Apple Watch for kids gets Telstra plan in Australia

Australian parents can now put a cellular Apple Watch on Telstra’s network for a child without giving them an iPhone, removing a local constraint on Apple’s Family Setup feature.

The carrier is selling its Telstra Watch Plan for Apple Watch users at $20 a month, EFTM reported. Apple’s setup model still hinges on carrier support; compatible hardware alone is not enough. A parent can manage the watch from their own iPhone, but the device needs an eligible mobile service to place calls, send messages and report its location away from home.

In its plan copy, Telstra says: “Your kids will get their own phone number for their Apple Watch so they can call or text you.”

Apple’s Australian support page says Family Setup “lets family members who don’t have their own iPhone enjoy the features and benefits of an Apple Watch” while using a family organiser’s iPhone for setup and management. The feature is aimed at children and older relatives, not only at parents buying a first device for school-aged kids.

That gives families a narrower choice than a smartphone. A child can call home after sport, receive a pickup message, or use the watch’s location and safety features without carrying a handset with a full app store and social feeds. It is still a connected device. Telstra’s move mainly changes the network part of the decision.

What changes on Telstra’s network

Introduced in 2020, Family Setup has had stable hardware requirements for years. Apple says families need an Apple Watch Series 4 or later with cellular, watchOS 7 or later, and an iPhone 6s or later for the initial setup. The uneven part in Australia has been carrier support.

EFTM’s Trevor Long framed Telstra’s entry as a fix for that local limitation. Family Setup “only worked with one telco, and that was problematic for many,” he wrote, because parents who wanted the feature had to work around network availability rather than choose only the watch model and plan that suited them.

Under Telstra’s watch plan, children get their own phone number for the watch. A parent can keep the phone account and setup controls on their iPhone while the child uses a separate watch number for calls and texts.

Why parents may care

Contact is the obvious use case. A primary-school child walking to a friend’s house, training after school or waiting at a bus stop can carry a watch that handles basic communication. Older relatives may also use the setup if they want a wearable for contact and safety features but do not want to manage an iPhone.

Limits remain. Family Setup still requires a compatible cellular Apple Watch, a family organiser with an iPhone, and a mobile plan that supports the feature. Telstra’s $20 monthly charge sits on top of the watch purchase price. That makes it a convenience play for families already in Apple’s ecosystem, not a low-cost phone replacement.

For Telstra, the move gives Australia’s largest carrier a cleaner answer to a kid-focused wearable use case that Apple has promoted for years. For parents comparing a first phone with a connected watch, it removes one network barrier. The remaining question is whether the monthly cost and Apple’s device lock-in are worth the narrower, parent-managed option.