Apple Watch Ultra 3 won’t have 5G

[Yatesy83]

I received my Watch Ultra 3 today and as i suspected only has 4G. Called EE to be told that no watch plans currently support 5G. Spoke to a manager aswell to confirm and its true. At the moment although the watch is 5G compatible we are stuck with 4G for the moment and they have no set plans to change it.

Had a but of rant stating that is doesnt specify anywhere that devices will only receive 4G and he got the hump. I  then said if they were selling 5G phones and only provided customers with 4G they would all kick off and naturally you would expect 5G or the plan to at least state its 4G only. He had no reply to that and just kept repeating same crap saying we dont promise 5G anywhere when purchasing. I just figured it was a given. He was happy for me to return it but it’s not the point.

Just be prepared that if your getting device expecting 5G service currently it won’t happen with EE.

[Yatesy83]

Can you send me a link to this feed where someone has 5G in the UK on EE. What city are you in? Ive been into London on 5G standalone and other Standalone areas and not had 5G on my watch. I have a new watch plan not an upgrade or transferred plan. 

[BrokenHope]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ultra-3-5g-on-ee-uk.2467697/?post=34187454#post-34187454

[Fatboy71]

---

@Yatesy83 wrote:

 I have a new watch plan not an upgrade or transferred plan. 

---

I was looking through that thread on Mac Rumours to see if the 5G was only on new plans. Thanks for confirming that this isn't the case. 

I had a watch plan that I took out in April 2025, which was when I took out a sim only plan, which was the All Rounder For iPhone, and this has free watch data. 

I got the Ultra 3, last week and during the unpairing of my old Apple Watch I chose to keep plan. I was advised to do this a few months back, and also I read that sometimes if you remove the plan, this only removes it from the watch, and its still active at account level. And if you then add a new watch plan, there is sometimes a chance that you would be charged twice (or charged for one plan, and get the other free). 

Anyways, I needed to do this when I got Ultra 3:

I was prompted during the pairing process if I wanted to setup mobile data or set up later, I chose set up later.

I went to setup mobile data in the Watch app on the iPhone, and it picked up that the iPhone already has an Apple Watch plan connected, and to associate the existing watch plan with this phone I needed to choose replace (which I did). 

After choosing replace, it said something along the lines of that "we need to do something at our end, and to call 150 quoting code 003".

I called 150. I explained the situation with him, he did a few things at his end and asked me what I could see in the mobile service section a few times, and then asked for the EID number of the new Apple Watch. After giving him this, and going back into mobile service I could now see two different things this time.

One was EE plan not active, and I was unable to select that and had the option to remove it when I touched it. I think he told me to add new plan, but I'm not 100 percent sure if he first told me to remove the EE plan not active one, and after that it mentioned that it could take up to 4 hours to complete. Less than 30 minutes after the call, my Apple Watch connected to the mobile service.

So in a way I had to ultimately add new plan as far as I can see. 

[Stephen_Asbjørn]

Hi Peeps!,

Have I got news for you…. 

After doing some research I’ve come up with this little bit of information. We would never know if our Ultra 3 was using 5G because it would never display that it was using a 5G network, it would just show that it is using a cellular network!  Our Ultra 3 looks for the best network to use and locks onto it automatically. So we could be using a 5G network but our Ultra wouldn’t show it (seems a bit sad of Apple to give a watch 5G but not let it tell us when it is using it if you ask me…). Anyway I hope this bit of info helps at least some of us feel a bit better about our shining new Ultra 3’s - it has done for me at least. Love & peace   🙂

[Stephen_Asbjørn]

Just a little more info you might be interested to read.

You'll know your Apple Watch Ultra 3 is using 5G when you see a green signal indicator in Control Center, a green cellular indicator in the Control Center, or green dots on the Wayfinder watch face. The cellular signal indicator, whether it's the dots on the watch face or the symbol in Control Center, will turn green to show a cellular connection, including 5G, is active.  But as I’ve said previously, we will never know if our Ultra 3 is using 5or not we’ll just have to hope it is!   P&l   🙂

[ollie798]

 

You can already see when it’s 4G as it’ll be green and say 4G in control centre. If it’s a 5G connection it’ll show that instead.  

[Yatesy83]

Thats not true, if you disconnect your watch from bluetooth connection to your phone and it connects to cell network it displays on this screen 4G or 5G. 

5G image isn’t mine as I’ve yet to get it, was from a user in Nottingham who says he has, I’m stuck on 4G. 

 

 

[citylights21]

Can confirm I have the 5G indicator on my AWU 3. It's running watchOS 26.0.2 (not sure if that matters!)

[Fatboy71]

---

@citylights21 wrote:

Can confirm I have the 5G indicator on my AWU 3. It's running watchOS 26.0.2 (not sure if that matters!)

---

I'm going to update my Ultra 3 to 26.0.2 tonight when I put it on charge overnight. 

I'll post back tomorrow if it has made any difference to me being able to connect to 5G on it. Unless that is you need to be in  a 5G Standalone area as well (which I am not). 

One last thing @citylights21 are you in a 5G Standalone area?

[citylights21]

@Fatboy71 Yes, I am in London!