Google Maps and Audi Connect

[Drew's_A4]

Hey every body i'm sure this topic has all ready been Talked about on this forum many times but i thought id put my two cents out there. I recently decided that i wanted to start using my goggle maps and Audi connect but wasn't to thrilled about shelling out $30 a month to T-mobile. Well i did a little research on the web and came across some UK forums and read of members using pre paid mobile services to use there Google maps and there Audi connect so i went deeper in the rabbit hole and discovered that a pre paid company called simple mobile used t-mobile towers and is pretty much the same thing signal. so i did a little more research on ebay and found a seller who sold a one month activated sim card with the data plan it was 9.99 they have many different sellers on there but they all have the same plans for the sim cards here is the picture of the sim when i got it today in mail it was pretty easy just had to insert sim card into sim holder in center dash and made the connection with Audi connect and it work perfectly fine

[14S4GWM]

So you got one month for $10. How many gb? Yes this has been discussed a ton. There are quite a few threads in the S4 side.

[14S4GWM]

Shouldn't that be reading 3G? So you only have service for one month?

[Drew's_A4]

idk about 3G even with old t-mobile sim that was with car when i bought it it always read 2G but here is what the auction that i bought it from it keeps the maps updated with google maps and the weather and traffic in audi connect

1 SIMPLE MOBILE SIM CARD (T-MOBILE NETWORK) WITH 1 ST MONTH FREE ON $40 PER MONTH PLAN

UNLIMITED Talk, Text and Web. DATA SPEED first 4GB of High Speed Data (4G LTE) after THAT SLOW DOWN TO 64 MB

NOTE: PROMOTION FROM SIMPLE MOBILE WILL GIVE DOUBLE DATA FOR NEW ACTIVATION.



The sim card will come activated with a local phone number based on your zipcode.

[Drew's_A4]

So you got one month for $10. How many gb? Yes this has been discussed a ton. There are quite a few threads in the S4 side.

yea i figured there would be i new to site just thought i make a post something i was working and yes it was $10 and the guy said that if i wanted another he would just send me another for $10 all i have to do is switch sim card out with new one i don't have to call or go on any website to active its all ready done on his end! i'd rather pay the $10 then the $30 and even if the wifi in the car is slow i have verizon LTE on cellphone so i wouldn't really use it for that just the google maps and Audi Connect

[zcspec]

Glad you found a cheaper alternative than the BS $30/month plans. There is also an option of having MMI tethered off your cell phone but requires some external hardware. It's been discussed before and I just received all my items to make the change. The nice thing, coming from your phone, Google Maps is always 4G.

[FastFour]

Glad you found a cheaper alternative than the BS $30/month plans. There is also an option of having MMI tethered off your cell phone but requires some external hardware. It's been discussed before and I just received all my items to make the change. The nice thing, coming from your phone, Google Maps is always 4G.

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? I'd love to tether mine.

[zcspec]

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? I'd love to tether mine.

I'll share once I can confirm that everything works as advertised.

[Drew's_A4]

Glad you found a cheaper alternative than the BS $30/month plans. There is also an option of having MMI tethered off your cell phone but requires some external hardware. It's been discussed before and I just received all my items to make the change. The nice thing, coming from your phone, Google Maps is always 4G.

Yea that would be sweet then i wouldn't have to buy a new sim card every month to keep everything updated!

[AUDIMAN33]

$30 a month for the google maps is a rip off. But Idk how I feel about the 9.99 for the sim card....

[zcspec]

Keep in mind though, it's about $60 worth of external items but again, it's free from your phone and 4g. Here is a link that my buddy forwarded me a few weeks back.

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...-via-Tethering

[poweredbyaudi7]

When you get out of Williamsburg you will get 3G. You can also use AT&T companies as well...

[Drew's_A4]

When you get out of Williamsburg you will get 3G. You can also use AT&T companies as well...

that's cool i didn't now the signal would change in different areas

[poweredbyaudi7]

that's cool i didn't now the signal would change in different areas

Think of it like a cell phone. It will gain and lose signal the same way. If you use AT&T, it will work much better and in more areas around HR. BTW, you should introduce yourself in the Hampton Roads thread in the Mid Atlantic Regional area.

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...s-Audi-Owners*

[zcspec]

Finally had a chance to hook up all the hardware to my AR and use my iPhone to tether. The setup works wonderful. Google maps, Good search, Audi Connect work as they should and exactly faster since my connection is now 4G from my phone. The only item that does not work is having destinations set to your car via online destinations feature. I really didn't care about that as I've never used it. This saved me $10/month and I get 4G speeds.

