Sticker shock! $$ for cell phone plans… Looking for advice.

[MrKennedy]

Say, thanks again for all the follow-ups!

I like Alameda's distinction of AW with GPS, AW with Cellular, and AW with Cell Plan! Apple should steal that and pay A. royalties!

Uh-oh. Just when I thought I was getting a complete handle on all this, Night Spring made this pithy comment.



I'm wanting to use Fall Detection with automatic Emergency SOS calling WITHOUT a cellular plan at all. My carrier, Tracfone, doesn't support the Watch. That's why Apple's statement alarmed me!

“Some cellular networks may not accept an emergency call from your Apple Watch Series 5, Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Series 6, or Apple Watch Series 7 (GPS + Cellular) if your Apple Watch isn’t activated,​

​

if it isn’t compatible with or configured to operate on a particular cellular network,​

​

or​

​

if isn’t set up for cellular service.” https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/make-an-emergency-phone-call-apd4ea933124/watchos​

An Apple Watch appears to be incompatible with Tracfone. But, again, this is likely due to my misunderstanding of what "compatible" means and what "set up for cellular service" means!

Oh, as to WiFi and BT, my iPhone is almost always off and when any of my i-devices are on, they are in Airplane Mode, with WiFi and BT off, to save battery life.

Break is right -- getting and trying a Watch is now the course I'm on...

OTOH, Break, how does one test the emergency features of the watch? I do NOT want to call 911. In many places, you are fined for making false 911 calls.

I'll try contacting Tracfone at some point, but knowing what customer service is like with cell phone companies, I'm not sure I can trust the answer!

I have much greater confidence in the collective wisdom of MacRumors commenters!

OP you're making this harder for yourself than it needs to be.

Battery drain on iPhones is minimal if you aren't using them... so why toggle airplane mode? It'll break the connection with the watch (if you get one). IMO a cellular watch is only necessary and useful if you regularly find yourself needing to be away from your phone. A non-cellular watch paired with your phone on a prepaid service should be more than enough for your uses.

Here's a support article on cancelling an SOS Emergency call from the watch: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206983

 

[villein]

Keep in mind that if there is no cell service where you're hiking, then the watch won't be able to make an emergency call. That is part of the reason that Apple has a disclaimer. There are many places in the US, particularly ones where you'd be hiking or doing outdoor activities, where there isn't cell service. The Apple Watch can't create cell service where there isn't any.

 

[Wpaulo]

I’ve been deciding which Apple Watch to get. That's been a fun exploration. Fitness functions, podcasts, weather, etc. would be good to have. Would particularly like the emergency calling function.

That’s why I'm focusing on a cellular Watch and exploring cell phone options.

An EKG function would be good, too. A Watch with that would be the 7, which is pricey.

Suddenly, though, I realized that the BIGGEST cost would be for the cell phone service!

Here's the rub. Our phones are now on low-cost prepaid plans, $8/month. (One essentially costs $0 as we can text message donations of accumulated funds to our favorite charities.) My iPhone is attached to a non-Watch carrier. We make very few cell phone calls — and even fewer during the pandemic.

If I understand things correctly, I’d need to have a regular cell phone plan (postpaid) with the iPhone and, then, might have to add a dedicated Watch plan, too.

I've been staggered by how quickly all this adds up. The cheapest cell phone plans I've found are something like $30/month for TWO phone lines — that is, $60 per month! I rummaged AT&T's site for a while and finally found a $65 per month (!) starter plan for a SINGLE line! Verizon's is $70 per month. And, that's not including monthly fees, taxes, etc.

Then, the Watch cell plan added would be another $10 plus line fees and taxes, which could run another $5-7. People often write about $10/month extra for the Watch, but it's more like $15-17. So, I’m up to $80+ a month just to get the Watch's cellular functions working.

