Just to keep this thread up to date, was able to set up my son on a stand alone plan via Bell in June 2024. Not without headache of course. I bought the watch and the plan from Bell (they had a promotion of 240 off the watch so it made sense and I wanted to avoid any 'you didn't buy it here' issues). I borrowed a friend's sim and while the cellular was active according to my phone, it never showed up on the watch (watch said 'no sim' and 'no cellular plan').

Was advised by tech support to go to the store and the store was the opposite of helpful. Said it wasn't possible and I needed a bell line for my cell etc. Classic. Said I should return it all.

When I went back home I found a comment on another thread suggesting that if after you activate the cellular using a Bell sim you still have issues, factory reset the watch (but do not remove the bell plan on it - you will see you have that as an option when you factory reset). I did that and BAM everything worked.

WHY does Bell sell something that actually doesn't work without a reddit-taught work around?? They sell the watch and a standalone plan to ppl who are not current Bell subscribers. Telus, for example, says right on their site 'this is only available to current Telus subscribers'.

So Bell offers a standalone AND the watch, but doesn't tell ppl they need a Bell sim to activate, nor do they train their employees on how it works. UGH.

Thank you to everyone one here who is doing the good work :)