Problem activating eSIM for Apple Watch Ultra

[Hammertime]

Greetings! 

I recently purchased an Apple Watch Ultra (from Curry's) to work alongside my Apple iPhone 14 Pro (from an O2 reseller). Thus far, I have not been able to make the watch work properly when away from the iPhone. I visited an O2 shop (having tried to do it remotely) and was given an eSim QR code pack. So, having called O2 to reset everything I had tried to do before, these were the steps I took:

1) Logged into the iPhone under: Settings > Mobile data > add eSIM. The "Primary" line (my normal mobile number) activated straight away. The secondary line ("Watch") took a while to activaate but as you can see from the second photo, it eventually activated

2) I then went into the Apple watch app on the iPhone and went to: My watch > Mobile data > Add mobile plan. It went through the activation steps and then produced the picture below (black background). It appears the activation went through, but the line "Your O2 account is not eligible to enable mobile service on your Apple Watch. Contact O2 for more information" is flumoxxing me. Why would it say this?

3) On the watch itself, I then went to Settings > Mobile data and it shows that there is a green slider against: Mobile service, Mobile data, and a green tick against Plan next to "O2" and the status says "connected". 

4) However, in Settings > General > About, it says under Network "Not available", and under ICCID, it says No Sim - although this changes occasinally and is replaced by a long number. 

I am completely at a loss as to what's happened here. I cannot make calls or access the www on the Apple watch unless the phone and watch are tethered - which negates the whole point of having an Apple Watch Ultra. Apple cannot help, as they say it's a carrier issue and the latest person I talked to from O2 said there was a problem with the mast near my house. BUT that's nonsense, as the iPhone works fine on voice and data - presumably off the same mast. 

Please help me - this whole thing makes me want to throw the whole lot out of the window! 

Cheers, 

H

[pgn]

Great pictures, @Hammertime.

Have you applied the latest iOS to your phone, and the embedded update for the watch that comes along with?

If you have, it makes the Watch setup on O2 work a lot better, there's a post here about it:

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Discussions-Feedback/Apple-Watch-OS-9-3-and-O2-Airtime-Plan-Connectivi...

Otherwise, I will tag @O2nath_ci who is on at the moment, he can ask you for some info to check if there is anything that O2 need to do from their side.

Good Luck!

[O2nath_ci]

thanks for the tag @pgn 

@Hammertime i  will private message you 

[Hammertime]

thank you

[Hammertime]

Thank you for the message - yes I always update my software the minute it comes out.

[Hammertime]

This is interesting - the phone serials for the watch esim are different on the phone to the corresponding one on the watch! Surely they’re meant to be the Same? 

 

 

[Hammertime · Accepted solution]

Interesting......fixed it now......found a very skilled technician in the South African contact centre. Turns out you don't need an eSim at all. You just need a data bolt on. I have literally been told 50 different things from 50 different contact centre agents at O2. Clearly they are poorly trained. I have wasted hours on this. Anyway, sorted now. 

[pgn]

Persistence, @Hammertime - what bolt-on, for reference? iData?