snagitseven

I know this has been discussed in other threads but thought it would be helpful to consolidate here.

Some of our members on T-Mobile 3G have found that U.S. Mobile is less expensive than TruPhone.

For the 250 MB plan, US Mobile is $7. The same usage on Truphone is .09 x 250 = $22.50.

100 MB plan on US Mobile = $4. Truphone for 100 MB = $9.

US Mobile sim is $3.99.
TruPhone sim is $15 (after $15 credit).

US Mobile has other data plans for different usage. TruPhone is pay for data as used. I believe TruPhone will charge 100kb(?) chunks even if you only use a small portion of that (I could be wrong about the number). US Mobile plans are fixed, even if you use less ea month than the selected plan.

Worth checking out since both use the same T-Mobile network.

fEArmE

Good info. Last week my truphone used 70MB in a single day. Normally it would use 300KB. I am looking for more consistent charges. It seems like the $7/month for 250MB is a good alternative. Just ordered a SIM card from US mobile.

Thanks!

snagitseven

Sounds good. Let us know how the setup goes and what you have to change. My 30 month subscription with T-Mobile ends this month and it looks like US Mobile is the way to go.

HaveBlue

Truphone now charges by the KB and not in chunks. Still zero cost per month if you don't use it. Just have to ping something every three months to keep it active.

Thanks for the US mobile tip. I might swap the kids iphones from Truphone as they get regular use.

snagitseven

Even if you only do occasional use, the 100MB $4 @ month US Mobile plan would seem simpler. No pinging to remember, you have it if and when you need it and for less than the cost of a Big Mac.

HaveBlue

I'm only using pennys per month on the car. I leave the Earth overlay off as I prefer to see gas stations, 3D buildings in major cities and such. Occasionally I need an online search or something from myaudi account. Certain areas are better viewed with the Earth overlay so I turn it on sometimes.

If you drive to many different places, I recommend the Audi app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...de.audi.mmiapp
I'm sure there is an iOS version too.
You can send destinations from your phone calendar or a map to your car.
If you have a decent data plan on the car (I don't) you can use the hotspot feature of the car for your phone. The side effect of this is the app will automatically record where you park your car. Good in large lots.
Google Now has that functionality too though it is spotty.

melnahass

I've been using the US mobile service for the last month.
It works very well for me.

Goas123

Curious, from research it looks like TruPhone can use either the AT&T network or T-Mobile, depending which has a stronger signal at the time. It does not appear that US Mobile offers this same advantage? Looking at their coverage map, it looks identical to T-Mobile. This would seem to be a rather big disadvantage for US Mobile, as AT&T has much wider coverage than T-Mobile. This would be for MY2015 or later Audi's which have the hardware for AT&T. Am I reading the US Mobile coverage wrong?

snagitseven

US Mobile only uses the T-Mobile network. Those of us with MY2012-2013 are stuck with T-Mobile (AT&T will work only in 2G) whereas MY2014/2015 have the newer modem which can do either carrier in 3G. Since Truphone offers both networks as an option, if AT&T works best in your area and you have a MY2014/15, there is obviously no reason to use US Mobile.

Since T-Mobile is gradually updating their 3G freq in select markets (to the same 3G as AT&T), Audi is offering a free modem update to 2012/13 models equal to that of the later model years. It appears it will take some time to reach every market however and Audi is only doing the modem updates in those markets as T-Mobile changes over.

snagitseven

Well, my T-Mobile 30 month subscription ended today and I did the switch to US Mobile. I pre-ordered the sim card for $4 last week and was ready to go. It took all of 5 minutes to sign up for their 250 MB per month plan and 5 minutes to set up the A6.

All I had to do was eject the original sim card, insert the US Mobile card, go to TEL, navigate to connection settings, change the APN to pwg, add a space to user name and that's it. It works fine - I notice no difference from the T-Mobile acct. except now I'm paying $7.70 all in instead of the prepaid $450 at $15 per month.