[14S4GWM]

^ What was the hardest part of all of it?

[zcspec]

^ What was the hardest part of all of it?

making sure everything was connected in the right order. Aside from that, it was all plug and play...and or course, getting into hidden menu and enabling tethering.

[poweredbyaudi7]

making sure everything was connected in the right order. Aside from that, it was all plug and play...and or course, getting into hidden menu and enabling tethering.

Do you have a part list?

[FastFour]

Finally had a chance to hook up all the hardware to my AR and use my iPhone to tether. The setup works wonderful. Google maps, Good search, Audi Connect work as they should and exactly faster since my connection is now 4G from my phone. The only item that does not work is having destinations set to your car via online destinations feature. I really didn't care about that as I've never used it. This saved me $10/month and I get 4G speeds.

Care to help any local members on getting this up and running? I'd love some coding work as well.

[zcspec]

Do you have a part list?

I'll post up parts needed for the setup later tonight.

Care to help any local members on getting this up and running? I'd love some coding work as well.

For sure! Message me your contact number and we'll connect.

[zcspec]

Here are the items you’ll need to purchase in order to have your Audi tether from your cell phone:

AMI to USB cable: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o06_s00
Router: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o05_s02
USB to Ethernet Adapater: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o05_s01
USB Hub: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o05_s00

I believe my total cost was under $60.

Here is the guide to follow: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...-via-Tethering

Some key pointers:
- you need to enable tethering from hidden menus
- you need to remove the battery from the hub so that it turns off with your MMI
- on rare occasions, you *may* have to turn off and back on your phone’s tethering feature or restart MMI as the hub in my experience, does not 100% auto-reconnect. This wasn’t a huge deal during my 3 days of testing. I reset the MMI or the tethering feature only once.
- you lose the ability to receive destinations from a computer to Audi Connect account and display it on MMI
- you lose the ability to connect and play from an iPod because of the new AMI to USB cable

To some up, a huge thanks to the pioneers who devised this mod and got it to work. The initial cost isn’t too bad and considering that this mod saves me $10/month, I’ll have my investment paid off in 6 months. The main advantage though, is having 4G connection speeds (with Google maps, search, Audi Connect), NEVER having to update my Google maps since it’s being downloaded, and having much better coverage with Verizon than I had with T-Mobile.

[adamazing]

I went into the dealership two weeks ago to have my MMI hardware updated for AT&T bands. I also have a work phone on AT&T that I never really use, so I just throw the SIM in there for free.

[bmoreS4]

Just set up mine through Audi:

1 Year - $199 - 3g - unlimited data

$16.50 month

Im super happy with it, google search navigation destinations, wifi hotspot, weather, traffic, etc.....

[stirfryguy]

The AMI-USB is OOS, will any female cable work such as http://www.amazon.com/KINGMAS%C2%AE-...rds=ami+to+usb

[14S4GWM]

Just set up mine through Audi:

1 Year - $199 - 3g - unlimited data

$16.50 month

Im super happy with it, google search navigation destinations, wifi hotspot, weather, traffic, etc.....

That's what everyone doesn't want to do cause it's a rip off.

[zcspec]

The AMI-USB is OOS, will any female cable work such as http://www.amazon.com/KINGMAS%C2%AE-...rds=ami+to+usb

I believe so.

That's what everyone doesn't want to do cause it's a rip off.

3G speed is painful as is $16.50/month just to receive mapping data and such.

[silverback85]

I have an AT&T share plan with 20GB of data. Have an AT&T sim card in my car for an extra $10 pooling off of my share plan. Only delivers AT&T 3G but still works.

[bmoreS4]

Haha, ok guys, good luck.

[pwdrskr]

...just had to insert sim card into sim holder in center dash and made the connection with Audi connect and it work perfectly fine

So I understand, you already had an audiconnect account and when your subscription ran out you stuck the new sim into the slot and everything worked? You still have the audiconnect account and can access the details via the web?

[adamazing]

So I understand, you already had an audiconnect account and when your subscription ran out you stuck the new sim into the slot and everything worked? You still have the audiconnect account and can access the details via the web?

You don't need a dedicated AudiConnect account. Any TMUS/ATT SIM card (among others) with a data plan on it will work.

[zcspec]

Prior to my current setup, I used Ting service which backbones off T-mobile. Any GSM carrier should work.

[pwdrskr]

So I picked up a AT&T SIM card but am having trouble getting it activated. As reported the ESN number from the car doesn't work on the AT&T website via self service. I don't have any devices that use a large SIM card the use. Any suggestions?

