# Is it worth it to renew the ATT LTE for the MMI? Anyway around it?



## SleepyHeadN20 (Jul 7, 2014)

My trial period is for ATT LTE is about to end. I used it to look up some places in my car a few times and sending addresses from my phone to my car...so I really don't use that much data. I think the plan that ATT offers costs too much for my usage.

I have Tmobile and I want to use my phone's data plan or open a separate Tmobile data account ( could be cheaper?) for my car, but Audi told me these options are not possible for the 2015 A3. Anyone has any ideas?

What is everyone doing for this situation? 

Thank you.


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## Icez (Dec 4, 2014)

If you have TMobile right now, try to put your SIM card in and see if the system works


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## rabbitgtibbar (Apr 29, 2002)

For my wife, with our 6-year old daughter often in tow, it is invaluable. Her tablet is WiFi only (1st world problems), and being able to let her surf YouTube on long road trips saves my wife's sanity.

That said:

*Connectivity for the 2015 A3 Sedan is provided by AT&T*.


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

I just haven't seen the need to use it enough. It saves me some data use from the phones, but not worth it at that price. I think I end up using Google locations and sending destinations to the car the most. I've used picture destinations once. I admit that if the price was lower I'd consider it.
Also, if one could more rapidly change stations using the Audi app I'd give it even more thought. But it takes much too long to change the stations. I do have a deal going for XM, but if I could swap stations quicker, I might consider dropping XM and pay for the data. Alternatively, I could just use a music app through my phone, Iheart, spotify, but I haven't tried that yet so I don't know if the sound quality is ok or not. Plus my phone data use would go up, and I'm a bit frugal on my phone data plan.

Here's hoping ATT changes the rate a bit. I would think they might since it's not costing them much. If I had an ATT phone, I'd likely pay the $10/month. But being with Verizon, that's not an option. I don't get why they limit us to one supplier. I have to believe that most of the bigger ones would have been willing to sign up and AOA would be money ahead.


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## misaka (Feb 8, 2013)

I've seen success stories of using Tmobile cards on other forums. Including cheaper prepaid services. ie 5$ a month for 500 mb


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## rabbitgtibbar (Apr 29, 2002)

RedwinGV said:


> Here's hoping ATT changes the rate a bit. I would think they might since it's not costing them much. If I had an ATT phone, I'd likely pay the $10/month. But being with Verizon, that's not an option.


We're lucky in that we're already AT&T customers. The $10/month wasn't too steep; I'll admit though that if we had to pay the standard rates, we wouldn't have opted to keep it.



> I don't get why they limit us to one supplier. I have to believe that most of the bigger ones would have been willing to sign up and AOA would be money ahead.


For the same reason the iPhone was only available though AT&T for its first few iterations: a check with many zeros to the left of the decimal point, signed "AT&T".


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## the_runner213 (Apr 25, 2012)

rabbitgtibbar said:


> We're lucky in that we're already AT&T customers. The $10/month wasn't too steep; I'll admit though that if we had to pay the standard rates, we wouldn't have opted to keep it.
> 
> 
> 
> For the same reason the iPhone was only available though AT&T for its first few iterations: a check with many zeros to the left of the decimal point, signed "AT&T".


So is the $10/mo to add to your current shared data plan? If so, that's most likely the route I'd take... Just wondering, what's the average data usage just for maps? I don't plan on doing a lot of social media stuff, so it should be fairly low...


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## rabbitgtibbar (Apr 29, 2002)

Yup. $10/month and AT&T treats it like any other device on our Family Share Plan.

No idea on the data usage question. My wife never uses any of that stuff. It's purely a mobile hotspot for our daughter's iPad.


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

rabbitgtibbar said:


> We're lucky in that we're already AT&T customers. The $10/month wasn't too steep; I'll admit though that if we had to pay the standard rates, we wouldn't have opted to keep it.
> 
> 
> 
> For the same reason the iPhone was only available though AT&T for its first few iterations: a check with many zeros to the left of the decimal point, signed "AT&T".


I thought about that, but that doesn't make much cents. I truly doubt that ATT paid AOA that much for this. Number of potential cell phone users is totally different from A3 drivers. Let alone how many would have it. And maybe, AUDI will expand this to all models, but even then the numbers aren't that great. 

To be fair, I don't know enough about the industry, but do ATT and Verizon use the same technology to get the signal? They did in the past, but I thought they are using the same these days.


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## rabbitgtibbar (Apr 29, 2002)

RedwinGV said:


> I thought about that, but that doesn't make much cents. I truly doubt that ATT paid AOA that much for this. Number of potential cell phone users is totally different from A3 drivers. Let alone how many would have it. And maybe, AUDI will expand this to all models, but even then the numbers aren't that great.


