatibility list.

Not that I mind, I’m on EE in the UK. They’re the most reliable with offering Apple features and integration.
 
sflagel said:
In the UK, EE throttles 5G connections down to 4G speeds. Overall, it is therefore actually worse than 4G.
Click to expand...
Not for me, and I don’t think they deliberately throttle, probably just network congestion in certain locations.

Apparently a 5G RedCap connection requires lower power which can only be good.
 
For the author of the article

The M on the bottom right of the chart that Apple showed is for Movistar.

I don’t know what carrier do you think it was for, but for sure it is for Movistar (Spain)
 
Love how, on the front page, the company M1 got apparently auto-linked to the MacRumors guide about the M1 chip.
 
"Apple does not have separate Apple Watch models for different countries (except for China)"

A US-purchsed Apple Watch with cellular does not work in Europe, or vice-versa, and trust me, I've tried, so this isn't true.
 
It will be interesting to see if B71 (600 MHz) is supported for T-Mo in the USA. If no, then even supported carriers in supported countries would be handicapped. But the tech specs page doesn't actually list all the tech specs, sadly.
 
AnInanimateCarbonRod said:
I know in Canada, Bell and Telus currently don't allow non-phones and tablets to access the 5G network. Other IoT devices and smartwatches are limited to LTE.

I don't think this applies to Rogers, though? I'm pretty confident I've seen in the past in promotions that they say smartwatches can use the 5G network if hardware allows. They also did announce at the start of June that they were beginning the rollout of 5G RedCap, but didn't specify where/how long until it's widely available.

This could be a case where the hardware can do it, but carriers need to catch up.
Click to expand...
Yes, I think Rogers is the only carrier in Canada that supports 5G redcap currently, and they only started the rollout in June, so it is probably only in select areas so far? Perhaps the new Apple Watches would actually connect to 5G if you are a Roger's customer and are in an area that has rolled it out, but Apple likely wouldn't advertise it as available when in Canada when it is still pretty limited.
 
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JPack said:
Probably because those are tiny markets? Look at the list of supported countries. They're all big markets. Canada is tiny. A single Chinese megacity exceeds the population of Australia.
Click to expand...
iPhone at least has a pretty high market share in Canada (60+%) so Apple does tend to bring features to Canada fairly quickly after rollout to the US market. It actually likely has more to do with 5G redcap availability being absent (or limited) in those markets. 5G redcap availability is still pretty limited in Canada as only one carrier supports it and it is just starting its rollout.
 
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