With The Announcement Of The Samsung Galaxy Watch, The Lack Of Support For eSIM On The Rogers Network Is Further Highlighted
Since the Apple Watch was announced last fall Rogers has been on the back foot trying to tap dance around the fact that their chief rivals Bell and Telus can support the eSIM technology that it uses and they can’t. Last week Rogers problems increased as Samsung announced the Samsung Galaxy Watch. Guess what? It uses eSIM technology as well. Thus it’s not available on the Rogers network. Something that is confirmed in this Tweet:
Hi Mike. We have plans to launch the technology for cellular-enabled wearable tech in 2018. We’ll update our customers as we get closer to that time and you can also check https://t.co/LuQ7gqTRaw for any updates. ^rp
— RogersHelps (@RogersHelps) August 9, 2018
If that response sounds familiar, it’s the same one that they’ve been using for months as they’ve tried to tap dance around this issue. But to be fair, Samsung hasn’t announced availability outside the US and Korea. Thus Rogers can’t really comment on a product that technically doesn’t exist yet. But the fact that questions are already popping up about whether Rogers supports this watch, and the fact that Rogers is serving up similar answers isn’t going to help the perception that Rogers is behind the eight ball when it comes to supporting the latest and greatest tech. Plus you can bet that because Telus and Bell who already support eSIM technology are going to be quickly pushing that narrative the second that the Samsung Galaxy Watch does pop up in Canada. Not to mention that we’re likely a month or so away from an Apple press event where the latest version of the Apple Watch will likely appear. All of that will crank up the pressure on Rogers to support eSIM.
Let’s see if Rogers can actually follow through on their promise to get this done in 2018. I for one am skeptical they can, but I am free to be proven wrong.
August 24, 2018 at 9:04 pm
Doesnt the iphone x pixel 2 both only connect via esim?
August 24, 2018 at 9:07 pm
The Pixel 2 can take a SIM or you can use the eSIM and the iPhone X is SIM only.
January 25, 2019 at 7:02 pm
I spent alot of the day today calling Roger’s and getting escalated to higher and higher up the Rogers management chain.
In the end I spent over half an hour talking to the Office of the President of Roger’s.
Supposedly the very top of Rogers.
I was told that Roger’s has made a business decision to not support the Samsung Galaxy Watch.
And worse that they have no plans to support it at any time in the future.
I was on hold for nearly 10 minutes while the Office of the President checked and confirmed with all groups that there is no support planned at all.
(While I was told that they may change their mind at any time, it seems highly unlikely as these things are normally scheduled months in advanced)
This is extreamly discouraging.
When I pointed out that this is making a large number of Roger’s customers very upset, I was told that I could complain to the ombudsman (who had no control over business decisions).
I also pointed out that the type of person who buys a 500+ smartwatch is likely to also be spending alot on other Roger’s services and that this business decision was likely to be a expensive mistake.
In the end I have decided to move all my business to a different carrier.
Not my preferred choice, but I am left with no choice.
January 25, 2019 at 8:06 pm
Thank you for this tip. Check the blog as I just posted story on this.
January 25, 2019 at 8:05 pm
[…] got a comment related to this story that I posted about the Samsung Galaxy Watch. Which for those on Team Android is the chief […]