I'm at the low end of the spectrum. I'm an existing AT&T customer, so they get an extra $120/year ($10/month) from me, but didn't poach me from someone else. At the other end is another provider's customer who decides to jump ship. That's going to be at least $360/year ($20/300MB/month + $10/month to add the car). Heck, if that means the whole family switches, that could be $5000+/year into AT&T's coffers and out of someone else's. Q1-Q3 2014, Audi sold 146K cars (17K A3's) more or less. Even if AT&T only gets 10% of A3 customers to sign up, and every one of them is an existing customer, that's still over $200K/year. If that 10% is the other extreme, that's $8.5M.

More than likely, AT&T is banking that they'll get a much larger percentage of people who can't live without their Audi Connect. Some of them will be existing AT&T customers who will only add $120/year to their bottom line ("Meh," says AT&T); some will opt for the $200/year, $99/6 months or $499/30 months ("Not bad, but we can do better."); and many will switch from other carriers. This is the group that makes AT&T stockholders a bit moist.



> To be fair, I don't know enough about the industry, but do ATT and Verizon use the same technology to get the signal? They did in the past, but I thought they are using the same these days.


Verizon (and just about everyone else) uses CDMA. AT&T uses GSM. T-Mobile is the only other player using GSM, which is why AT&T was looking to buy them recently.


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## trueunion (Apr 15, 2008)

I am thinking about it I do enjoy using my wifi for long trips and google search is awesome!


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## soliton (Sep 14, 2014)

Check this thread out, folks - esp around post 14 and later

http://www.audiworld.com/forums/audi-a3-s3-rs-3-mkii-209/audi-connect-t-4g-2867360/page2/


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## araemo (Dec 9, 2012)

rabbitgtibbar said:


> Verizon (and just about everyone else) uses CDMA. AT&T uses GSM. T-Mobile is the only other player using GSM, which is why AT&T was looking to buy them recently.


No, not really. In the US, there are only 4 nationwide networks, two GSM, two CDMA. The rest of the nationwide cellular companies are piggybacking on one of those 4 networks.

Worldwide, there are only about 3 CDMA networks, and EVERYONE else (except china) uses GSM. China doesn't use either straight-up, one of their big networks is a CDMA-like network, but it's its own standard, not strictly CDMA.


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## Bruticus (Aug 30, 2014)

soliton said:


> Check this thread out, folks - esp around post 14 and later
> 
> http://www.audiworld.com/forums/audi-a3-s3-rs-3-mkii-209/audi-connect-t-4g-2867360/page2/


Thanks for posting this. I was wondering if the A3 unit was locked (turns out it is not).


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## araemo (Dec 9, 2012)

Bruticus said:


> Thanks for posting this. I was wondering if the A3 unit was locked (turns out it is not).


The question I have (and that thread doesn't seem to answer it) is, if you don't pay audi, and just get a prepaid/cheap data sim, do you lose the 'audi connect' services, such as sending addresses to the car GPS ahead of time?


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## cleanmk6 (Mar 18, 2013)

How do you send the address to the gps?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## SleepyHeadN20 (Jul 7, 2014)

cleanmk6 said:


> How do you send the address to the gps?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


You need to get the audi connect app. I think you can do it thru the audi connect website, but I've only used my phone.


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

SleepyHeadN20 said:


> You need to get the audi connect app. I think you can do it thru the audi connect website, but I've only used my phone.


I do it through Google maps.. send to car.


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## soliton (Sep 14, 2014)

araemo said:


> The question I have (and that thread doesn't seem to answer it) is, if you don't pay audi, and just get a prepaid/cheap data sim, do you lose the 'audi connect' services, such as sending addresses to the car GPS ahead of time?


I'm reasonably sure that the carrier of the connection wouldn't determine the Audi Connect access - since the latter is simply about reaching Audi's servers through the internet somehow. I'll find out for certain in a couple months as I've ordered the non-ATT SIM...


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## araemo (Dec 9, 2012)

soliton said:


> I'm reasonably sure that the carrier of the connection wouldn't determine the Audi Connect access - since the latter is simply about reaching Audi's servers through the internet somehow. I'll find out for certain in a couple months as I've ordered the non-ATT SIM...


The carrier shouldn't matter, no. But if you stop paying Audi, do they stop forwarding the info to the car? My hunch is 'yes'. Other features, like hotspot and Google maps might keep working. I'll be pleasantly surprised if I'm wrong.. But the total monthly price doesn't seem THAT high if you buy one of the long-term plans, iirc.


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## rabbitgtibbar (Apr 29, 2002)

araemo said:


> The question I have (and that thread doesn't seem to answer it) is, if you don't pay audi, and just get a prepaid/cheap data sim, do you lose the 'audi connect' services, such as sending addresses to the car GPS ahead of time?


I don't pay Audi. I pay AT&T.


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## araemo (Dec 9, 2012)

rabbitgtibbar said:


> I don't pay Audi. I pay AT&T.


