Audi Connect question on Sim Card

[pdqgp]

What is everyone doing for Audi Connect and the Sim card? Are you using it with T-Mobile and paying $30 mo, etc. ?

I have AT&T so I went and had them activate a 3G iPad card under my account for the $10 per device and popped it in the car. Bingo, it recognizes it and works for navigation and google, etc. However, I tried to use Audi Connect and set up an account, blah, blah, but evidently Audi contracts with T-Mobile only and thus I can't use the online PC portion. Not sure what I'm missing, but oh well.

Just curious what everyone here is doing. I have ZERO interest in doing the more expensive T-Mobile plan with Audi as I already have AT&T and get it for only $10mo. as an added device.

[14S4GWM]

There was another cheap alternative but I cant remember the name of it right now, I want to say it starts with a P. Someone else might chime in. Try a quick search and it might come up.

[jl87]

Ptel was the other one.

[14S4GWM]

^ Thats the one I was thinking of.

[dzasta]

If you want to avoid the monthly fee, you can go to a tmo store and ask for a prepaid data only SIM. Thats what I did and I got a $25 prepaid SIM which gives you like 2-3GB of data. I only turn on the data feature in the MMI when i use my GPS and I've only burned through 450MB of data in half a year. Obviously, it depends on usage so individual results will vary.

[jl87]

Also looks like Truphone was another option. Just did a quick search for ptel and it brought up some good info.

[pdqgp]

If you want to avoid the monthly fee, you can go to a tmo store and ask for a prepaid data only SIM. Thats what I did and I got a $25 prepaid SIM which gives you like 2-3GB of data. I only turn on the data feature in the MMI when i use my GPS and I've only burned through 450MB of data in half a year. Obviously, it depends on usage so individual results will vary.

Thanks everyone. The above might actually be the best solution. I really would only use it for the GPS destinations such as when I'm looking for doctors offices (medical sales) - vs having to type in the address, etc. I could just search by name of the practice.

What does the online AudiConnect do for me? Are there services online that via their website that are worth anything?

[drew4392]

Thanks everyone. The above might actually be the best solution. I really would only use it for the GPS destinations such as when I'm looking for doctors offices (medical sales) - vs having to type in the address, etc. I could just search by name of the practice.

What does the online AudiConnect do for me? Are there services online that via their website that are worth anything?

I think the main features are weather, online destinations (google search, I believe) which are above and beyond the destinations pre-set in the navi data... not sure what else.

[drob23]

Good idea on the tmobile prepaid card...I use truphone SIM, which works, but sometimes picks up AT&T 2G networks (serious 1st world problems :D).

Best feature is sending the nav destinations from your phone or computer.

[drew4392]

Good idea on the tmobile prepaid card...I use truphone SIM, which works, but sometimes picks up AT&T 2G networks (serious 1st world problems :D).

Best feature is sending the nav destinations from your phone or computer.

forgot about this. How do you do this?? That would be worth it, IMO

[pdqgp]

Good idea on the tmobile prepaid card...I use truphone SIM, which works, but sometimes picks up AT&T 2G networks (serious 1st world problems :D).

Best feature is sending the nav destinations from your phone or computer.

This is what I'm looking for. If I can send nav destinations from my phone or PC using a prepaid t-mobile, I can do that and would buy a pre-paid card. Cool. Will look into it.

[drob23]

forgot about this. How do you do this?? That would be worth it, IMO

Via phone I use an android app called "send to car", which integrates with google maps. Via computer, there is an option in google maps to "send", and then you select "car", and then put in the make along with your user name.

Then on the car, you need to sign in to your myaudiconnect account. Which is not that simple and you might need to poke around. The procedure was different for me because I have an early 2013 model. But if you search AZ you should be able to find how-to's.

[S4-Rob]

So I am guessing you guys aren't using the hot spot feature? I have 3 devices on my person alone that I have constant access with, not that I would be surfing on my tablet at stoplights, but, just in case the need arises. 500gb would go quick. I just wish it were 4G so the jitters would go away when I stream my time Warner TV app.

[superswiss]

I started with T-Mobile and switched to AT&T after I got a new MMI with upgraded modem. It's much faster with AT&T than T-Mobile. The prepaid cards with Truphone and others I believe all use the T-Mobile network. The T-Mobile 3G network frankly sucks, at least around here. I did some speed tests after switching. T-Mobile has horrible latencies on their network. The throughput is about the same, but AT&T has much much better latencies which makes Audi Connect noticeably faster.

I have no problems with the my.audi.com account, but I had T-Mobile service at the time I created the account so I dunno. Once you have the myAudi account, you can send destinations to the car from Google Maps using the Send To Car feature or you can use the MMI Connect app for Android and iOS to look up destinations and send them to the car. This is indeed by far the best feature of Audi Connect and I use it regularly. I haven't entered a raw address in a long time.

[pdqgp]

Via phone I use an android app called "send to car", which integrates with google maps. .

Do you have a link to the app? The only one with that name in the play store is in Japanese or Chinese or something.

[pdqgp]

Okay......so I am going to stick with my AT&T sim only because it's only like $10mo. and simply billed to my account already and I'm going to use this quite a bit.

That said, I set up my Audi Account at https://my.audi.com but man the damn site is not that intuitive nor is the entire process. Granted I was multitasking but still....

Now that I'm all set, added my car, set up and linked the account to my car and then I linked my google map settings to my car too. Life is good. I can easily googlemap a business on my PC and click "Send" and have it appear in the my.audi.com account. Sweet!

I then downloaded the MMI App from Google Play and linked it to the same my.audi.com account. It's not a great app, but it does do the basics well. I can open the app which is linked to all 2500 of my contacts and both my gmail and exchange calenders. Nice! I can simply select the event or contact and if it has an address simply send it to my car too.

The above is exactly what I was looking for.

I've not tested the speed of the internal hot spot but it does say only 3G. Not a big deal as I tend to let my kids feed off my LTE Note or the wifes LTE iPhone 6.

Hope this thread proves helpful for others. Thanks everyone.

[drob23]

Do you have a link to the app? The only one with that name in the play store is in Japanese or Chinese or something.

[drob23]

Hmm it looks like Google may have shit the bed and made it so this app no longer works. Starting June 2015...damn...

[hotleadsingergu]

Why can't I do the following:

1) Look up an address in Google on the computer
1a) Look up an address in Google Maps on my phone
2) Click "Send to Car"
3) Car prompts that someone is trying to send address to navigate to. Accept?
4) Accept, and it begins navigating


Maybe I could be in the office and send an address before I go outside, and when I get in the car it's ready to go. Maybe I'm already in the car and I get an address in an email/text or I search for something, and I want it to just start navigating. Why does this have to be so damn difficult in 2015??

[pdqgp]

Why can't I do the following:

1) Look up an address in Google on the computer
1a) Look up an address in Google Maps on my phone

You can now with the Audi MMI app. once you set up the my.audi.com account. Yes, it's a few extra steps but it works. You won't use Google Maps but rather the same/simliar interface with the MMI app. Very simliar.

2) Click "Send to Car"

It does essentially do that.

3) Car prompts that someone is trying to send address to navigate to. Accept?
4) Accept, and it begins navigating

Maybe I could be in the office and send an address before I go outside, and when I get in the car it's ready to go. Maybe I'm already in the car and I get an address in an email/text or I search for something, and I want it to just start navigating. Why does this have to be so damn difficult in 2015??

Overall I agree, it should be way easier. Just so many companies and moving parts and I think that challenge will become disparate platforms and OS's.