BELLEVUE, September 14 — T-Mobile will charge five dollars a month for iPhone Handoff, the eSIM feature arriving with iOS 27, which Apple launches today. The carrier confirmed the fee in a press release cited by The Verge and MacRumors, and the charge covers the carrier-side service rather than the operating system itself. Apple built the underlying software into iOS 27.
Pricing and enrollment, though, run through whichever carrier supports the feature. That split explains why Apple’s support documentation stays vague on cost, noting only that “carrier fees might apply” and pointing customers to their carrier for specifics, according to 9to5Mac.
A switch, not a second line
Handoff uses eSIM technology to let a single phone number live on two separate iPhones. One device becomes the main iPhone and the other the secondary device sharing that number. T-Mobile describes it as letting customers choose which of their two compatible iPhones is active at any given time.
Only the selected iPhone can have the number active at a time. That makes Handoff work more like a switch than a two-line plan.
Both phones can be set up with the same number, but only the selected iPhone can have it active at any given moment. Enrollment happens in one of two places. Customers can set it up when activating a brand-new iPhone, or afterward through Settings.
Turning it off works differently. Once Handoff is active, T-Mobile says you must contact the carrier to turn it off.
Enabling it can happen from Settings; disabling it apparently can’t.
One carrier, for now
T-Mobile is currently the only U.S. carrier offering the feature, and carrier support decides whether any of this is available at all. Right now the list is short. The new iPhone 18 Pro models follow on Friday, September 18, which gives the feature its first real test with buyers.
Watch whether other U.S. carriers sign on, and whether the five-dollar line item becomes the template or the exception.