Even if I don't set up a Watch plan — supposedly emergency calling should still work — we're still talking a HUGE monthly cost — not just the $65, but fees and taxes to boot. So, say $70+ per month. $840 per year. Or, about $2,500+ over three years! Add in $620 for a Watch 7 plus Apple Care and we're looking at over three grand!!

Besides which, Apple has a big disclaimer about emergency calling from the Watch without prior activation and configuration.

“Some cellular networks may not accept an emergency call from your Apple Watch Series 5, Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Series 6, or Apple Watch Series 7 (GPS + Cellular) if your Apple Watch isn’t activated, if it isn’t compatible with or configured to operate on a particular cellular network, or if isn’t set up for cellular service.” https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/make-an-emergency-phone-call-apd4ea933124/watchos​

It seems like the Watch is a great proposition if you already have a family cell phone plan but, otherwise, it's an outrageously expensive proposition.

I'm hoping you all can correct my misunderstandings or point me to a cheaper approach to all this! I'd really like to get a Watch, but this cell phone plan biz is now the big obstacle!

 

[Wpaulo]

I haven’t checked on this thread in a while… what Apple Watch did you select?
just wondering if you had checked out that truphone website and what you might’ve thought of it As a carrier for your Apple Watch

 

[shakopeemn]

Keep in mind that if there is no cell service where you're hiking, then the watch won't be able to make an emergency call. That is part of the reason that Apple has a disclaimer. There are many places in the US, particularly ones where you'd be hiking or doing outdoor activities, where there isn't cell service. The Apple Watch can't create cell service where there isn't any.

Agreed on needing a cellular signal in the first place in the boonies.

Also, the cellular service with the watch works great in urban settings. Rural / hiking? You have to ask yourself if the watch on your wrist meets or exceeds the ability of an iPhone in obtaining a signal from a distant tower.

For serious hiking, the original poster may want to consider an emergency satellite phone.

 

[Saturn007]

Once more, thanks for all your feedback and advice.
To answer several questions and respond to points…

1. Night Spring, I use my prepaid iPhone only for emergency calling — and, rarely, CarPlay for maps. So, it's off, just as our flip phones are. Plus, every time we've left the iPhone cell on, we get SPAM messages and random calls. Got into the habit of AM On and WiFi Off because of advice about preserving battery life on the iPhone 4. Also, my IPT 6G consumes enormous battery life whenever WiFi is left on.

The battery also lasts longer on our iPads in Airplane Mode. But it seems things are different and much better with recent iPhones!

2. Bodhitree, so, if I were in Europe, my concerns about the cost of a Watch cell plan would be moot!

3. Break, I agree with your point about asking people who know. But I’d never trust what a single cop or EMT says about the law, emergency calling, etc. That's why I'm not asking the general public for advice, but MR commenters who are skilled, informed, and more knowledgeable than a random cop or the general public! ?

Nor is my use case singular. Emergency calling is a much-touted Apple Watch feature.

If you're game, please call 911 as a test for me, with Watch alone, away from iPhone. That will be helpful. But, then, you may be on a cell plan for your Watch!

4. By the way, I contacted Tracfone's customer service and, as I anticipated, they were clueless about Emergency SOS calling. They kept insisting it couldn't be done with Apple Watch and Tracfone! So much for relying people who are supposed to know!

5. Starshot, glad to hear about the speaker volume. Wish Apple would let us play podcasts through it!

6. Kennedy, agree, I’m overthinking it all. I analyze EXPENSIVE purchases $$$ at length beforehand because I enjoy research and hate gotchas! As I mentioned, I've concluded I need cellular because I want to lend my Watch to my spouse for walks to provide them with Fall Detection and Emergency Calling. So, GPS only wouldn’t work!

7. Villein and Shako, good points. Remote hiking would be an issue. The cell coverage maps, e.g., Tracfone's, have been roundly criticized for being misleading with disclaimers about coverage, data vs. calling coverage differences, roaming issues, etc. Fortunately, where we usually go, we've found that calling works fine!

