eSIMs for watches

[tnjrad]

This week I have received offers from the BT Shop for both Apple and Samsung 4G watches which state they enable you to "Roam without your phone". However both of these watches require an eSIM plan which BT Mobile currently does not offer.

When are BT Mobile going to offer eSIM watch plans?

I note on LinkedIn there is a "Product Manager - eSIM & SIM at BT" so something may be planned.

[Will168]

I phoned BT a few weeks ago, asking about eSIMs for consumer and it didn't sound like anything was coming any time soon.

They do offer eSIM for business customers, so the eSIM product manager on LinkedIn could be related to that.

Wouldn't hold your breath for now.

[Retrovertigo]

 How disappointing. I came here looking for an answer to this as I want to buy an Apple watch but wanted a cellular one. 

I've seen some people here remark that BT Mobile is a budget brand, and that just because they offer the watches for sale doesn't mean they need to be able to run them on their network. 

I think I would agree with that more if BT weren't a complete provider of all services....TV, Broadband and Mobile. If you want to try and always be tieing your customers into getting all those services from them, then the least they could do is make sure that the service actually covers everything in the first place. 

The really sneaky underhand part, is that on their website there doesn't seem to be any kind of warning that if you buy the cellular version, it won't work on their network. I won't say what I really think of that particular practice. 

[Will168]

I guess it could be down to them not wanting to cannibalise EE's market too much and therefore keeping some things exclusive to EE.

I have mine with EE and my mobile is also with EE, but I think you can have a standalone Watch plan with EE without the need for having any other service with them i.e. I'm pretty sure you can keep your iPhone with BT Mobile and then have your Apple Watch with EE and just be paying EE £7 a month. If that helps.

I actually only have my iPhone on EE because I use it for personal and work purposes. The network that work uses will only provide a physical SIM and therefore, I have to have my personal plan on ESIM. Otherwise, I would have moved to BT Mobile ages ago.