Apple Watch Ultra 3 won’t have 5G

Yatesy83 · ‎19-09-2025

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.

Matt_124 · ‎02-10-2025

It uses 5G RedCap, this only works in Standalone areas. The implementation that Apple have chosen for their watches cannot work with 5G Non-Standalone networks. Quite possible if they had went for any other flavour of 5G that battery life would be atrocious.

A SOC is a term internal to EE, they are essentially another term for the add-ons that provide services to the line in question.

On a regular mobile plan 5G Standalone (now referred to as 5G+) requires an add-on (SOC) to be able to connect to this, like the one shown here:

Fatboy71 · ‎02-10-2025

@Matt_124 wrote:
It uses 5G RedCap, this only works in Standalone areas. The implementation that Apple have chosen for their watches cannot work with 5G Non-Standalone networks. Quite possible if they had went for any other flavour of 5G that battery life would be atrocious.
A SOC is a term internal to EE, they are essentially another term for the add-ons that provide services to the line in question.
On a regular mobile plan 5G Standalone (now referred to as 5G+) requires an add-on (SOC) to be able to connect to this, like the one shown here:

Thanks very much for that information @Matt_124 that is extremely helpful. I do have a 5G Standalone plan on my All Rounder For iPhone plan.

But I take it from what you have said, I would need to contact customer service and ask them to enable 5G Standalone on the mobile data plan that I contacted them about last week, when I set up my Ultra 3?

And that I would specifically need to ask them to alter mine to 5G standalone SOC ?

I know currently in my area, it isn't a 5G Standalone area, but there are areas not too far away that are. And I would like to know that when my area is covered, that I could actually get the functionality I assumed I would have got on the model of Apple Watch I own.

I definitely think there should be mention in the literature that 5G on the Apple Watch is only available in 5G Standalone areas.

I think I'll call 150 now and see how I get on. I'll post back with an update.

BrokenHope · ‎02-10-2025

I have 5G working on my watch now, they had to add a new plan to my account, this plan has a different mobile number attached and has the 5G Standalone add-on

Matt_124 · ‎02-10-2025

Thanks for confirming and for checking the presence of the add-on, very useful info for all to solve the mystery.

Fatboy71 · ‎02-10-2025

@BrokenHope wrote:
I have 5G working on my watch now, they had to add a new plan to my account, this plan has a different mobile number attached and has the 5G Standalone add-on

Thanks for the update. I'm currently on hold trying to get through to someone at EE about this. Hopefully I can get this sorted out.

It does seem that you need to be in a 5G Standalone area, to get 5G on the Ultra 3, even when setup properly I've read over on Mac Rumours.

Fatboy71 · ‎02-10-2025

Just to come back with an update.

I've just got off the telephone to EE and explained what had been mentioned in this thread and explained that I needed to have the 5G Standalone SOC added.

He asked a few questions and he said he was able to add the 5G standalone onto my Apple Watch data plan.

I can also now see when I log into My EE and select the telephone number associated with my Apple Watch, that there is an add-on there (that definitely was not there before the call) called 5G Standalone.

Unfortunately I don't live in a 5G Standalone area so I am unable to try it out to see if it definitely is working, but I'll be sure to test it out the next time I am in a 5G Standalone area.

Before the call ended, he asked me to check if the Ultra 3 would connect to 5G (which it did not, and this was what I expected) but I explained to him that I do not live in a 5G Standalone area, and he said that he could not see any reason why I would not now be able to connect on to 5G on the Ultra 3 (when in a 5G Standalone area) as 5G Standalone was definitely now on my Apple Watch's data plan. He also asked me to log into either the My EE app or the website and see if I could see 5G Standalone in the list of add-ons for the Apple Watch, which I could.

Yatesy83 · ‎02-10-2025

Great work, i will try the same tomorrow as in my app it doesnt say anything about 5G on whats included in my watch plan. Can you possibly send a screenshot of that in your app?

Fatboy71 · ‎02-10-2025

@Yatesy83 wrote:
Great work, i will try the same tomorrow as in my app it doesnt say anything about 5G on whats included in my watch plan. Can you possibly send a screenshot of that in your app?

I hope you get someone when you call who is knowledgeable enough to sort it out for you 🙂

Here's the screenshots from the EE app for the number associated with my Watch's data plan, showing the add-ons:

Yatesy83 · ‎03-10-2025

Morning, i just spent 40 minutes on the phone to an advisor who was also liaising with a supervisor to be told that my watch plan and none of the EE watch plans can have 5G Standalone added to them. I pointed them in the direction of this forum to show that others have had it successfully added to their plan but still they state it’s not possible???? Im lost for words, they can see it’s possible in black and white on this forum and yet I'm told it’s impossible and I'm supposed to be happy with that resolution?? Ive asked for a call back from the supervisor to explain the situation to me, why would i be happy to pay the same as someone else and not receive the same service??

Fatboy71 · ‎03-10-2025

@Yatesy83 wrote:
Morning, i just spent 40 minutes on the phone to an advisor who was also liaising with a supervisor to be told that my watch plan and none of the EE watch plans can have 5G Standalone added to them. I pointed them in the direction of this forum to show that others have had it successfully added to their plan but still they state it’s not possible???? Im lost for words, they can see it’s possible in black and white on this forum and yet I'm told it’s impossible and I'm supposed to be happy with that resolution?? Ive asked for a call back from the supervisor to explain the situation to me, why would i be happy to pay the same as someone else and not receive the same service??

Absolutely disgraceful ☹️

There is clearly some very poorly trained customer service staff. They should have been trained up enough before this service went live to the public, on how to do this, as clearly it is possible to get this added on, as my post and others show this. After all EE are a supported carrier for this feature.

My advice is just to keep calling them, and hopefully eventually you will get someone who is educated enough on this and can actually do it for you. It should not be like this for the customer. Keep us updated!