8. Paolo, no Watch yet. Spending time getting ready for the holidays and a whole bunch of other shopping. It looks like the Watch will be one with cellular AND ECG. As to services, I looked into Truphone a bit, but it's one more level of complexity for me — and seems to require a cell phone plan with a carrier as far as I can tell. Maybe not... But that is, at least, one decision that can be delayed until AFTER I get the Watch!

 

[Night Spring]

I use my prepaid iPhone only for emergency calling

This made me laugh, because I never use my iPhone to actually make calls. Part of it is I'm hard of hearing so I'd much rather text people than try to follow a conversation over the phone. But more than that, for me, the iPhone is primarily an Internet connection device that fits in my pocket. I tend to forget it can be used to make phone calls.

I suspect if you do get the watch, you might find yourself keeping the phone on longer. A lot of the health metrics the watch collects are better viewed on the iPhone Health and Activity apps. and while you can do things like set up watch faces on the watch itself, it's more pleasant to do it from the phone.

And while yes, turning off wifi, Bluetooth, etc, do make the battery on iDevices last longer, in my experience, the difference isn't significant enough to affect my usage. I take my iPad or iPhone off the charger in the morning, use them all day, and plug them back in when I go to bed. Sometimes there's 30% battery left, other times it's like 15%, and once in a while, it dips below 10%. If I constantly turn the wifi/bluetooth off and on, I may save maybe 10% battery? It doesn't change the fact that I need to plug it in at night. Also, as I said, the primary function of the iPhone I use is the Internet connectivity. If I'm going to keep that off all the time, it will be much less useful for me.

I'm just finding it fascinating that your use of the iPhone seems so different from mine. I hope you don't mind -- I like to try to understand a different perspective, when I get the chance.

 

[Saturn007]

I'm just finding it fascinating that your use of the iPhone seems so different from mine. I hope you don't mind -- I like to try to understand a different perspective, when I get the chance

Not at all! Your comments here have been wonderfully helpful…

Wish more people would try to understand different perspectives; the world would be a better place.

I chuckled aloud over your comment about “tending to forget” that the iPhone can also make calls!

In fact, our use of the iPhone may be more similar than it first appears. Like you, I generally do not use the phone to make calls. I have a second iPhone SE — not linked to any cell service — that I use to listen to Podcasts, track my walking (steps and distance), and, sometimes, read the news. It stays in standby, ready for use, with Wi-Fi and BT off. Most of my i-device use, however, is via an iPad.

I tested something the other day — I turned off Airplane Mode on the iPhone SE and turned ON Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Came back an hour later and discovered a 13-percentage drop in battery life! Without any use of it at all and with Background Refresh toggled universally OFF, too! Pretty significant hit. So, off they stay unless needed.

Under iOS 15.1, Wi-Fi active use has really hurt the battery life on my iPad Air 2, far more than 14.8, which had no impact relative to earlier iOSs. That's a shame because my iPad is the one I am on for several hours a day, especially reading the news and MacRumors!

It’s funny, but I think you will be right about my iPhone use once I get a Watch. Just today, I was picturing being out for a walk and calling home with it via the iPhone in my pocket! That'd be convenient and fun. And, it would mean having the phone on, of course. (Again, no cell service plan for the Watch as it wouldn't be useful for my situation.)

As you predict, I can readily see myself returning to home base and viewing exercise and health details on the phone rather than on the Watch!

Thanks for your continued help — and offering me different perspectives on a host of issues!

 

[Night Spring]

I tested something the other day — I turned off Airplane Mode on the iPhone SE and turned ON Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Came back an hour later and discovered a 13-percentage drop in battery life! Without any use of it at all and with Background Refresh toggled universally OFF, too! Pretty significant hit. So, off they stay unless needed.

Under iOS 15.1, Wi-Fi active use has really hurt the battery life on my iPad Air 2, far more than 14.8, which had no impact relative to earlier iOSs.

