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Question about Cellular Apple Watch

M

mvtm

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 16, 2017
93
70
Hi,

I just recently bought my first Apple Watch ever and is a Series 3 Wifi+Cellular one. As I have never owned any e-sim item, I was wondering how can I do to get my LTE watch working. I live currently in the Netherlands but I am changing locations often until I find a new job. As I don't know where this place is gonna be, but I do know it's inside the EU. I was wondering what kind of plan with which company I could use to have a more or less international Apple Watch and how much it would cost?

I am based right now in NL where there is no e-sim as far as I know. I will change soon to another EU country which I don't know of yet. My iPhone is unlocked, I also spend time in the US, but will live inside of EU. Travel a lot, want to get LTE coverage with my cellular Apple Watch if that would be possible.

Any suggestions, ideas???

The Apple Watch was bought in B&H.
 
mvtm said:
Hi,

I just recently bought my first Apple Watch ever and is a Series 3 Wifi+Cellular one. As I have never owned any e-sim item, I was wondering how can I do to get my LTE watch working. I live currently in the Netherlands but I am changing locations often until I find a new job. As I don't know where this place is gonna be, but I do know it's inside the EU. I was wondering what kind of plan with which company I could use to have a more or less international Apple Watch and how much it would cost?

I am based right now in NL where there is no e-sim as far as I know. I will change soon to another EU country which I don't know of yet. My iPhone is unlocked, I also spend time in the US, but will live inside of EU. Travel a lot, want to get LTE coverage with my cellular Apple Watch if that would be possible.

Any suggestions, ideas???

The Apple Watch was bought in B&H.
Click to expand...
You bought it from B&H photo in the US?
 
Putting aside the question of which bands your model supports (see https://www.apple.com/watch/cellular/ for bands and current carrier support), there are two important points:

1. The Apple Watch must use the same carrier as your iPhone

2. The Apple Watch doesn't support roaming

For example, I bought my Apple Watch while in Japan, but I'm from Australia and I use Telstra, but I also frequently visit Taiwan. Telstra has a roaming arrangement with Taiwan Mobile in Taiwan, so my iPhone can roam on Taiwan Mobile's network when I'm in Taiwan, but my Apple Watch can't.

I suspect that it's going to be difficult to find a carrier in the EU that can do what you want, as even the carriers like Vodafone that have their own network in several countries will still have those networks separated (e.g. Vodafone DE would be a physically and technically separate network to Vodafone IT).

So if you were to put a Vodafone DE SIM in your iPhone and then enable the eSIM on your Apple Watch, your iPhone would roam seamlessly across Vodafone's networks and via other carriers' networks in the EU (with that wonderful roaming arrangement the EU has), but your Apple Watch would not be able to talk to anything except the Vodafone DE network.
 
mvtm said:
Hi,

I just recently bought my first Apple Watch ever and is a Series 3 Wifi+Cellular one. As I have never owned any e-sim item, I was wondering how can I do to get my LTE watch working. I live currently in the Netherlands but I am changing locations often until I find a new job. As I don't know where this place is gonna be, but I do know it's inside the EU. I was wondering what kind of plan with which company I could use to have a more or less international Apple Watch and how much it would cost?

I am based right now in NL where there is no e-sim as far as I know. I will change soon to another EU country which I don't know of yet. My iPhone is unlocked, I also spend time in the US, but will live inside of EU. Travel a lot, want to get LTE coverage with my cellular Apple Watch if that would be possible.

Any suggestions, ideas???

The Apple Watch was bought in B&H.
Click to expand...

If you bought your Watch in the US there's no way to activate a cellular in the EU. Unlike iPhones the Watches are usually region specific. The US version doesn't have the bands necessary to run the cellular in the EU. And you cannot use international roaming with Watch as a standalone device for Cellular.

Below is from Apple.

About international roaming
  • Cellular roaming isn't supported outside your carrier network coverage area.
  • To cover the LTE and UMTS bands used around the world, Apple Watch Series 4 (GPS + Cellular) and Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) come in three regional models: Americas, China, and Europe/Asia Pacific. Unlike iPhone, there isn't a worldwide Apple Watch model that supports all cellular bands used globally, so it isn't possible for Apple Watch to roam.
  • When your Apple Watch is connected to your iPhone or a previously joined Wi-Fi network, you can still use all the features of your Apple Watch, even if cellular isn't available.
 
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Knight3 said:
If you bought your Watch in the US there's no way to activate a cellular in the EU.
Click to expand...