And you're outside the initial (3/6?) month period of free Audi connect? Do all the features still work for you?


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

I do wonder how audi is tied into this since if one checks MyAudi, one can see the wireless access info and link to ATT. 
Mine is gone in Feb, so I'm curious as to potential options out there.
I'm willing to pay a fare price, but the current one from ATT is just too high for what one gets.


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## ProjectA3 (Aug 12, 2005)

I renewed mine for $100. I figured that was not a bad price for a years service, and I could transfer the SIM card to my next vehicle as well. 
I dont use the wifi except for streaming pandora or spotify from my phone (because i can), but I do like the GOOGLE maps and the ability to find stuff by name when needed.


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## rabbitgtibbar (Apr 29, 2002)

araemo said:


> And you're outside the initial (3/6?) month period of free Audi connect? Do all the features still work for you?


Yes (3) and yes.


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## rabbitgtibbar (Apr 29, 2002)

ProjectA3 said:


> I renewed mine for $100. I figured that was not a bad price for a years service


IIRC, it $99/*6 months* or 5GB, whichever is first; or $499/30 months or 30GB. Either way, it's the same $/month, but with the bigger plan you get an extra 166MB/month.

Or, if you have an qualifying AT&T data plan, it's a flat $10/month for as much of your available data/month as you want.


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## rabbitgtibbar (Apr 29, 2002)

RedwinGV said:


> I do wonder how audi is tied into this since if one checks MyAudi, one can see the wireless access info and link to ATT.
> Mine is gone in Feb, so I'm curious as to potential options out there.
> I'm willing to pay a fare price, but the current one from ATT is just too high for what one gets.


Audi installed a 4G LTE modem into the A3. Neither it nor Audi care how it gets its data, just that it gets connectivity. The only interest Audi has is in making sure that only authorized users gain access to the car, hence the My Audi website.


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

rabbitgtibbar said:


> Audi installed a 4G LTE modem into the A3. Neither it nor Audi care how it gets its data, just that it gets connectivity. The only interest Audi has is in making sure that only authorized users gain access to the car, hence the My Audi website.


Thanks, I guess come Mid January I'll start looking at how to get a sim card. Also thanks to all contributing to this thread, good stuff.:thumbup:


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## Icez (Dec 4, 2014)

I should get my S3 some time next week with any luck. I will remove the AT&T SIM and put my tmobile one in to see if the features work. With Tmobile you can get 10$ a month for 5GB... so.. 60GB a year for 120$. I assume the modem can do 3G when needed so that would be unlimited.

If every thing works I will go that route assuming tmobile still offers the plan after the 6 months free is up.

I also plan on testing a 128GB SD card formated in FAT32 to see if it will reconize it. (by default windows will not format SDXC cards in FAT32) It works in a Nintendo 3DS so it may work 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdufdrJeark


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## LostWaldo (Mar 1, 2008)

Icez said:


> I also plan on testing a 128GB SD card formated in FAT32 to see if it will reconize it. (by default windows will not format SDXC cards in FAT32) It works in a Nintendo 3DS so it may work
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdufdrJeark


Theres no reason to force it to FAT32. I am currently running a 256GB SD card in mine - formatted as exFAT and it reads it fine. Its loaded with about 180 gigs worth of music mixed between mp3s and FLAC files and the MMI reads pretty much all of it. I have some issues with exceptionally high bitrate FLAC files though. And in case you're a neat freak like me, the max album art size is 800x800. It *MAY* read larger, but I wouldn't bet on it.


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## Icez (Dec 4, 2014)

That is awesome  FLAC to!!!?? good times =)

Good info on the album art, I was about to start work on re-doing mine for my car music collection.


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## OMGK20 (Mar 8, 2005)

For those who stream music, how much data do you normally use per month? I have tmoblie and the service is iffy, I may switch to AT&T and see what they offer for both.


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## araemo (Dec 9, 2012)

LoudandClear said:


> Theres no reason to force it to FAT32. I am currently running a 256GB SD card in mine - formatted as exFAT and it reads it fine. Its loaded with about 180 gigs worth of music mixed between mp3s and FLAC files and the MMI reads pretty much all of it. I have some issues with exceptionally high bitrate FLAC files though. And in case you're a neat freak like me, the max album art size is 800x800. It *MAY* read larger, but I wouldn't bet on it.


FLAC? Ooooh, I might actually use that then. A large part of my music collection is in FLAC, and it's a big reason I use my phone to stream it, but if I could play it right off the HU, I could give my phone a rest (and avoid any bluetooth noise/quality issues entirely).


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## LostWaldo (Mar 1, 2008)

Yeah, I was a bit surprised about FLAC support as well. I don't know if its reads the album art correctly from the ID3 tags in FLAC or if its the copy I leave in the directory though. Didn't feel like testing it since I do both from all of my music. If I get bored enough I might start testing the maximum readable bitrate for FLAC files.

