Expecting an eSIM life in April? Not on my Apple Watch!
Mobile operator Three UK is to launch eSIM support for 4G and 5G devices any time soon, starting with the Apple Watch, reports ISP Review. However, it was facing a bigger support issue on Tuesday, as the entire network was down.
eSIM does it
A growing number of new smartphones, smartwatches and other wearables on sale have eSIM as an option. Last year 3UK said that eSIM support would be launched in Q2, 2022. ISP Review’s vigilant editor Mark Jackson spotted that stands for Apple watches appeared in few of 3UK’s retail stores. The manager at one of those retail stores allegedly told an ISP Review reader that the Apple Watch would be launched from April 2022 on Three UK.
Ides of march
The arrival of the Apple Watch is a harbinger for the addition of eSIM support. “We can confirm that both eSIM support and the Apple Watch are due to launch on the Three network soon,” said a spokesman for 3UK. Rival operators including VMO2, Vodafone and BT-owned EE have long had eSIM support ready.
Down Detector
However 3UK was facing a sterner support challenge on Wednesday morning as the service monitor DownDetector registered an extensive series of outages across its network from 9am to 12 noon.
“I have a 4G+MIFI and is currently saying we have no WiFi is anyone else got problems with it?” said @CosgraveBoby. “Was now at Canary Wharf and not to my surprise no service thanks to ThreeUK,” said @appariciojunior, who concluded that: “It’s the worst mobile company in the entire UK. Counting the days for my contract to finish, going back to @EE which are expensive but it works all times.”
Countrywide problem
“It looks like your network is down. Like everywhere. Signal is bad enough as it is in my area (or your service is just shocking in general) still getting disconnected daily and having to reset my network constantly is beyond frustrating” said @LeeClutterbuck. Central Nottingham was no better, according to @Barndock, “I’ve restarted my phone and still getting no signal!”
Three tweets
However, Three UK’s customer services team has announced that normal service is restored. It tweeted: “Three’s services are now been [sic] restored for affected customers following a short outage earlier today. A small proportion of the customer base was impacted. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”