Enlighten me on the SIM slot.......

[Bit_evl]

The modern mast world.

Most carriers share the physical mast and so have similar signal strengths. In highly dense areas like cities these can be heavily supplemented by small additional mast if you have bandwidth. When the 4G channels were sold off EE bought the best ones and so have more valuable spectrum in highly saturated (profitable) areas. EE do have more available performance than the others. VF is probably next and O2 and 3 a distant third for 4G.

A device will associate to the prefered carrier network based on its programmed settings.
It will start by negotiation with 4G if possible.
It will then drop back to 3G.
Then Edge 2G etc.

4G is not a warranty of performance as more devices will be trying to use it.
Masts/Channels get congested as people timeshare them.
4G also suffers greater performance degradation through walls and distance than 3G etc so it will drop payload faster.
You can connect at a higher speed but that does not mean you can push more data.
In addition each mast has an over-subscription ratio and can attach more devices than the total backhaul available.

As your car is moving it needs to handover from mast to mast as signal strengths change. 4G with the weaker strength over distance needs to roam more. During the roam the session for data transfer may stall or re-initiate cause repeat transfer. The boxes and software mostly handles this these days.

My personal guidance is "don't worry about it, let the toys do their thing".

The value of the car kit is that it uses external antenna which boosts the devices signal strength.

[GLM]

I got one of these;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00 ... UTF8&psc=1

It's supposed to last twelve months. Mines been in since last April and is still working fine. Best thing is you don't need to register three data sim cards, works straight away

one plus for the '3' sim card (although EE may provide this as well) is that you get free continental coverage, so if taking the car to Europe, the 3 sim will still give you data for now extra cost. found it quite convenient myself.

And as mentioned, the card lasts until it runs out, rather than just cut off after 12m, had my first one (12gb)for circa 18m before I bought a new one

[MartayMcFly]

I got a 4GB data sim from iDmobile (uses Three network) and it's only £7 a month on a rolling contract. Does fine for google maps and Audi connect etc, and I don't use the wifi for my phone so 4GB is more than ample data. I actually got 2 because the first one got lodged between the slot and the housing when I tried to insert it without looking at what I was doing.

[Urbanpixels]

Can you use the google features if your car doesn't have the SIM slot?

My car seems to have a wifi hotspot (for connecting to the stereo with the MMI Connect app)

The green menu also shows google map menus but i have no sim card slot. Would these options work if i had a phone capable of SAP (iPhone currently)

[doodlebug]

Yes, it'd work with a SAP enabled phone also, I think.

The only caveat being whether you need Audi Connect, I can't recall whether this was bundled with phone box.

[koruki]

I've been pretty annoyed from day one that they force you to use expensive data through a sim card for updating anything. The car is Wifi but they dont have an option to connect to your home wifi, only create a pointless wifi spot using, once again your expensive sim card as the data connection.

[MikeFish]

I've been pretty annoyed from day one that they force you to use expensive data through a sim card for updating anything. The car is Wifi but they dont have an option to connect to your home wifi, only create a pointless wifi spot using, once again your expensive sim card as the data connection.

Data is fairly cheap.
And the Wi-Fi is not pointless, it is used exactly for its intended purpose ie my kids can surf / watch YouTube on their ipads in the car.

[chris51501]

I am in agreement, this audi separate sim is just silly. Surely the fact you have your phone connected means its far more sensible to use the phone for connection to the outside world & bring it to the car systems, having a separate sim takes me back years. BMW connected drive works really well, this audi connected drive is old fashioned & overly complicated.

[Urbanpixels]

Yes, it'd work with a SAP enabled phone also, I think.

The only caveat being whether you need Audi Connect, I can't recall whether this was bundled with phone box.

This could be the factor as my car does not have audi connect. On the myaudi page is shows as not been installed on my car.

So i doubt i could take advantage of these features even with SAP?

[doodlebug]

Yes, I believe that's the case.

[MikeFish]

I am in agreement, this audi separate sim is just silly. Surely the fact you have your phone connected means its far more sensible to use the phone for connection to the outside world & bring it to the car systems, having a separate sim takes me back years. BMW connected drive works really well, this audi connected drive is old fashioned & overly complicated.

I don't have my phone connected; no desire to talk on the phone while driving. And even if it did, my phone in my pocket won't be getting a very good signal. And what if my phone was flat? For me it works exactly how I want it to.

[harrier]

I chose a Data Only SIM contract and found it works very well and very useful when you do long trips with passengers; kept them quiet travelling to the north of Scotland and back.

[koruki]

I've been pretty annoyed from day one that they force you to use expensive data through a sim card for updating anything. The car is Wifi but they dont have an option to connect to your home wifi, only create a pointless wifi spot using, once again your expensive sim card as the data connection.

Data is fairly cheap.
And the Wi-Fi is not pointless, it is used exactly for its intended purpose ie my kids can surf / watch YouTube on their ipads in the car.

Data is not cheap in my country...

[W8PMC]

I got one of these;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00 ... UTF8&psc=1

It's supposed to last twelve months. Mines been in since last April and is still working fine. Best thing is you don't need to register three data sim cards, works straight away

one plus for the '3' sim card (although EE may provide this as well) is that you get free continental coverage, so if taking the car to Europe, the 3 sim will still give you data for now extra cost. found it quite convenient myself.

And as mentioned, the card lasts until it runs out, rather than just cut off after 12m, had my first one (12gb)for circa 18m before I bought a new one

I also chose one of these for my FFRR as at £30 it was for nothing. My car will use roughly 250mb per month under normal usage, but obviously would increase if i flick the Hotspot on & have devices (kids iPads) streaming which i've not tried yet. Only thing that annoys me a little is even though the Infotainment is bang up to date being a totally updated MY17 system & the 3 SIM is 4G, JLR in their infinite wisdom only allow a 3G connection which seems crazy in todays data driven world.

[doodlebug]

Haha. That is laughable. Good old JLR. Maybe the piss and slippers brigade were concerned about too much speed. Might disturb the smoking jacket.