Okay, this is real interesting. I've been getting less battery life on my iPad and iPhone, and I've been chalking that up to the batteries being old, but now I'm wondering if iOS 15 could be to blame. I might test this sometime, even though it wouldn't be of much practical use to me, because as I said, the functions for which I use my iDevices require internet connectivity.

And thanks again for indulging in this conversation with me, it's now reminding me of the days when I first got the Apple Watch, imagining how I would use it. Some things worked exactly as I expected, others didn't quite work out, and some things turned out better than I thought, and overall, I'm happy with the watch. With new things, we just can't tell until we try, right?

One thing that I found is I don't use all the pretty but not really functional watch faces all that often. I tend to have one or two complication-heavy watch faces that I use to track my daily activity, and I just don't have the time to look at the more pretty faces. I sometimes switch to one of the pretty faces, then a few minutes later decide to switch to an activity face to check where I am on my activity goal, then just leave it there, because I'll always be switching back to the activity face, know what I mean? I feel faintly disappointed I'm not using all the varied and beautiful watch faces, lol.

 

[Saturn007]

Appreciate your perspective -- and recollections of getting your first Apple Watch. It's true -- until one tries a new (for them) product, one really cannot tell how it will work out, or what the general, intangible feel of using it will be.

There have been a few striking tech products that when I first used them, it felt like coming home -- everything was intuitive, brilliantly designed, and worked seamlessly. Four of them come to mind: the Macintosh, Palm PDA, the iPhone, and the original iPad. They were magical right from the get-go -- and a joy to use. It'd be wonderful if the Apple Watch had some of that, but I'm setting my expectations low, so they'll be exceeded!

As to the battery drain, just to clarify something. My iPhone SE is on 14.8.1 not 15. It works incredibly well while I'm using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but it does lose ground when left in standby if those things are on. Where iOS 15.1 has taken its toll for me is on the iPad Air 2 during use of Wi-Fi (BT off).

One other question, which I hope that you or others can answers. I recall reading that for a Watch 7 to work, or to use Watch OS 8, one's iPhone has to be on iOS 15.1! Hope I'm wrong, as it might hit battery life, but given that I don't really use the iPhone SE that much, it shouldn't matter!

I also decided to hold off ordering the Watch until after the holidays... I've been reading the threads about shipment delays and I don't want to mess with ordering in the the onslaught of holiday mailings.

Back to my original post... (so no one can accuse me of hijacking my own thread! )

Even without getting a special cell plan for the Watch, I'm going to have to get used to the idea of spending more on an Apple Watch than I have on any iPad... and get used to the idea of having such an expensive device on my wrist!

 

[Night Spring]

I recall reading that for a Watch 7 to work, or to use Watch OS 8, one's iPhone has to be on iOS 15.1!

watchOS 11

watchOS 11 helps you better understand your daily health status using your overnight vitals and shows you how workouts impact your body over time.

www.apple.com

Scroll down almost to the end, and it says watchos 8 requires iOS 15 or later.

Apple does tend to have a problem with their older software/hardware not working with newer products. My iMac broke, so I dug out an old iMac, which does everything I need a computer to do, but it doesn't update to the latest Mac OS, so I can't use it to control my iDevices. A Windows machine of the same age will likely be able to do that if I install iTunes.

As for the price of the watch, yes, I suppose it gets pretty high since you are getting the cellular model. I stick to the aluminum GPS-only model, and except for hanging on to the S0, have traded-in the older watch whenever I upgrade. That helps keep the cost down to a level well below what I paid for my iPads. Yes, it's a pretty expensive thing to wear on your wrist, but for me, it's worth the price. I hope it works for you too, but we shall see, right?

 

[AJK13K]

I’ve been deciding which Apple Watch to get. That's been a fun exploration. Fitness functions, podcasts, weather, etc. would be good to have. Would particularly like the emergency calling function.

That’s why I'm focusing on a cellular Watch and exploring cell phone options.