For album art, I started using PerfectTUNES (LINK) and set maximum size of 800x800. It'll downscale album arts that are higher than that and embed it in the ID3 and can also store a copy in the album directory.


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## Wildgift (Jan 30, 2007)

My A3 Cabriolet w/ MMI will be here in January. I have a Pono player, and plan to use this, using cards loaded with FLAC files. Does the A3 come with an aux in input? Should I get one of those AMI/aux in adapters I've seen on Amazon?

It would be great if I can actually use the SD cards themselves, but I'm not optimistic. Many of my files are 96/24 or better....


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## araemo (Dec 9, 2012)

LoudandClear said:


> Yeah, I was a bit surprised about FLAC support as well. I don't know if its reads the album art correctly from the ID3 tags in FLAC or if its the copy I leave in the directory though. Didn't feel like testing it since I do both from all of my music. If I get bored enough I might start testing the maximum readable bitrate for FLAC files.
> 
> For album art, I started using PerfectTUNES (LINK) and set maximum size of 800x800. It'll downscale album arts that are higher than that and embed it in the ID3 and can also store a copy in the album directory.


As to the max bitrate, it may be a limitation of your card, or the card reader, rather than the processor or decoder. I can't imagine a 256GB sdcard is a 'high speed' sdcard without being very expensive - if you have a smaller capacity truly high speed card, would you be able to test the files that have issues on that card?


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## LostWaldo (Mar 1, 2008)

araemo said:


> As to the max bitrate, it may be a limitation of your card, or the card reader, rather than the processor or decoder. I can't imagine a 256GB sdcard is a 'high speed' sdcard without being very expensive - if you have a smaller capacity truly high speed card, would you be able to test the files that have issues on that card?



Yeah, I originally tested FLAC with a 32gb SDHC card that I threw on a few albums including ones I figured it'd struggle with. I have some albums in the 2k bitrate range that didn't play, along with with a 24/96 3k bitrate one that normally doesn't work. I'll probably use that one as the basis of my test.

The next time I'm in the car, i'll try transferring the album onto the internal storage in the MMI and see if that does anything for it. I don't think its a throughput limitation on the SD cards themselves, but it doesn't hurt to try.


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## araemo (Dec 9, 2012)

LoudandClear said:


> Yeah, I originally tested FLAC with a 32gb SDHC card that I threw on a few albums including ones I figured it'd struggle with. I have some albums in the 2k bitrate range that didn't play, along with with a 24/96 3k bitrate one that normally doesn't work. I'll probably use that one as the basis of my test.
> 
> The next time I'm in the car, i'll try transferring the album onto the internal storage in the MMI and see if that does anything for it. I don't think its a throughput limitation on the SD cards themselves, but it doesn't hurt to try.


Just looking at a few of songs where I know the FLAC sounds better than the mp3/m4a versions, the average bitrates are only in the 1k range. I mean, it's all ripped from CD, so there's no reason to encode at higher than 16/44.1 for me... so I might not have that issue.


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## LostWaldo (Mar 1, 2008)

araemo said:


> Just looking at a few of songs where I know the FLAC sounds better than the mp3/m4a versions, the average bitrates are only in the 1k range. I mean, it's all ripped from CD, so there's no reason to encode at higher than 16/44.1 for me... so I might not have that issue.


Haha yeah, most of mine at about in the 1k range and all work fine. I personally don't see a need for anything other than 16/44.1 as well. The super high rate ones I have are vinyl rips which should honestly be down sampled anyways. No one really needs a 5 minute song to be over 150mb.


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

If I don't get a response here, I might start a new thread.

I've owned my A3 over 6 months. To anyone that has NOT renewed their LTE, when did you lose service? Was it on the date of the month of your purchase or at the end of the month of 6 months of ownership? Did ATT or Audi try to contact you to extend the subscription? And feel free to add other experiences of renewing/not renewing. We are NOT ATT customers so I may drop the service. Curious as to others' experiences on this.
TIA


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## soliton (Sep 14, 2014)

It inactivated on exactly 6 months from the day of delivery of the car. I received an email from Audi/ATT about the termination.

I have purchased the $5 for 512 MB Redpocket Lte service (T-Mobile network) and it's working great. Will not purchase ATT service and so far it seems 512 MB may be enough for a month even while keeping Google Earh on.


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## cleanmk6 (Mar 18, 2013)

soliton said:


> It inactivated on exactly 6 months from the day of delivery of the car. I received an email from Audi/ATT about the termination.
> 
> I have purchased the $5 for 512 MB Redpocket Lte service (T-Mobile network) and it's working great. Will not purchase ATT service and so far it seems 512 MB may be enough for a month even while keeping Google Earh on.