I haven't tried calling yet. Trying to avoid that.

[Longwolf]

I went into the dealership two weeks ago to have my MMI hardware updated for AT&T bands. I also have a work phone on AT&T that I never really use, so I just throw the SIM in there for free.

Oh really? Can you explain further? I have an extra AT&T SIM card that I switch back and forth between my hotspot and my S5. I can pull up gas prices/news/google earth on the car now, but can't get the Google Maps send-to-car feature to work. What is this AT&T MMI update you mention?

[adamazing]

Oh really? Can you explain further? I have an extra AT&T SIM card that I switch back and forth between my hotspot and my S5. I can pull up gas prices/news/google earth on the car now, but can't get the Google Maps send-to-car feature to work. What is this AT&T MMI update you mention?

Until 2014 (ish) Audi programmed the MMI Cellular Radios to operate on TMUS North American Frequency Bands. TMUS retired some of those bands over the past year which forced customers down to 2G speeds. As an alternative, there's a update that Audi can perform to allow the MMI to operate on AT&T HSPA bands, to regain your 3G connectivity.

That's the service/update I had done.

[superswiss]

Until 2014 (ish) Audi programmed the MMI Cellular Radios to operate on TMUS North American Frequency Bands. TMUS retired some of those bands over the past year which forced customers down to 2G speeds. As an alternative, there's a update that Audi can perform to allow the MMI to operate on AT&T HSPA bands, to regain your 3G connectivity.

That's the service/update I had done.

Just adding to this. If you live in an area affected by this, Audi should have sent you a letter like the following:

Page 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_P...ew?usp=sharing

Page 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_P...ew?usp=sharing

[pwdrskr]

Until 2014 (ish) Audi programmed the MMI Cellular Radios to operate on TMUS North American Frequency Bands. TMUS retired some of those bands over the past year which forced customers down to 2G speeds. As an alternative, there's a update that Audi can perform to allow the MMI to operate on AT&T HSPA bands, to regain your 3G connectivity.

That's the service/update I had done.

Does this then allow someone to add an ATT SIM card and activate via the normal ATT online system with the car's ESN? I have a SIM card already but haven't been able to activate via the online process as the ATT site doesn't recognize the car as a "valid" ESN.

[adamazing]

Does this then allow someone to add an ATT SIM card and activate via the normal ATT online system with the car's ESN? I have a SIM card already but haven't been able to activate via the online process as the ATT site doesn't recognize the car as a "valid" ESN.

Unfortunately I have no idea. AT&T Sim cards worked in my car from the factory, they were relegated to 2G speeds at the time though. I never had to actually activate anything, TMUS or ATT.

[superswiss]

Does this then allow someone to add an ATT SIM card and activate via the normal ATT online system with the car's ESN? I have a SIM card already but haven't been able to activate via the online process as the ATT site doesn't recognize the car as a "valid" ESN.

No, the activation has to take place through Audi Connect. These are M2M (machine to machine) lines and they can't be activated the same as consumer devices. However, you can take any AT&T SIM from an activated consumer device and stick it into the MMI and it will work.

[pwdrskr]

No, the activation has to take place through Audi Connect. These are M2M (machine to machine) lines and they can't be activated the same as consumer devices. However, you can take any AT&T SIM from an activated consumer device and stick it into the MMI and it will work.

I see. So what is the trick to getting the ATT network to recognize the car's ESN? I don't have another device that I can use to "fool" the system...

[superswiss]

I see. So what is the trick to getting the ATT network to recognize the car's ESN? I don't have another device that I can use to "fool" the system...

The car doesn't have an ESN. ESN is for CDMA devices. The car has an IMEI and it doesn't need to be recognized by the network. However, you need to give AT&T a valid IMEI for them to activate the SIM card. It doesn't have to be the IMEI from the actual device that you gonna use, but it should be an IMEI from a device that has similar capabilities, so AT&T provisions the correct services. For example you don't want to use an IMEI from a phone, because then AT&T provisions voice mail etc. and is gonna charge you more. You want to use the IMEI from a tablet for example or a MIFI. I used the IMEI from a Windows tablet that I no longer use, however, this week I got the official modem upgrade done through my dealer and Audi Connect is sending me a new AT&T SIM card now.

If you have a knowledgeable AT&T Store nearby they will activate a SIM card for you with a made up IMEI. They'll use one from an iPad. They only need the first 8 digits really, which is the TAC. It identifies the type of device. The remaining digits are manufacturer specific and AT&T's system usually doesn't care about them.