An EKG function would be good, too. A Watch with that would be the 7, which is pricey.

Suddenly, though, I realized that the BIGGEST cost would be for the cell phone service!

Here's the rub. Our phones are now on low-cost prepaid plans, $8/month. (One essentially costs $0 as we can text message donations of accumulated funds to our favorite charities.) My iPhone is attached to a non-Watch carrier. We make very few cell phone calls — and even fewer during the pandemic.

If I understand things correctly, I’d need to have a regular cell phone plan (postpaid) with the iPhone and, then, might have to add a dedicated Watch plan, too.

I've been staggered by how quickly all this adds up. The cheapest cell phone plans I've found are something like $30/month for TWO phone lines — that is, $60 per month! I rummaged AT&T's site for a while and finally found a $65 per month (!) starter plan for a SINGLE line! Verizon's is $70 per month. And, that's not including monthly fees, taxes, etc.

Then, the Watch cell plan added would be another $10 plus line fees and taxes, which could run another $5-7. People often write about $10/month extra for the Watch, but it's more like $15-17. So, I’m up to $80+ a month just to get the Watch's cellular functions working.

Even if I don't set up a Watch plan — supposedly emergency calling should still work — we're still talking a HUGE monthly cost — not just the $65, but fees and taxes to boot. So, say $70+ per month. $840 per year. Or, about $2,500+ over three years! Add in $620 for a Watch 7 plus Apple Care and we're looking at over three grand!!

Besides which, Apple has a big disclaimer about emergency calling from the Watch without prior activation and configuration.

“Some cellular networks may not accept an emergency call from your Apple Watch Series 5, Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Series 6, or Apple Watch Series 7 (GPS + Cellular) if your Apple Watch isn’t activated, if it isn’t compatible with or configured to operate on a particular cellular network, or if isn’t set up for cellular service.” https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/make-an-emergency-phone-call-apd4ea933124/watchos​

It seems like the Watch is a great proposition if you already have a family cell phone plan but, otherwise, it's an outrageously expensive proposition.

I'm hoping you all can correct my misunderstandings or point me to a cheaper approach to all this! I'd really like to get a Watch, but this cell phone plan biz is now the big obstacle!

In the US there are several low cost providers that piggy back on the big carriers networks. I use Consumer Cellular for 38 dollars a month. Unlimited talk and text and data that I never use. There are other vendors in the same business so you can shop. You buy the service and they send you a SIM card. It should be for the big vendor’s coverage that is most accessible in your area. Verizon, T-Mobile etc. I cannot speak for the other vendors but consumer cellular was very easy to deal with.

Art

 

[Bodhitree]

In the US there are several low cost providers that piggy back on the big carriers networks. I use Consumer Cellular for 38 dollars a month. Unlimited talk and text and data that I never use. There are other vendors in the same business so you can shop. You buy the service and they send you a SIM card. It should be for the big vendor’s coverage that is most accessible in your area. Verizon, T-Mobile etc. I cannot speak for the other vendors but consumer cellular was very easy to deal with.

Art

These are the kind of service providers who do good and low-cost work here in the Netherlands. I’m with a company called Lebara, and they do a full-service plan for 9 euros a month which gives unlimited calls, texts and 5 GB data (which I almost never reach).

 

[Saturn007]

Night Spring, it seems one almost needs a roadmap or chart to figure out all the options and combinations. I suppose the easiest solution is buy the latest, “greatest” to be sure things will work. Thanks for the link—so, it'll be iOS 15, for sure. I think I can overcome the psychological hang-up of the expensive single item… Had to do the same in astronomy with costly eyepieces.

Art, thanks for the heads-up. I’m on a prepaid Tracfone plan for only about $7 a month — so, even $38 a month would be too rich for my blood! ? Mine comes with a bunch of *accumulating* call minutes and data that, just like you, I’ll never get through!

Bodhitree, that's a great deal for *unlimited* calls and text and 5gb of data. Does the data vanish after each month?