I recently saw a review of the new Q7 and with the Connect system you have the choice of giving the car its own SIM card or having it connect to your phone via tethering and using your phone's data allowance instead. As I understand it, the version in the A3 will only do the former? What are the chances of there being a software update so it can go both ways like the Q7?
That's what I figured! Shame really, as it would be a lot better if it worked the other way around. I have an unlimited data allowance on my phone contract, so it seems pointless to pay extra for a second SIM...
The reason I say that is that the early versions of the Connect system did use rSAp and I can't see them changing it back.
There is another cost effective solution - if you are with EE you can pay I think another £5 per month to get a shared data allowance between your phone SIM and another which could then be used in your car.
http://ee.co.uk/ee-and-me/family-home/shared-plans
Maybe useful?
There is another cost effective solution - if you are with EE you can pay I think another £5 per month to get a shared data allowance between your phone SIM and another which could then be used in your car.
http://ee.co.uk/ee-and-me/family-home/shared-plans
Maybe useful?
As glospete says, the phone connection method is the old way and was discontinued on the A3 - I presume it will be on all other models too at some point.
The issue is that it needs the rSAP bluetooth protocol in order to effectively take over the SIM card in your phone and not many phones support this any more. You can get support for Android phone but iPhones don't support it and never will which renders the solution pointless for the car manufacturers as they can't exclude the iPhone market.
If you can't get a shared plan then there are plenty of data-only SIM deals out there for relatively little.
The issue is that it needs the rSAP bluetooth protocol in order to effectively take over the SIM card in your phone and not many phones support this any more. You can get support for Android phone but iPhones don't support it and never will which renders the solution pointless for the car manufacturers as they can't exclude the iPhone market.
If you can't get a shared plan then there are plenty of data-only SIM deals out there for relatively little.
I'm with Three and have an Android phone. How much data do you reckon the car would use in an average month?
£7pcm on a 2-year contract or £8pcm on a 30 day contract. I'm paying a fiver but they put the prices up recently
Excellent way of getting a SIM in multiple devices (I've got one in my iPad too).
sunscreemer
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EE wanted £8/month from me for a SIM to share my plan. Have heard others say that you must have a phone contract too but mine is SIM only (maybe that's why £8/month not £5?). Either way it's a rip off.
Blackwhite
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Sounds good. What happens if you were to hit 12Gb before the 12 months is up? Does it just stop working or do Three start charging silly PAYG data prices?
One more question, what size SIM do I need?
It's on my mmi screen now after l hooked my phone up with itTraffic Message Channel.
Pro. is only in Europe.
It stops working - I had it happen with my previous one which was a Three 3GB PAYG Sim. Because it is PAYG they can't charge you extra because they don't have a credit card or account to charge to!
You need the standard sized SIM.
Cheers, Pete, dunno why I added that last bit about the card size, all I had to do was look at the size of the slot! I might give the 3 month up front one a go first to see how I get on, as I don't use the nav all that often. If it is something that rarely gets used then I've not spent 70 quid finding that out. I do like me gadgets, but I have dozens of unused ones in drawers all over the house. I've still got 3 MiniDisc players somewhere. Remember them?!
Just FYI... you need the mini SIM. Not micro, not nano, not standard (which is credit-card sized). What people call 'standard' usually isn't. Just pointing it out to save some potential trouble later!
I'm on idmobile now after using 3 initally. £5 per month rolling contract for 500MB per month data only. Suits me perfectly.
Whilst you are correct, if you go onto the Three website (for example) they refer to it as a standard SIM so that is why I said standard SIM. Thought it was more helpful. Nowhere can you get a credit card sized SIM any more (AFAIK).