You can buy one in the US and activate it in the EU, but you are right that it will be severely limited with the bands that are available. Only LTE bands 5, 18, 19, 26, 41 and UMTS 850 Mhz are in common between the two models, so the US model would be a bad choice for use in the EU.

The point they make about "cellular roaming isn't supported outside your carrier network coverage area" is exactly what I explained in my post: the Apple Watch is not locked to a specific country or region - the eSIM can be activated in any region, regardless of where you bought it - but when it's active with a carrier it can't roam outside that carrier's network, so it's not good for international travel. However, you can remove the plan from the Apple Watch eSIM, change your iPhone's SIMs to a different carrier, and then enable the Apple Watch eSIM again on that new carrier.

People seem to be confusing roaming and locking. The Apple Watch is not region locked. But yes, it would be a bad idea to buy the US model and then try to use it in Europe, because you only have a few bands that will be usable there, and some carriers might not use any of them.
 
friednoodles said:
You can buy one in the US and activate it in the EU, but you are right that it will be severely limited with the bands that are available. Only LTE bands 5, 18, 19, 26, 41 and UMTS 850 Mhz are in common between the two models, so the US model would be a bad choice for use in the EU.

The point they make about "cellular roaming isn't supported outside your carrier network coverage area" is exactly what I explained in my post: the Apple Watch is not locked to a specific country or region - the eSIM can be activated in any region, regardless of where you bought it - but when it's active with a carrier it can't roam outside that carrier's network, so it's not good for international travel. However, you can remove the plan from the Apple Watch eSIM, change your iPhone's SIMs to a different carrier, and then enable the Apple Watch eSIM again on that new carrier.

People seem to be confusing roaming and locking. The Apple Watch is not region locked. But yes, it would be a bad idea to buy the US model and then try to use it in Europe, because you only have a few bands that will be usable there, and some carriers might not use any of them.
Click to expand...

I'm not confused between a carrier locked device with roaming. The Apple website states that the Watch is region specific as the bands used in different countries varies from each other and that they grouped them to make it easier.
All I'm saying is that if your device doesn't have the bands supported by a certain carrier you'd like to use, it wouldn't work. I was either not clear enough or you haven't read it well enough. Sorry if there was any confusion.
 
Knight3 said:
All I'm saying is that if your device doesn't have the bands supported by a certain carrier you'd like to use, it wouldn't work.
Click to expand...

OK, we agree. A US model will be useless in the EU.

I was just trying to be clear that the models are not locked to certain regions and that it all just depends on available bands.
[doublepost=1543427619][/doublepost](and that putting aside the issue of which model they have, it doesn’t support roaming, so they can’t have a seamless experience travelling between countries, even within the EU)
 
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Thanks guys, I appreciate your feedback and comments.
I bought the Apple Watch in B&H because it was cheaper. I am currently vacationing in the US and got a postpaid T-Mobile ONE Plus @Work line for my Apple Watch.

It says it can roam in 210+ countries, I don't think that the watch can roam with that plan but as I'm only paying $30 for my T-Mobile phone line and the Apple Watch line while I am visiting here, this plan is more than great for my short stay here.

Any idea how T-Mobile ONE may behave? I plan on keeping the T-Mobile line alive while I'm in Netherlands as I can suck up that cost and have it for wherever I visit the US.
 
I'd love some additional feedback on this topic. Has anyone actually tried activating and using an Apple Watch in a region other than that in which it was sold? (Yes I know the bands are different, but there is often overlap, so I'd be very curious as to whether you can activate and get partial coverage on certain carrier/country/watch combinations)
 
Malus120 said:
I'd love some additional feedback on this topic. Has anyone actually tried activating and using an Apple Watch in a region other than that in which it was sold? (Yes I know the bands are different, but there is often overlap, so I'd be very curious as to whether you can activate and get partial coverage on certain carrier/country/watch combinations)
Click to expand...

Mine is a Japanese model purchased in Japan and I have no issues using it in Australia on an Australian carrier, because the Japanese model is the same as the Australian model and therefore all the same bands are available for use.

On the other hand, if I had bought the US model, it would be very limited in Australia: I'd only be able to use it with one carrier, Vodafone, as it's the only carrier in Australia that utilises a band that the US model supports (band 5). So it's possible to use a model from another region, but it would usually be a very bad idea, as it'll severely limit which carriers you can use it with (and sometimes even down to the city level, as sometimes carriers only use certain bands in certain cities/states).

Choose the model that is designed for your region unless you want a very limiting experience, basically.
 
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