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.

[ollie798]

Just a reminder to EE. As Apple said “at launch…”

That EE logo. 

[BrokenHope]

Would be interesting to see if directly purchased watch’s have 5G.

[ollie798]

The Apple event stated…”at launch…[available on these carriers]”
Clearly showing the EE logo. So why no 5G in any form?

[ollie798]

From Apple event transcript.

 “it’s more power efficient, using less battery for cellular…”

will have a been a major selling point to a lot of people. 

[ollie798]

EEs competitors should take note of this. They’re losing watch sales and contracts because a competitor is claiming a service they can’t actually deliver. 

[Stephen_Asbjørn]

Hi!  When I read your post my blood ran cold because I’ve just received my Ultra 3. I’ve just spoken to a really friendly guy at E E Technical help and he said that the problem not being able to use 5G on our Ultra 3’s isn’t down to EE is is because Apple needs to activate 5G on the Ultra 3 with a watchOS update! But according to the Apple website we should be able to use 5G as soon as we start using it (unless the mobile company we got it from isn’t supporting 5G use on the Ultra 3…). I don’t know where I stand with not being able to use 5G on my Ultra 3, is it really because Apple needs to activate it with a watchOS update or was the guy at EE Technical Support lying to me and hiding the fact that it IS EE that is stopping us from using 5G on our Ultra 3’s? Like you I’m not an happy bunny not being able to use 5G on my Ultra 3 like I expected! If you get to the bottom of the mystery please post again, I’ll keep checking back. 🙂

[BrokenHope]

It definitely supports 5G out of the box as people in the US and reviews have 5G active, unless it needs an updated carrier profile for EE.

[Fatboy71]

I was looking online to try and troubleshoot as I have just discovered that my Ultra 3 only connects via 4G, even though I am in a 5G area. Very misleading if EE are mentioned at the Apple event as a network that will support it.

Surely before these kind of things get announced, that the networks that will support this have the necessary in place to support it from launch. Hopefully it will be like @Stephen_Asbjørn has mentioned, and that it will need a WatchOS to activate it.

I think both Apple and EE should mention this in their literature, and also if the type of 5G the Ultra 3 needs has to be 5G Standalone or some other specific type of 5G, and that outside of these areas the watch would revert to 4G, this should clearly be mentioned. All that needs to be done is add a few lines in their literature stating this, and this would allow customers to know what to expect. Having these few lines in their literature would save a whole heap of people contacting EE about this issue!

[Radeon85OCUK]

No 5G on my Ultra 3 either (done as an Ultra 2 upgrade), stuck on 4G. I checked my postcode, and I'm in a 5G standalone area according to EE, I'm also in an area with extremely good normal 5G coverage. 

Just what is the issue here EE?, are you only selling new 4G plans for the watch, are old upgraded 4G plans banned from 5G, is it your network to blame, or are we just waiting for a new profile update?. The watch certainly supports 5G out of the box, as you can clearly see 5G working on US reviewers watches. Really is false advertising when 5G on this is plastered all over your site, not to mention Apple themselves showcasing you as a day one supporter. 

[BrokenHope]

Seems to be an issue with transferred watch data plans, there’s someone on macrumors in the same city as me, on EE getting 5G on their watch, the difference seems to be that they took put a new data plan rather than switched a watch plan from a previous watch.