I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audio-first future

Re:I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audi... by supermatt on Sunday February 07, 2021 @01:38PM (#26057005)

Does anyone understand why Apple Watch only works with some mobile networks? I have an LTE version, but it’s not “supported” by any networks in my country. I’ve owned it for many years and it’s not really useful unless in proximity of the phone. I’d love to be without phone and perform simple productivity tasks, “queries”, etc.

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Re:I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audi... by BugsJustFindMe on Sunday February 07, 2021 @02:07PM (#26057241)

> I have an LTE version

LTE is not one thing. It's a bunch of different radio frequency bands that are selectively used by different networks in different countries.

Because of that, cross-network phone interoperability is a consumer nightmare of technical minutia. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_frequency_bands

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Re:I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audi... by afavour on Sunday February 07, 2021 @01:44PM (#26057047)

I don’t think it’s the only reason but the Watch doesn’t have a SIM slot. It requires you use Apple’s “eSIM” standard and a lot of networks haven’t adopted it.

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Re:I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audi... by jeppebemad on Sunday February 07, 2021 @01:49PM (#26057092)

As others have pointed out, it’s probably the carrier that does not support the right kind of E-Sim.

But furthermore, an Apple Watch with cellular bought in the US, cannot use cellular data in e.g. the EU. Not sure why, but it must be localized on a software/hardware (?) level. At least that’s what the Apple genius told me on my last visit to the states..

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Re:I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audi... by RL_Quine on Sunday February 07, 2021 @01:57PM (#26057161)

The LTE bands are different.

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Re:I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audi... by easton on Sunday February 07, 2021 @01:44PM (#26057055)

Your carrier needs support for eSIM, which may be the holdup.

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Re:I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audi... by supermatt on Sunday February 07, 2021 @02:27PM (#26057435)

I’m not sure it’s so straightforward. There are networks that support eSIM for other devices. Maybe this is an Apple partnership issue, rather than a technology one?

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Re:I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audi... by saagarjha on Sunday February 07, 2021 @01:59PM (#26057182)

It has to be more than that because Google Fi doesn’t seem to support them.

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Re:I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audi... by easton on Sunday February 07, 2021 @02:34PM (#26057490)

Google Fi doesn't seem to support any kind of watches or tablets like other carriers do, they probably don't have the billing infrastructure to support it (why that is, considering it's Google, I don't know).

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Re:I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audi... by danlugo92 on Sunday February 07, 2021 @01:44PM (#26057043)

E-sim instead of physical sim I would presume?

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Re:I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audi... by supermatt on Sunday February 07, 2021 @01:44PM (#26057050)

Yeah. I don’t think there’s a physical sim option?

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Re:I swapped my iPhone for an Apple Watch to live in an audi... by Franz23 on Sunday February 07, 2021 @03:02PM (#26057720)

Nope, e-sim only and only with select providers

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