Audi Connect SIM card choices.

I've got a phone/data ovivo sim in my iPad at the mo all activated and ready to go for when my car arrives. I've used it a couple of times while at work but out of wifi range. So far I'm pretty impressed by it.
 
Has anyone used a EE sim, if so which? Based on coverage maps alone they appear to be the best choice for Aberdeenshire.
 
With collection of my new car with Connect just a week away :icon_thumright: can anyone update on data usage when they have been using the google earth sat nav etc a lot? I want to get my sim ordered in time to use straight away. I want the 3 network as I feel that will give me the best coverage in my area.
 
My wife's Q5 has connect.
What's the point of it?

We have Audi Sat Nav that we'll use every now and again if we are away somewhere on a driving holiday.
She uses Bluetooth for her calls.
 
I've bought a Three PAYG sim for it on the 3,2,1 plan. It's a penny per mb and because it's PAYG with no expiry on top ups I can monitor how much it's costing. Should be fairly cheap and Three have been starting their 4G switch on too.
 
I've taken a chance with OVIVO. Worst case scenario is it don't work very well and I've only spent £20 and can simply put it in a spare phone/tablet...

We shall soon see in 6 days....!
 
What are you using the SIM to access?
Do you already have Sat Nav?
 
I think you are getting sat nav and connect mixed up!
 
cemerson said:
I think you are getting sat nav and connect mixed up!
Click to expand...

Why do you think I am mixing them up?
Just trying to find out what applications people are using connect for.
Some mention downloading google maps which I can't see I'd need in the wife's car as it has nav.

What do you use connect for?
 
All sorts - finding parking, finding fuel, real time traffic display, google earth imagery on the sat nav, dictating text messages are the main ones. You can get a rain radar on the weather bit which is pretty nice too!
 
cemerson said:
All sorts - finding parking, finding fuel, real time traffic display, google earth imagery on the sat nav, dictating text messages are the main ones. You can get a rain radar on the weather bit which is pretty nice too!
Click to expand...

Thanks.
Don't think we'll need any of that.
Didn't even know the car had Connect until today when I was copying music to the Jukebox and spotted it.
 
Itguy said:
I've bought a Three PAYG sim for it on the 3,2,1 plan. It's a penny per mb and because it's PAYG with no expiry on top ups I can monitor how much it's costing. Should be fairly cheap and Three have been starting their 4G switch on too.
Click to expand...

Interesting and that plan allows tethering?
 
I work freelance in telecoms and have been in telecoms for over 14 years

I will be getting a three sim as overall they have by far the best value network for data...providing you can get coverage. EEs 4g network is only a little bit quicker than threes 3g network but they charge alot for 4g data and their 3g network is not a patch on three's. Threes 4g network launch is different to the other network operators as they wont charge customers for 4g

I'm already on three, Vodafone, o2 and vmedia who use the EE network

The fact that three wont charge for 4g is a big sell. Your car has been setup for 4g as well but I guess depends on data use

Did some tests

Three up 20mbps
O2 up to 6mpbs
Virginia up to 5mbps
Vodafone up to 80kbps at home and rarely over 300kbps

Vodafone is shocking especially as they are part way through building a site share with o2
 
Last edited:
Itguy said:
I've bought a Three PAYG sim for it on the 3,2,1 plan. It's a penny per mb and because it's PAYG with no expiry on top ups I can monitor how much it's costing. Should be fairly cheap and Three have been starting their 4G switch on too.
Click to expand...

Good way of monitoring lol.
 
cemerson said:
all sorts - finding parking, finding fuel, real time trafficsomeoneay, google earth imagery on the sat nav, dictating text messages are the main ones. You can get a rain radar on the weather bit which is pretty nice too!
Click to expand...

Dictating text messages sounds cool.. is it speech to text and send or does it call someone who types it for you
 
royalsteve68 said:
I work freelance in telecoms and have been in telecoms for over 14 years

I will be getting a three sim as overall they have by far the best value network for data...providing you can get coverage. EEs 4g network is only a little bit quicker than threes 3g network but they charge alot for 4g data and their 3g network is not a patch on three's. Threes 4g network launch is different to the other network operators as they wont charge customers for 4g

I'm already on three, Vodafone, o2 and vmedia who use the EE network

The fact that three wont care for 4g is a big sell. Your car has been setup for 4g as well but I guess depends on data use

Did some tests

Three up 20mbps
O2 up to 6mpbs
Virginia up to 5mbps
Vodafone up to 80kbps at home and rarely over 300kbps

Vodafone is shocking especially as they are part way through building a site share with o2
Click to expand...

