How to Activate Samsung watch LTE

Hi there, as you can see from above, the LTE on the Galaxy Watch does work, it just has to be set up properly.  For example, if you do not have a Samsung Galaxy phone, you have to borrow one and insert your SIM into the Samsung device, set up the LTE, then move your SIM back to your regular phone.  This is after you have set up your line for Multiple Devices, paired your Data with Paired DIGITS line to your primary line, and activated the watch's EID.

• Member Since: Nov 6, 2018

There is no LTE  call and tex for galaxy watch on any carrier yet. chat with samsung support they said no one claim this issue please take action and claim this issue to Samsung , because T- mobile and any carrier did not take action at all and they sell this watch without care about customers.

this is the link  Smartwatches | Official Samsung Support  right click on the link then open new tab

• Member Since: Nov 6, 2018

There is no LTE  call and tex for galaxy watch on any carrier yet. chat with samsung support they said no one claim this issue please take action and claim this issue to Samsung , because T- mobile and any carrier did not take action at all and they sell this watch without care about customers.

this is the link  Smartwatches | Official Samsung Support  right click on the link then open new tab

There is no LTE  call and tex for galaxy watch on any carrier yet. chat with samsung support they said no one claim this issue please take action and claim this issue to Samsung , because T- mobile and any carrier did not take action at all and they sell this watch without care about customers.

this is the link  Smartwatches | Official Samsung Support  right click on the link then open new tab

magenta2848034 comment is absolutely correct!!!! I have a Verizon phone - Google pixel - and both Verizon and Samsung reps could NOT figure out how to connect my mobile network. They even sent me a warranty replacement because they thought the watch was broken. Turns out I read magenta2848034 exact comment and did it myself. Shut my pixel off, took out my sim card, put it into my sister's Samsung Galaxy 7, activated the cell network/set up watch and mobile network on Samsung Galaxy phone, turned off Samsung, took out my pixel sim card, put my sim card back into pixel phone, repaired watch with pixel phone. Worked like a charm. The only thing is is that I had to initially connect the watch to the Samsung phone with WiFi then on the watch clicked use mobile network same as phone and the Samsung phone automatically let me connect to Bluetooth/initiate the mobile network connection - select "always on" mobile network on watch at first just to make sure the transfer of sim card to non-samaung phone works.  Connecting with Bluetooth only may work but I couldn't get it to. Also! After re-pairing watch to pixel after I put the sim card back in the watch automatically wanted to restart because of the new device - says you'll lose personal data but the mobile connection didn't get turned off/lost. This may all seem wordy/a little confusing but the original comment helped me TREMENDOUSLY. Literally NO ONE could figure it out at Verizon or Samsung despite 3+ hours working on it/problem solving. Great work Jay at T-Mobile and  magenta2848034 for spreading the word. Thanks much and good luck to all with non-Samsung phones!!

So glad everything is working out! Many thanks to you and @kronikole for sharing your stories!

That's how my husband and I got ours together. We're in good shape

though. Hopefully this situation will help someone else. I think part of

it is the fact that Moto idnt the first thing you think of when you think

smart phone. They really are awesome though with less embedded apps, and

the projector saved us on vacation with oue little ones!

Thank you all for weighing in.

Hi there!  I'm so sorry you've been having so many issues.  If the above is correct, you will need to have access to a Samsung phone to complete the setup, hopefully someone in the store will be able to spare his/her phone for a moment to complete the setup properly.  Let us know how it goes!

im having the same issue.

my phone is an HTC U11 (factory unlocked) and all i got is the "cant be set up from this phone" message.

funny, i bought my watch on a brick and mortar store and they just told me that activation issues are common, that i just have to wait a few hours for watch to get service. but its been a long week and my watch still have no service. i contacted CS and they did their best to help me, but nothing. i believe the problem is on Samsung side... software? who knows. if i cant get my watch working as intended i just return the watch and get the Bluetooth-only model directly from Samsung.

i just printed the whole tread. im returning tomorrow to my local store. hopefully they get to figure it out.

This is the only correct answer. The rest are valuable information, but the do NOT answer this question.

I have now spent a total of 8 hours on this issue, and it is resolved.  It took one T Mobile tech at the store, an online internal T Mobile tech, as part of an escalation, and finally an online technician at Samsung. 

So with a total of 24 person-hours, the conclusion is that neither T Mobile nor Samsung was prepared to release this watch.  Both companies need to apologize to their customers, AND prepare NEW documentation!  This watch is NOT the same as every other Galaxy watch.

I work in IBM Level 3 support, so I have a great deal of experience.  Here is the actual issue:

During the watch setup - which is done mostly on a phone (this is bad design), the network section of the setup is where the failure comes: the order of the steps, inside the software is backwards:

1) Find network

2) Download eSIM profile

The eSIM profile is the issue!  Without the eSIM profile, the internal eSIM cannot be activated - not by ANY T Mobile tech, nor Samsung. The mistake in the software is tying the eSIM prompt with the network discovery: if the network is not found ON THE PHONE, then the eSIM download is SKIPPED!  Unbelievable! No matter what your cell provider, the watch will NEVER work on a cell network without enabling the eSIM.  Ridiculous.

So, the "solution" is, you have to BUY a T Mobile phone!  Or, as elsewhere in this thread, find someone a T Mobile that will allow you to do the complete installation on THEIR phone - only so you can get past the (cell) network discovery, and thus download the eSIM profile.  Then, after the watch is completely set up on the "wrong" phone, you can pair is with any phone, and it work amazing!  You will automatically get texts, calls, messages from your phone, when in paired mode, and then from the cell provider (T Mobile) when in standalone.  Seamless and no configuration.

Here are additional problems that tech support doesn't know

1) The entire initial setup requires connection to the internet (wi fi).  You can't set up the watch without connecting your phone to wi fi, even if you have a T Mobile phone connected to mobile data.

2) There is NO WAY to unpair the "wrong" phone after the "false" setup!  There is no unpair menu option!  Wow! Instead, you need to go to the watch menu, and select "Connect to other phone".  This is nerve wracking, since it then says "Resetting" - you worry that the reset will delete the eSIM activation.  After this, the other phone's data is erased (I guess?!?!?)

3) On the watch, prior to eSIM profile download, the watch gives the message "Please insert SIM card."  This is TERRIBLE programming!  There is no physical way to insert ANYTHING into this watch - the SIM is built in!  So, no matter what, that message should NEVER appear on this device. Instead - imagine this! - a message that says "Would you like to download the eSIM profile?" 

4) In paired mode, when you make a call from the watch, it actually makes the call from the phone's number, not the watch's.  Just fyi

As for the DIGITS account, T Mobile never had any problem with this: my DIGITS accounts was easily activated, I got a phone number for the watch, and could send calls to voicemail.