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Apple iOS with Dual SIM on Celona

Steps to enable both public and private mobile network access

Team Celona avatar
Written by Team Celona
Updated over 5 months ago

Since the release of the iPhone XS, Apple have supported Dual SIM operation in their smartphones. In the United States, dual SIM is configured as one physical SIM and one eSIM. Celona's wireless network requires either a physical SIM or eSIM to authenticate end client devices before they can connect.

How do we configure an iOS device for dual SIM operation: physical SIM for the private mobile network with Celona and eSIM for the carrier connection?

Pre-requisites

  • Unlocked Apple iPhone 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, SE 2020 or iPad Pro 2020

  • Celona physical SIM card

  • Carrier account with AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile or Google Fi

  • A mobile service enabled for eSIM, or a carrier provided device provisioned with eSIM on their network and unlocked to allow use of the Celona SIM.

Celona SIM operation

  • Starting with the device powered down, insert the Celona SIM. Power on the device and follow the usual activation steps. Apple device should connect to the Celona network out of the box.

  • iOS requires APN configuration in order to enable the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality with the CBRS based LTE wireless network as the backhaul. In order to enable this, go to Settings > Cellular Data > APN Settings and set APN to default.

  • Note that Celona provides data service on CBRS based LTE so your voice calls will always use the public mobile network via carrier eSIM.

Operator eSIM operation

Here are the links below to each carrier’s eSIM provisioning guidelines:

Dual SIM data switching

In order to set the first priority for your Apple device to use the Celona CBRS LTE for data connectivity, follow the brief instructions below - a summary of the detailed instructions found on here on Apple's support site. Note that the Apple device will switch back to the carrier network when it is out of range of the Celona network.

  • Go to Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data.

  • Enable Cellular Data Switching.

  • Select the Celona SIM as your preferred data connection.

Apple Devices on the Celona network

This article has details on connecting to Celona using eSim To see Apple devices in action on the Celona network, check out this article.

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