While three are sneaking the switch on of their 4g, I found myself with a 4/5 bar signal of it in Leicester the other day, did a speed test and got 55mb!! I have a screenshot of it - never ever seen a mobile speed test that fast before. iPhone 5s btw.
 
OK

Spent a few hours playing with my new car today when I went over to sign the paperwork.

I can confirm that a Three PAYG sim works perfectly (as we knew) and also gives 4G. Where the garage was in Derby gave a 4/5 signal on 4G and google maps were like lightning - as was street view, petrol prices etc etc. Just for interest, my iPhone 5S gave 32mb speedtest on Three in their carpark.

I can also confirm that the Ovivo Sim DOES NOT work - it will connect to a data profile (ie you get a 3G signal on the bottom right hand corner) but it won't process data. No error message or anything, just it won't work. I can only assume this is because it doesn't flow data until you've viewed a HTML page with adverts on (as it does when you have a tablet). Pity, could have been a perfect solution.

Pic of 4G!

 
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Itguy said:
I can confirm that a Three PAYG sim works perfectly (as we knew) and also gives 4G.
Click to expand...

Thanks for trying that out - very useful! Was this a 321 sim? I dont suppose you tried using the on-board WLAN? I'm curious to know whether the tethering side of things work (although that's less important to me than the data itself)
 
Itguy said:
OK

Spent a few hours playing with my new car today when I went over to sign the paperwork.

I can confirm that a Three PAYG sim works perfectly (as we knew) and also gives 4G. Where the garage was in Derby gave a 4/5 signal on 4G and google maps were like lightning - as was street view, petrol prices etc etc. Just for interest, my iPhone 5S gave 32mb speedtest on Three in their carpark.

I can also confirm that the Ovivo Sim DOES NOT work - it will connect to a data profile (ie you get a 3G signal on the bottom right hand corner) but it won't process data. No error message or anything, just it won't work. I can only assume this is because it doesn't flow data until you've viewed a HTML page with adverts on (as it does when you have a tablet). Pity, could have been a perfect solution.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you've had a great day. Shame you couldn't just it home with you. Still Saturday is no long now :)
 
:)

Yes I have had a great day - it's always nice going to garages during the week when the obvious sales pressure is off and you can just relax and have a decent conversation with the staff.

Derby have limited their new car collections to 30 on the 1st March, with loads in the following few days. They are also delivering cars to people at home during this week on trade plates so people can have them in their own garage ready for 12 midnight (hmmm....... there's a thought..)

I didn't think to try the WLAN but to be honest, I suspect it will work fine, just don't abuse it otherwise Three with probably throttle/cut off the sim. Yes it was a 321 sim that I'd put a tenner on.

I also saw that it caches the maps too which is cool - I took the sim out and it still continued to show the google maps it had - just gave a warning on the screen saying that they will only be updated when a sim is inserted etc.

Didn't think to look at the data counter unfortunately - I might see if I can log into my3 later on and see if it has registered any data usage - probably not as I was only playing for 30 mins with connect.

I also have high hopes for the reception antenna for the connect/sim system in the car as my iphone only showed 2/5 bars when in the car and the had 4/5 as shown. (please let's not let this get into the iphone vs android debate again - I'm sure a galaxy would have been the same).
 
Have now logged in to My3 and it doesn't even show any usage - and it says it's counters are correct up to 17:19 on 24th Feb (ie now) so it must have used less than 1mb of data doing what I was doing.

How economical!
 
Itguy said:
OK

Spent a few hours playing with my new car today when I went over to sign the paperwork.

I can confirm that a Three PAYG sim works perfectly (as we knew) and also gives 4G. Where the garage was in Derby gave a 4/5 signal on 4G and google maps were like lightning - as was street view, petrol prices etc etc. Just for interest, my iPhone 5S gave 32mb speedtest on Three in their carpark.
Pic of 4G!

Click to expand...

Interestingly enough - I don't think 4G on the display means you're getting 4G.

I've got a three SIM (3GB pre-loaded one) in my car and noticed yesterday that my signal display was showing 'LTE'.
Never noticed that before so broke out the MMI handbook.

It says this for the connect signal display (page 12, symbol 15):
Network Coverage of the active data connection => page 51
2G: GSM network
3G: UMTS network
4G: HSPA+ network
LTE: LTE network

The 4G on the display has had me fooled before - looks like you need to have 'LTE' displayed for true 4G!
 
Just trying to think whether there's a way of finding out which type of network it's connected to, beyond a tethered speedtest. I wonder if there's an enginerering type mode that will tell how it's connected to the mobile network? Or something VCDS can read?
 
Ha! Brilliant - well that was me fooled then!!

