I think that confusions come from the fact there are now two grandfathered unlimited plans. There is the original one that wasn't a plan that used shared data. Then the one that came out this year for a week before unlimited choice and plus. It uses a shared data plan so it might be compatible, since most of the wording I've seen on their site mentions shared data plans.
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Some Apple Watch Series 3 Owners Facing LTE Activation Issues [Updated]
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I was one of the unlucky few who had T-Mobile issues. It took 3 hours and 8 different T-mobile employees to get it taken care of and I'd like to share what I learned so I can hopefully help anyone in my situation fix it sooner. Please up vote this so other T-Mobile customers see it.
I have a business account and during the cellular activation it would tell me the last 4 of my social I was inputting was incorrect. Here are all the different things the first 7 support employees told me, none of which are true.
1st employee: You just need to enter the last 4 of your Tax ID since it's a business (didn't work, either)
2nd: T-Mobile Apple Watches are unable to activate unless you buy it from T-Mobile, you'll need to return your watch and buy a new one from us (obviously not true since it's now active)
3rd: You'll need to activate it on a temporary personal line first and then transfer it to your business line, let me send you to our activation department (nobody in activations had any idea what he was talking about)
4th (in activations): You need to take out the sim card and read the ICCID number to me (Apple Watch doesn't have a sim card, the sim is built in. He was looking for the EID number which is on the box, even though when I tried to give him that he said it wasn't the same thing. It is)
5th (activations dept manager): Apple forgot to send you a sim card with it. You'll need to buy one from T-mobile (again, obviously not true)
6th (in business customer support): If it doesn't take your SSN on the activation screen then Apple sent you a faulty device and you'll need to get another one (definitely not true, it's active now)
7th (T-Mobile Apple Rep): Said the EID/ICCID needed to start with 8901 and since mine started with 8904 it was actually an AT&T model and Apple had shipped me the wrong one (again, not true since it is clearly active on my T-Mobile network now).
Solution: I finally went into a T-Mobile store and the guy there read to me an internal email saying that at the moment, business accounts are only able to be activated on the Apple Watch if it is bought directly from T-Mobile and that they are working on a fix but there was no estimated time for this to be finished (the second guy was close). I had three options, return my watch and order one from T-Mobile (wouldn't get it until October 30th), only use it on bluetooth until the fix was implemented, or switch my account from business to personal. I went with the last one and I'll switch it back whenever T-Mobile finally get's their stuff in order.
I was an Apple employee for 3 years so it was pretty obvious at the time that none of these are true, though I know it's not obvious to everyone. I hope this helps. Again, please upvote this so people can see it. I created this MacRumors account just to post this.
I have a business account and during the cellular activation it would tell me the last 4 of my social I was inputting was incorrect. Here are all the different things the first 7 support employees told me, none of which are true.
1st employee: You just need to enter the last 4 of your Tax ID since it's a business (didn't work, either)
2nd: T-Mobile Apple Watches are unable to activate unless you buy it from T-Mobile, you'll need to return your watch and buy a new one from us (obviously not true since it's now active)
3rd: You'll need to activate it on a temporary personal line first and then transfer it to your business line, let me send you to our activation department (nobody in activations had any idea what he was talking about)
4th (in activations): You need to take out the sim card and read the ICCID number to me (Apple Watch doesn't have a sim card, the sim is built in. He was looking for the EID number which is on the box, even though when I tried to give him that he said it wasn't the same thing. It is)
5th (activations dept manager): Apple forgot to send you a sim card with it. You'll need to buy one from T-mobile (again, obviously not true)
6th (in business customer support): If it doesn't take your SSN on the activation screen then Apple sent you a faulty device and you'll need to get another one (definitely not true, it's active now)
7th (T-Mobile Apple Rep): Said the EID/ICCID needed to start with 8901 and since mine started with 8904 it was actually an AT&T model and Apple had shipped me the wrong one (again, not true since it is clearly active on my T-Mobile network now).
Solution: I finally went into a T-Mobile store and the guy there read to me an internal email saying that at the moment, business accounts are only able to be activated on the Apple Watch if it is bought directly from T-Mobile and that they are working on a fix but there was no estimated time for this to be finished (the second guy was close). I had three options, return my watch and order one from T-Mobile (wouldn't get it until October 30th), only use it on bluetooth until the fix was implemented, or switch my account from business to personal. I went with the last one and I'll switch it back whenever T-Mobile finally get's their stuff in order.
I was an Apple employee for 3 years so it was pretty obvious at the time that none of these are true, though I know it's not obvious to everyone. I hope this helps. Again, please upvote this so people can see it. I created this MacRumors account just to post this.
