{"id":31358,"date":"2022-06-17T07:44:51","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T06:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=31358"},"modified":"2022-06-22T17:18:45","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T16:18:45","slug":"three-uk-esim-and-apple-watch-support-appears-to-go-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/06\/three-uk-esim-and-apple-watch-support-appears-to-go-live.html","title":{"rendered":"Three UK eSIM and Apple Watch Support Goes LIVE UPDATE"},"content":{"rendered":"

After years of waiting and a few false starts, customers of mobile operator Three UK<\/a> are this week reporting that they’ve finally been able to connect their Apple Watches to the operator via a new eSIM supported mobile plan – the ‘Smartwatch Pairing Plan<\/em>‘, which is intended to complement an existing mobile package.<\/p>\n

In case anybody has forgotten, Three UK<\/a> previously informed us that their Apple Watch and eSIM<\/strong> support would go live in Q2 2022 (here<\/a>), although we took that with a pinch of salt given the operator’s propensity for missing such targets. Rival operators including O2<\/a> (VMO2), Vodafone<\/a> and EE<\/a> (BT<\/a>) have had eSIM support for a while, albeit with varying different levels of support (e.g. it’s sometimes only enabled for selected devices). <\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/strong> eSIM is an alternative to physical SIM cards, which essentially embeds an electronic SIM into your device and that could – once fully implemented – make it easier and quicker to switch between networks, among other things. Easier said than done.<\/div>\n

At the time of writing, Three UK<\/a> hasn’t yet updated their website to reflect all this or made an official announcement, but multiple customers have reported to us that they’ve been able to take a new eSIM<\/strong> based pairing plan and activate it on their Apple Watches<\/strong>. Much like on other operators, you’ll first need a normal mobile plan (usually associated to an iPhone<\/strong>) and the pairing plan is then taken as an add-on.<\/p>\n

The ‘Smartwatch Pairing<\/em>‘ plan itself comes with a monthly term and costs \u00a37 a month<\/strong> (it uses the data allowance from your main plan), although it’s currently being offered free for the first 6 months of service. Three says that, once added, it can take up to 30 minutes for the new plan to go live on your watch, but it usually happens a lot faster than that (c.10 minutes for one person).<\/p>\n

Three has previously said that, at launch, eSIM support would be specific to their Apple Watches, while support for other mobile handsets will apparently take a “little longer<\/em>” to arrive (i.e. expect a long wait, knowing Three). We are reaching out to Three for an official comment.<\/p>\n

UPDATE 8:27am<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three has now added a page for their Apple Watch support (here<\/a>), which includes a line to the new pairing plan at the bottom.<\/p>\n