Samsung Galaxy watch

Samsung and other manufacturers have been complaining about A & V but of course with the Washington officials here no one wants to do any real work (except play social media games) and stop the monopolizing that is allowed. Maybe just maybe the DOJ will stop the GSMA along with A & V on with their request to lock eSIMs or at the very least allow a customer not purchasing subsidy driven driven devices to have a choice. Any customer who buys unlocked devices should not be forced into the same situation as customers who choose to do so.  Samsung is not the slow man on the totem pole here. Galaxy Watch is available for AT&T...just not to customers yet. A & V will probably let you all have it by Christmas to get your Christmas money. DOJ case will not be solved by then so devices will remain eSIM locked.

What manufacturers should do is start only providing non premium models to carriers that want to play games and make slow business decisions. Really I would play total hard ball and not provide such carriers with any devices but I know they are not bold enough to use that strategy. AT&T has been notorious about being slow to market on a lot of products and services. This was the same company that told me years ago that high speed internet was not important to them over voice lines.

The LG Sport watch was a different situation too. Different mileage achieved in regards to moving a specific carrier model to different carriers. Some features worked, others did not. I did not explore that option. Watch was too big. Poor execution by LG. Gear S3 is locked.

If you want fast OS updates, get a Pixel, Android One phone or something similar. There is no reason for any major network (MVNO do not count) carrier to stand in the way of OS updates that are needed for devices that manufacturers improve continuously though OS updates. AT&T is still slow and there is no reason for it. Once Google ships out the updates to hardware manufacturers and they ready the update for the appropriate chipset and specific variants, the carriers are the bottleneck. Always have been. Yes they have improved a bit, but they are still the bottleneck. They made my job so much harder when it came to OS updates needed for app/device support. Worked with Google directly on this. Frustrating to them. Ticks off devs. Makes support a much more harder experience than necessary. Slipping small updates through Play store was one option but not the problem solver of carriers being slow.

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@JoaTXpert2 wrote:

Samsung and other manufacturers have been complaining about A & V but of course with the Washington officials here no one wants to do any real work (except play social media games) and stop the monopolizing that is allowed. Maybe just maybe the DOJ will stop the GSMA along with A & V on with their request to lock eSIMs or at the very least allow a customer not purchasing subsidy driven driven devices to have a choice. Any customer who buys unlocked devices should not be forced into the same situation as customers who choose to do so.  Samsung is not the slow man on the totem pole here. Galaxy Watch is available for AT&T...just not to customers yet. A & V will probably let you all have it by Christmas to get your Christmas money. DOJ case will not be solved by then so devices will remain eSIM locked.

 

What manufacturers should do is start only providing non premium models to carriers that want to play games and make slow business decisions. Really I would play total hard ball and not provide such carriers with any devices but I know they are not bold enough to use that strategy. AT&T has been notorious about being slow to market on a lot of products and services. This was the same company that told me years ago that high speed internet was not important to them over voice lines.

 

The LG Sport watch was a different situation too. Different mileage achieved in regards to moving a specific carrier model to different carriers. Some features worked, others did not. I did not explore that option. Watch was too big. Poor execution by LG. Gear S3 is locked.

 

If you want fast OS updates, get a Pixel, Android One phone or something similar. There is no reason for any major network (MVNO do not count) carrier to stand in the way of OS updates that are needed for devices that manufacturers improve continuously though OS updates. AT&T is still slow and there is no reason for it. Once Google ships out the updates to hardware manufacturers and they ready the update for the appropriate chipset and specific variants, the carriers are the bottleneck. Always have been. Yes they have improved a bit, but they are still the bottleneck. They made my job so much harder when it came to OS updates needed for app/device support. Worked with Google directly on this. Frustrating to them. Ticks off devs. Makes support a much more harder experience than necessary. Slipping small updates through Play store was one option but not the problem solver of carriers being slow.

 

 

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Oh I agree with all that.  That DOJ case has not moved in months and will die as they always do.  The only reason Tmobile played ball is they want the sprint merger to go thru.  Project treble was suppose to fix all this but google still has not fully rolled it out.  If the ATT version of the Galaxy watch is available for ATT its not seen the light of the FCC for approval since it will have a ATT model number they have to amend or send for new approval. 

I agree T-Mo really wants the merger to go through.  Not sure how the move will work out for them short term.  I understand promises of a 5G future, but all the different networks that would have to be supported in the interim plus when you factor in the MVNOs they provide network service to....yikes!  I guess it is good for job opportunities at the very least.  I am sure the combining the billing systems will be a fun (or a major headache) project for some merger project team as well.

I remember chatter about FCC submissions a few months ago.  Based on what I peeked into I am not 100% convinced we will see anything else recognizable outside of the submissions for WCDMA/LTE Wrist device:  3LSMR8050, A3LSMR805F, A3LSMR805U, A3LSMR815F, A3LSMR815U.   Looks like all of the bands were covered and tested in the submitted documentation including bands AT&T and Verizon uses.  This is why I am saying the watch is ready from Samsung's standpoint.  Unless you work within the FCC or something (which you could) or found something different, I have no other reasonable conclusions to not be convinced that watches that AT&T and Verizon could provide to customers are ready.  The Unpacked event never said they were not ready either...just they would be available late 2018 (i.e. Christmas or maybe as early as Black Friday to drive sales and anticipation?)

BTW I did not found any add digits or characters on the submissions (i.e. SM-R815U[ZKAXAR]) which is supposedly the unlocked variant that only works on T-Mobile that is available at Best Buy, T-Mobile, etc.  Have you found any documentation as such in specificity? 

Either way, I know it frustrates the the average consumer to no end...waiting...anticipating...repeat of cycle.  I am not sure if the watch is really ideal to have based on the volume of complaints on Samsung support regarding sensors and battery life.  Disgruntled customers were still waiting on a software patch last time I peeked in.  Guess that is why I am not holding on to the edge of my seat really wanting one...yet.  We will see down the road.  Not sure if I am ready to deal with Tizen again yet either.  Maybe when some people in XDA get a Wear OS port working I may be inclined to come in the forums asking the age old question of "when is the watch coming to AT&T?"

Do we know for sure whether AT&T are going to stock the LTE watch?  If they are not, I will move to Verizon.  Anyone know.  I called Samsung and they said it was up to AT&T.

I have been with the same cell service for 20 odd years.  Maybe it is time for a change.

FWIW. Spoke with att and samsung today. Both assured me the gallaxy watch lte will work on att service. Att says ..

buy the phone from samsung, go to att site "bring your own phone" page ,follow the prompts.  Supply imei number and I'm good to go.

I already tried this with my galaxy watch  i updated my gear S IMEI number with the number of the galaxy watch. It accepted the changes and even recognized it as a galaxy watch. But after an hour, it still doesn't make or receive calls 

They changed how the watches work.  It must be activated thru the gear app

I have tries to activate the watch in stand alone mode, as well as with the app. In stand alone mode, you must connect to a wifi network. After you select your country you are given a list of network operators. In my case, after selecting United States, i was presented with 2 opinions. "TestOperatorHPE" and "DemoTestServer." Those are the only two options given when trying to activate in standalone mode. Neither of them worked by the way. When i tried to activate the watch using the wearables app, i get an error "mobile service cannot be setup from this phone." I have tried with both my Samsung Note 8 as well as my iPhone 8 plus. Both of which are on the same AT&T business plan as the gear S that I'm trying to replace. As i have written in another post, there is some glitch somewhere in this process with either AT&T or Samsung with this eSim. We are not getting a straight answer from either company. But i can only guess that whatever the problem is, that is the reason AT&T has not yet released this watch in their lineup.