When I tried to buy it I needed a phone number. What do I put?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

soliton said:


> It inactivated on exactly 6 months from the day of delivery of the car. I received an email from Audi/ATT about the termination.
> 
> I have purchased the $5 for 512 MB Redpocket Lte service (T-Mobile network) and it's working great. Will not purchase ATT service and so far it seems 512 MB may be enough for a month even while keeping Google Earh on.


Thanks.
I'm surprised on how few have questions to this though. Interesting that you got an email. Still nothing here...8 days past 6 months. I would have thought that a lot of owners would have thoughts on re-upping or not.

I'll check into that redpocket option. We don't use it alot, but it's a nice to have.... $60/year is pretty good. I bet I'd use a lot more data if changing stations with Audi's music stream didn't take the few seconds that it does- yes I change stations a lot. But we haven't used much data over the 6 month period. I have XM, but might give that up if the other option was quicker. FWIW, I had a lifetime of XM and was able to transfer "some" of it over to my A3 so I still have some time to decide on XM... which I do have in my other vehicle.


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## heterosapien (Feb 19, 2015)

cleanmk6 said:


> When I tried to buy it I needed a phone number. What do I put?


It's confusing. As far as I'm aware you can purchase the SIM here on Amazon and then you can load it up on the red pocket site. Just ordered mine and am yet to try it though but worst case scenario you're out .50 cents... I have Prime so shipping is free and fast.

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Pocket-Mo...id=1424377563&sr=8-1&keywords=gsmt+red+pocket


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## soliton (Sep 14, 2014)

Yes, I got the Redpocket GsmT Sim off amazon for 1 cent and then loaded it up with $5 at Redpocket.com


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## JMilo (Feb 20, 2015)

*somebody please figure this out !!!*

There are apparently 2 options for connecting data to Audi MMI in the A3/S3

1) rSAP protocol via your mobile phone
1a) connect mobile phone via bluetooth
1b) select "car phone"
1c) enter pin # for your sim
1d) launch audiconnect and create data connection

2) the AT&T sim card

I found a .pdf explaining how it is done on the web. It is "the new A3" specific

.... now... how to enable rSAP on our iPhones ?!


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## SleepyHeadN20 (Jul 7, 2014)

heterosapien said:


> It's confusing. As far as I'm aware you can purchase the SIM here on Amazon and then you can load it up on the red pocket site. Just ordered mine and am yet to try it though but worst case scenario you're out .50 cents... I have Prime so shipping is free and fast.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Red-Pocket-Mo...id=1424377563&sr=8-1&keywords=gsmt+red+pocket


Were you able to use the MMIconnect app to send addresses to your car? I just got the red pocket for for t-mobile, but it seem like my car is still registered with the original Att sim. I keep getting error 10104. I can't add the new sim bc it's a tmobile sim.


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## link1305 (Jun 27, 2014)

JMilo said:


> There are apparently 2 options for connecting data to Audi MMI in the A3/S3
> 
> 1) rSAP protocol via your mobile phone
> 1a) connect mobile phone via bluetooth
> ...


Can you link the PDF?


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## JMilo (Feb 20, 2015)

link1305 said:


> Can you link the PDF?


one of many sources:

http://www.audi.gr/etc/medialib/ngw....File.pdf/2003039_connect-quick-guide-en.pdf/


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## soliton (Sep 14, 2014)

SleepyHeadN20 said:


> Were you able to use the MMIconnect app to send addresses to your car? I just got the red pocket for for t-mobile, but it seem like my car is still registered with the original Att sim. I keep getting error 10104. I can't add the new sim bc it's a tmobile sim.


The send address to car feature isn't dependent on the Sim or service, but access to the Internet. If you are able to get online using the T-Mobile sim, you should be set. For me, the system auto detected the APN, but you can google for it as well.


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## ronparr (Jun 27, 2014)

soliton said:


> Check this thread out, folks - esp around post 14 and later
> 
> http://www.audiworld.com/forums/audi-a3-s3-rs-3-mkii-209/audi-connect-t-4g-2867360/page2/


FYI: I was able to get the RedPocket SIM to work by configuring the APN as described above, but I was initially unable to access internet services despite entering the APN correctly. In my case I had to remove and re-insert the SIM card for the new settings to load. After that: :thumbup:


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## Chimera (Jul 6, 2002)

This stuff is new to me. When purchasing the data on redpocket, what does one use for the required "Red Pocket Mobile Number" field? I would have thought you just plug in the sim card's ID.


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## link1305 (Jun 27, 2014)

Chimera said:


> This stuff is new to me. When purchasing the data on redpocket, what does one use for the required "Red Pocket Mobile Number" field? I would have thought you just plug in the sim card's ID.


You need to order a SIM from Red Pocket. After you receive it, you'll activate it and have a red pocket mobile number. You can then order the data service.


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## cleanmk6 (Mar 18, 2013)

link1305 said:


> You need to order a SIM from Red Pocket. After you receive it, you'll activate it and have a red pocket mobile number. You can then order the data service.