Bought directly from Apple. Had no problems activating on AT&T (Unlimited Plus) using the Watch App on my iPhone 6S Plus. Never saw anything in the setup about the watch having it's own number initially and I didn't expect to. After completing the setup I logged into my AT&T account and saw that the watch is in fact "assigned" a separate number. The watch however is working with the same number as my iPhone via NumberSync. During the setup the watch was added on to my existing plan at $10 per mo. and the first three months free in the form of credits. Works great and I couldn't be happier.
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Yes, I purchased from Apple and I recently switched to the AT&T Choice plan. Even as a technophile (and professional tech consultant), the 3Mbps max speed limitation of the unlimited Choice plan has been surprisingly sufficient and a good value.
I wasted my whole day on this issue also. Tmobile doesn't have stainless steel so I'm up s*** creek. I am about to go in on Tmobile bill credits.
That was my day too. 3 hours between phone support and in store help. I didn’t switch to a personal account, I hope it won’t take them too long to figure it out.
If could strangle T-Mobile, I most certainly would have today. Couldn’t activate at all. Kept getting activation error and to call 611. I spoke with 3 reps who had no idea what the hell they were talking about. Went into two different T-Mobile stores as well and they couldn’t figure out how to activate the watch. One of them even signed me up for the digits plan for $15 a month that did absolutely nothing. Eventually, a supervisor at T-mobile informed me that Apple watches NOT bought directly from T-Mobile could not be activated on their network. I manically laughed and ran out of there. Apple was a whole lot more helpful. They told be that T-Mobile is having activation issues at the moment with watches not bought directly from T-Mobile. He said that engineers from both Apple and T-Mobile are working hard to get this resolved but couldn’t give me any kind of time frame. I was told to just try activating it every day until it finally works. This whole thing has been super frustrating and spent about 5 hours trying to get my watch a cellular connection.
I purchased my Apple Watch 3 with GPS & LTE at the store today (9/22/2017). I tried to set-up the cellular in the store, but no avail. When I returned home I contacted AT&T, and I was told that the IMEI numbers (much like VIN number on a car) were not loaded by Apple. The IMEI numbers have to be registered in the system by Apple (the manufacturer) before any cellular connectivity can happen. I was informed that Apple is looking to resolve this issue within 24 hours.
Did you have tonhave another credit check and pick a new plan, etc? That’s what they’re telling me at T-Mobile and I’m ready to lose it!
[doublepost=1506136328][/doublepost]Did you have tonhave another credit check and pick a new plan, etc? That’s what they’re telling me at T-Mobile and I’m ready to lose it!
[doublepost=1506136462][/doublepost]
Did you figure it out? I’ve Never dealt with such incompetence! Still dealing with the problem with no resolution
I have a T-Mobile personal account, my SS is authenticated and goes through all the steps (plan, terms and conditions, service agreement) but after I press next on the service agreement I will get the follow error (attached), I've tried this like 20 times, unpair, pair, restart, etc, nothing
Attachments
For me easy as can be. Ordered through Apple. Powered on, started setup, originally knew I was on Verizon. 1st attempt at activating failed. Tried again worked fine. Asked me to confirm address for 911 and told me first 3 months free then $10/month. Couldn’t be easier
This is exactly happening to me; same error message whenever i tried to activate the cellular service. Spent more than 5 hrs in apple store and T-Mobile store today (good thing that both the store were close by in the same mall); apple even provided me another watch to test the connectivity (thinking the first one might be defective) but that didn't work either. Worked with 3 different people in T-Mobile (store rep, account rep as well as district manager i think) and they talked to 3 different teams including their operations department and engineers but they could not resolve the issue. Spent last 2 hours with lead genius in apple store who was very knowledgeable about the whole watch and he contacted apple engineers, cellular design team in apple and few other folks. Basically this issue is escalated to almost top level and everybody was trying to figure out the issue.
For now he told me to take it home and they will contact me in a day or so when they narrow down the issue and have some solution. Both apple and t-mobile teams have my number and i told them they can call me anytime and i can troubleshoot if they want me to. I would say they tried their best to figure out but for some reason, something may be in the backend was not working correctly. Hope they can resolve it soon.
Same boat here.
Purchased from Apple (online), went through cellular setup in the ‘Watch’ app, completed all the steps, received a confirmation text from AT&T stating my wearable device was now synced with NumberSync... but no cellular connection on my Apple Watch.
When I go back to the cellular “tab” in the Watch app, it says there’s a problem and I need to call AT&T. Sigh. Maybe some other time.
Purchased from Apple (online), went through cellular setup in the ‘Watch’ app, completed all the steps, received a confirmation text from AT&T stating my wearable device was now synced with NumberSync... but no cellular connection on my Apple Watch.
When I go back to the cellular “tab” in the Watch app, it says there’s a problem and I need to call AT&T. Sigh. Maybe some other time.