HSPA+ is really quite rapid anyway so that's not too bad, however LTE was available where I was so will just have to watch out for "LTE" to come up on the screen then as I drive out next weekend - if it does.

Thanks for the info
 
Ref speed testing - do we know what type of WLAN it propagates? I'm assuming it will be an "N" network, because if it's a "B" then we won't be seeing any more than 11mb!!
 
audi upgrades
Itguy said:
Ha! Brilliant - well that was me fooled then!!

HSPA+ is really quite rapid anyway so that's not too bad, however LTE was available where I was so will just have to watch out for "LTE" to come up on the screen then as I drive out next weekend - if it does.

Thanks for the info
Click to expand...

It might be that your PAYG sim hasn't been enabled for 4G yet - I believe it's a process that they're currently working through, finishing around mid-march.

Alternatively, this may bring us back to the question of which frequencies are supported. Maybe 1800MHz (which is what 3 are currently using for 4G) isn't supported.

So many unknowns!!
 
Itguy said:
Ref speed testing - do we know what type of WLAN it propagates? I'm assuming it will be an "N" network, because if it's a "B" then we won't be seeing any more than 11mb!!
Click to expand...

11Mbs is a theoretical maximum... 2Mbs is more likely on 802.11B. I would imagine these days it's at least 802.11G (54Mbs theoretical), but quite possibly 802.11N
 
Itguy said:
:)

Yes I have had a great day - it's always nice going to garages during the week when the obvious sales pressure is off and you can just relax and have a decent conversation with the staff.

Derby have limited their new car collections to 30 on the 1st March, with loads in the following few days. They are also delivering cars to people at home during this week on trade plates so people can have them in their own garage ready for 12 midnight (hmmm....... there's a thought..)

I didn't think to try the WLAN but to be honest, I suspect it will work fine, just don't abuse it otherwise Three with probably throttle/cut off the sim. Yes it was a 321 sim that I'd put a tenner on.

I also saw that it caches the maps too which is cool - I took the sim out and it still continued to show the google maps it had - just gave a warning on the screen saying that they will only be updated when a sim is inserted etc.

Didn't think to look at the data counter unfortunately - I might see if I can log into my3 later on and see if it has registered any data usage - probably not as I was only playing for 30 mins with connect.

I also have high hopes for the reception antenna for the connect/sim system in the car as my iphone only showed 2/5 bars when in the car and the had 4/5 as shown. (please let's not let this get into the iphone vs android debate again - I'm sure a galaxy would have been the same).
Click to expand...

I was offered that with delivery on Friday but I preferred collecting on Saturday. I was a bit worried in case something happened on the Friday when its not insured whilst it sits on my driveway. Mines first on Saturday.
 
I use very little on mine, it's quite efficient. Probably less than 1GB in 6 months. Though I normally have traffic view on the maps rather than google earth, I haven't yet seen any traffic info show on the google earth view so I'm not sure if it does show in that view or not - does anyone know for sure? The traffic info is more useful to me!
 
Itguy said:
OK

Spent a few hours playing with my new car today when I went over to sign the paperwork.

I can confirm that a Three PAYG sim works perfectly (as we knew) and also gives 4G. Where the garage was in Derby gave a 4/5 signal on 4G and google maps were like lightning - as was street view, petrol prices etc etc. Just for interest, my iPhone 5S gave 32mb speedtest on Three in their carpark.

I can also confirm that the Ovivo Sim DOES NOT work - it will connect to a data profile (ie you get a 3G signal on the bottom right hand corner) but it won't process data. No error message or anything, just it won't work. I can only assume this is because it doesn't flow data until you've viewed a HTML page with adverts on (as it does when you have a tablet). Pity, could have been a perfect solution.

Pic of 4G!

Click to expand...

Had you registered the OVIVO sim on another device first?

Just a thought.... but what a ****** otherwise!!!
 
robo1million said:
Had you registered the OVIVO sim on another device first?

Just a thought.... but what a ****** otherwise!!!
Click to expand...

Just registered the sim now on my phone and it is working fine on that..... And that is without having gone through any ad pages first....?? Although did have to manually create the APN... I guess you have to be able to do this in the car surely...? If so I think it will work?? Fingers crossed hey ;-)
 
Yes I'd previously used it on an iPad and if you keep using it on the iPad it will periodically redirect you to an advert page and won't allow you to do anything else until you click something on it if I remember rightly.

Yes you can edit the APN and connection details on the MMI, I didn't check these with the ovivo sim but did notice it had set the three ones automatically and when I put the ovivo sim in my iPad i didn't enter any APN details and it worked fine.
 
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