I have it now how do I activate it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## ronparr (Jun 27, 2014)

*Update*

Here's a brief update on this: My card stopped working today, so I called customer service. They told me that are experiencing a systemwide outage for cards of this type and that there is no have no idea when it will be back up.


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## rabbitgtibbar (Apr 29, 2002)

ronparr said:


> Here's a brief update on this: My card stopped working today, so I called customer service. They told me that are experiencing a systemwide outage for cards of this type and that there is no have no idea when it will be back up.



Read: Our lawyers are still trying to draft a response to the C&D we just received.


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

ronparr said:


> Here's a brief update on this: My card stopped working today, so I called customer service. They told me that are experiencing a systemwide outage for cards of this type and that there is no have no idea when it will be back up.


So are they back up yet? Please let us know when you are, if not.
TIA


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## TnTNYC (Aug 1, 2012)

http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2015/06/red-pocket-mobile-suddenly-discontinues.html

Likely some legal battle regarding pricing, offerings, etc. I did not receive the email that this link references, but my negativity is getting the best of me. Looks like $5 per month 4G service really was too good to be true.


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

TnTNYC said:


> http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2015/06/red-pocket-mobile-suddenly-discontinues.html
> 
> Likely some legal battle regarding pricing, offerings, etc. I did not receive the email that this link references, but my negativity is getting the best of me. Looks like $5 per month 4G service really was too good to be true.


Well, that makes it look like the gig is up. Too bad. I was thinking about going this route. The value or using ATT just isn't there for me... at least not yet.

Thanks for that info though.:thumbup:


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## gamegenie (Aug 24, 2014)

Back when my A3's audio went out after the crackling/hiss sound issues. My dealer treated me to a years worth of Audi-Connect service.


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## ryandbrewer (Nov 16, 2012)

my service is still active. haven't paid audi. haven't paid att. was supposed to run out end of march and everything still works. there were some issues for a bit - giving me errors like 'data unavailable' or 'google maps can't update'. removed the sim card and reinserted and everything still works. I'm gonna ride it out. not sure why it still works but I'm not going to question it.


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## soliton (Sep 14, 2014)

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RedwinGV said:


> Well, that makes it look like the gig is up. Too bad. I was thinking about going this route. The value or using ATT just isn't there for me... at least not yet.
> 
> Thanks for that info though.:thumbup:


I'm switching to us mobile. Lesser MB per month rate but should be enough given how little even Google Earth needs. And you can buy ad hoc MBs from them for a month when going on a road trip. Still cheaper than ATT and uses T mobile network.


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## TnTNYC (Aug 1, 2012)

ryandbrewer said:


> my service is still active. haven't paid audi. haven't paid att. was supposed to run out end of march and everything still works. there were some issues for a bit - giving me errors like 'data unavailable' or 'google maps can't update'. removed the sim card and reinserted and everything still works. I'm gonna ride it out. not sure why it still works but I'm not going to question it.


The network still works for everyone. What we are talking about is a third party network provider other than AT&T. You shouldn't be affected at all unless you were using RedPocket Mobile, who has dropped T-Mobile compatible offerings.

Sent from my VK810 4G using Tapatalk


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## TnTNYC (Aug 1, 2012)

soliton said:


> ```
> 
> ```
> I'm switching to us mobile. Lesser MB per month rate but should be enough given how little even Google Earth needs. And you can buy ad hoc MBs from them for a month when going on a road trip. Still cheaper than ATT and uses T mobile network.


Nice find! Looks like a really good alternative. They sell some pretty small MB options so should be a good option for those of us who don't need the network connection very often.

Sent from my VK810 4G using Tapatalk


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## TnTNYC (Aug 1, 2012)

Quick update to confirm US Mobile works just fine. Takes about 1 hour to get up and running after activating the SIM, but works fine.

Sent from my VK810 4G using Tapatalk


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

TnTNYC said:


> Quick update to confirm US Mobile works just fine. Takes about 1 hour to get up and running after activating the SIM, but works fine.
> 
> Sent from my VK810 4G using Tapatalk


Sorry, I may need a hand. Did you to call them or just walk it through yourself? Since our cars aren't phones, how did you activate the sim card? Through a computer or just calling them?

Any help would be great.
TIA


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## VW2Audi25 (Jun 17, 2015)

RedwinGV said:


> Sorry, I may need a hand. Did you to call them or just walk it through yourself? Since our cars aren't phones, how did you activate the sim card? Through a computer or just calling them?
> 
> Any help would be great.
> TIA


T-Mobile sends you a sim card that's already activated. Just make sure that it's the same size that goes into the car (I think it's the biggest sim card currently available.)


