I want to get an apple watch for my son, he doesn't have an iphone so would be set up via family set up from my phone. The two network providers listed on the web site - EE and Truphone both say they don't offer roaming for these plans. Is there any way my son can have a watch and use while abroad?
If he will travel abroad I strongly advise he has his own iphone with SIM tray like the SE2022 as finding a short term eSIM provider who also supports family sharing will be (almost) impossible. Popping a local SIM into the iphone is so easy.
In UK only EE supports family shared Watch and you are looking at a 12 month contract.
It's also good to hear what the EE eSIM addition costs in UK. Compares with the typical $10 a month in USA
Off Topic: I'm into GiffGaff and Lebara MVNOs on 30 day rolling plans on iphone so cellular Watch is out of the question for me. eSIM are rare enough on mainstream so I was pleasantly surprised to learn about Truphone eSIM who seem to fill the gap for family paired watches. They use O2 I believe though they started out in UK on Vodafone.
Apple do not have them in their list of network providers in UK so I was misled.
EE just dropped their own PlusNet MVNO. VirginMobile are moving from Vodafone onto O2 so theres a lot of churn in the MVNO market here.
Unfortunately, if your plan doesn't offer data roaming, there just isn't much you can do. That's a feature they would have to offer.
He’s only 7 so a phone isn’t practical I am afraid. I had a sim added to my phone contract with EE for £7 on a monthly rolling which worked fine except for the data roaming.
Ok I thought maybe school trip or gap year!
Apple watch family set up and data roaming
