snagitseven

I think you are missing the point here. The A6 is not a cel phone that can easily and relatively inexpensively be replaced but has included and advertised connectivity features as a significant feature. Those who purchased a 2012/2013 A6 had the expectation that Audi Connect would work at the specified 3G speed for many years. Through no fault of our own, T-Mobile has decided to change the 3G band leaving only 2G speeds. Worse, T-Mo has stated they will discontinue 2G in 2020 which would result in Audi Connect to be inoperable with no options for the owner.

But the real issue here is Audi had already agreed to update the modem for owners last year but has decided to discontinue the offer. This leaves the rest of the 2012/2013 owners in limbo. The owners are not trying modify Audi Connect to a higher level of service (i.e. LTE) but simply want it to continue to work as promised when the car was purchased.

mdkv5

They should have just allowed phones to be tethered to MMI in the first place and avoided all this nonsense in the first place; but no! they wanted a kickback from the phone carriers.

dwboston

This is exactly the point.

I agree and expect we'll see this in future models with the option for Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.

ZCD2.7T

Maybe so, but I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around choosing between 2 very different cars solely on the basis of a wi-fi connection.

ZCD2.7T

Wondering - do you know this to be "fact", and from AOA corporate?

From what I've read on the various forums (and from my personal experience) it seems to be certain dealers who are denying the work (even if they say it was AOA doing the denying).

snagitseven

Based on several post reports, it appears that Audi is no longer offering the modem update to those owners whose cars are out of warranty. At one point last year, Audi ran out of the part and afterward these reports started coming in. The part is not inexpensive and appears to be available again, based on third party online sources. When T-Mo changes the 3G band in my area (supposedly in Mar), I will be pushing the issue hard with my dealer and AoA as my A6 is out of warranty so we shall see.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...kit/8t0051431/

superswiss

I'm pretty sure that's not the reason. Audi has supported tethering in Europe since the intro of Audi connect. The issue is that the US wireless industry is ruled by exclusive agreements and the carriers mostly dictate the terms. I'm pretty sure Audi had to contractually agree to disable tethering for the US market, so that everybody is forced to get a separate data plan from the carriers. Tethering continues to be disabled in the newer MMIs and the plans are even more expensive now. The business models are just not consumer friendly here. In Europe you can go to any carrier buy a SIM and stick it into the MMI. No exclusive agreements with wireless carriers. None of the BS we have here in the US. The consumer decides how and through whom they want to connect. That's how it should be and Europe is much ahead in many of these regulations.

ZCD2.7T

Ah, this is the critical factor - warranty. Mine was still under factory warranty when the update was performed.

I was slightly miffed that the first dealer didn't do the work, but the other dealer did it a few days later, so...

ZCD2.7T

Can one not do that here in the US?

I did, but my carrier is T-Mobile and the car is a 2013, so T-Mobile was always the provider...

superswiss

Not really w/o jumping through hoops. The device IMEI will prevent other carriers from activating the SIM. They have to fudge it by using an approved device's IMEI. For example, you can't go to AT&T and get a SIM for a pre-2016 MMI by giving them the IMEI from the MMI. Their system won't let them activate the SIM.