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## TnTNYC (Aug 1, 2012)

RedwinGV said:


> Sorry, I may need a hand. Did you to call them or just walk it through yourself? Since our cars aren't phones, how did you activate the sim card? Through a computer or just calling them?
> 
> Any help would be great.
> TIA


You can activate the SIM online using the ID number on the SIM itself. Our cars aren't phones, but you will have a phone number. Just select the data you want, activate online and go ahead and activate in the car around 1 hour later.

If you have trouble beyond that, give them a call.

Sent from my VK810 4G using Tapatalk


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## kjcooperncsu (Jan 5, 2015)

soliton said:


> ```
> 
> ```
> I'm switching to us mobile. Lesser MB per month rate but should be enough given how little even Google Earth needs. And you can buy ad hoc MBs from them for a month when going on a road trip. Still cheaper than ATT and uses T mobile network.


Do you have a link where I can find the sim?


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

TnTNYC said:


> You can activate the SIM online using the ID number on the SIM itself. Our cars aren't phones, but you will have a phone number. Just select the data you want, activate online and go ahead and activate in the car around 1 hour later.
> 
> If you have trouble beyond that, give them a call.
> 
> Sent from my VK810 4G using Tapatalk


Thanks to you and VW2audi25.

This looks like a great option for me... $2-3/month plus whatever chunk of data I use. We don't use much, so that won't add much cost. The data purchased is good until one uses it right? If not, I'll just buy a lower amount to determine how much I really use in a month. I think one can also see the usage amount through ones settings.

Thanks again.


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## araemo (Dec 9, 2012)

RedwinGV said:


> Thanks to you and VW2audi25.
> 
> This looks like a great option for me... $2-3/month plus whatever chunk of data I use. We don't use much, so that won't add much cost. The data purchased is good until one uses it right? If not, I'll just buy a lower amount to determine how much I really use in a month. I think one can also see the usage amount through ones settings.
> 
> Thanks again.


Don't know about US mobile, but they usually do have an expiration date. But it's usually between 3 months and 1 year, check on the minute/data prepay package you buy, it can be different depending on the amount you're buying.


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## TnTNYC (Aug 1, 2012)

Happy to share success with the community, you're welcome!

Unless you use the connection every day, you may want to start with a smaller amount. Up to you. I'm on the 250mb plan, but I have a short commute and use our for periodic Google search and local navigation. May even be too much!

Sent from my VK810 4G using Tapatalk


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## cleanmk6 (Mar 18, 2013)

TnTNYC said:


> You can activate the SIM online using the ID number on the SIM itself. Our cars aren't phones, but you will have a phone number. Just select the data you want, activate online and go ahead and activate in the car around 1 hour later.
> 
> If you have trouble beyond that, give them a call.
> 
> Sent from my VK810 4G using Tapatalk


When you say activate in car what does that mean? Just put it he car and in an hour it will work?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## PSUguy (Nov 6, 2014)

cleanmk6 said:


> When you say activate in car what does that mean? Just put it he car and in an hour it will work?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


i'm curious to know the exact steps you took also to get it to work properly with the car. I placed an order yesterday for my Sim card so it should arrive tomorrow. any feedback would be appreciated!


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## VW2Audi25 (Jun 17, 2015)

I contacted T-mobile and they said that the card comes pre-activated.

I put my Ipad's sim card in (using an adapter) and it started working right away. I don't think you guys have anything to worry about. Maybe if you have a device other than the car that takes the same size sim card, put it in the device first to test it out.


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## TnTNYC (Aug 1, 2012)

PSUguy said:


> i'm curious to know the exact steps you took also to get it to work properly with the car. I placed an order yesterday for my Sim card so it should arrive tomorrow. any feedback would be appreciated!


You don't activate the SIM in the car, you activate on the US Mobile website. Then plug the SIM into the car and try to connect to Audi Connect in the car menu. Simple. If you have trouble you should consider calling the provider.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk


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## cleanmk6 (Mar 18, 2013)

when i put my sim card from US mobile into my audi it gave me 2 tmoblie options to configure it i didnt know which one. it says it has 4g at thr bottom right but wasnt able to connect to anything


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## TnTNYC (Aug 1, 2012)

Fast.tmobile connection

Sent from my VK810 4G using Tapatalk


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## DennisMitchell (Oct 26, 2014)

My US Mobile connection is working great. $7.70 per month for 250mb. $4.70 per month for 100mb which might be enough. Those prices include $2.00 service fee and $0.70 E911 tax. $3.99 one-time for SIM.


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## VW2Audi25 (Jun 17, 2015)

DennisMitchell said:


> My US Mobile connection is working great. $7.70 per month for 250mb. $4.70 per month for 100mb which might be enough. Those prices include $2.00 service fee and $0.70 E911 tax. $3.99 one-time for SIM.


Are you in the U.S.? I'm paying $10 for 5 GB...


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## TnTNYC (Aug 1, 2012)

US Mobile is $15 for 1GB in US. Believe this is a US-specific issue......

Sent from my VK810 4G using Tapatalk


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## VW2Audi25 (Jun 17, 2015)

TnTNYC said:


> US Mobile is $15 for 1GB in US. Believe this is a US-specific issue......
> 
> Sent from my VK810 4G using Tapatalk


You can add a data line for $10, which came out to $10 for 5 GB. This is for an existing family plan.


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## TnTNYC (Aug 1, 2012)

AT&T??

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk


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## DennisMitchell (Oct 26, 2014)

My MMI screen shows ATT as the provider after installing the US Mobile SIM, probably because I did not reset the connection settings. All Connect features are working. And yes, I am in the USA.

In this link I have photos of the MMI screens:
http://www.audiworld.com/forums/aud...audi-connect-t-4g-2867360/page9/#post24702731


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## kjcooperncsu (Jan 5, 2015)

TnTNYC said:


> You don't activate the SIM in the car, you activate on the US Mobile website. Then plug the SIM into the car and try to connect to Audi Connect in the car menu. Simple. If you have trouble you should consider calling the provider.
> 
> Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk


You didn't have to do anything in the car? I activated the SIM online, plugged it in, mmi shows lte but nothing is connecting


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## TnTNYC (Aug 1, 2012)

When you are in the Audi Connect setup screen, what connection is available? How long did you wait after activating the SIM when you tried to connect?

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk


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## RyanA3 (May 11, 2005)

I stopped paying for service.
It's just a gimmick IMO.
We have phones and tablets, having the service (or extra data) on those, or a mobile hotspot is far more versatile.


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## PSUguy (Nov 6, 2014)

I waited around an hour before trying it in the car. when i put it in and tried to connect it made me choose from something like m2m.tmobile or fast.tmobile. i chose fast and everything started working. the next day i got in the car and nothing worked again. any ideas?


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## ryandbrewer (Nov 16, 2012)

i received my us mobile card on wednesday. activated it yesterday. chose between fast.tmobile between the choices of m2m.tmobile or fast.tmobile. neither worked. showed 3G, showed 4G, still no connection. finally last night i changed the APN to pwg and everything worked immediately. i do notice that my signal is constantly switching between 3G and 4G (im in austin) but its working fine now.


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## JMilo (Feb 20, 2015)

What are your exact settings? pwg does not work for me when placed in APN. Still cannot log into audiconnect or get maps signal...


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## ronparr (Jun 27, 2014)

ryandbrewer said:


> i received my us mobile card on wednesday. activated it yesterday. chose between fast.tmobile between the choices of m2m.tmobile or fast.tmobile. neither worked. showed 3G, showed 4G, still no connection. finally last night i changed the APN to pwg and everything worked immediately. i do notice that my signal is constantly switching between 3G and 4G (im in austin) but its working fine now.


Thanks - this worked for me.


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

ryandbrewer said:


> i received my us mobile card on wednesday. activated it yesterday. chose between fast.tmobile between the choices of m2m.tmobile or fast.tmobile. neither worked. showed 3G, showed 4G, still no connection. finally last night i changed the APN to pwg and everything worked immediately. i do notice that my signal is constantly switching between 3G and 4G (im in austin) but its working fine now.


I'm in Michigan... metro Detroit. All I get is a 3g connection signal, but really haven't been able to connect. Strange, since the meter is actually showing data going out (?) and coming in.

When you switched to pwg, did you do anything to the other fields? TIA



I can't see what else I am missing. I'm a bit frustrated since the car does show a connection.... it doesn't allow me to use it though. Also, from US Mobile's map, I reside in a strong 4lte area. FWIW, I own an A3, not the S.

Here's hoping for a tip or two.


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## ryandbrewer (Nov 16, 2012)

did you activate your sim on the usmobile website?

i did not change any other setting after i switched the apn to pwg.

after it toggling between 3g and 4g for a couple of weeks, i stay pretty constant in lte.

i did notice that 250mb was not nearly enough to make it through the month. only lasted me about 2 weeks. once you hit your max data usage, it ceases to work until you 'refill' online.


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

ryandbrewer said:


> did you activate your sim on the usmobile website?
> 
> i did not change any other setting after i switched the apn to pwg.
> 
> ...


Yup. I'm pretty sure it's active since the "meter" is seeing usage.. though I don't know how. I'd even be ok with 3g, but even though it shows 3g, I can't get anything to "work."


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## RedwinGV (May 11, 2014)

Well, the issue for me might have been with US Mobile. I looked at my account dashboard and it showed "0" data used, so I gave them a call. He said there was some synch issue going on and just to wait about 10 minutes. So I waited a bit and sure enough, dashboard (on computer that is, NOT THE CAR) now reads the data that I have left. 
So then I go out to the car, and enter my PIN and Bang... all set...4G and all. 

Thanks to all those that provided tips and hints. Looks like an good way to go...:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:


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