Audiphobe

Basically what I want to do is to use the wifi capability of the MMI and connect it to my phone's data plan and not be with Tmobile. My phone has wifi hotspot capability. Any one?

nyca

This is the way all in car systems should have been designed - the phone is the data gateway, the car doesn't need any 4G electronics, just WiFi. Somehow, none of them were engineered this way - they want to make the car the hotspot when you already have a 4G phone in your pocket that can do that. Makes no sense, I can only guess it was some plan for the auto makers to get some recurring revenue from connecting the car to the 4G network.

snagitseven

Unfortunately, not in North America. In Europe and elsewhere, it's possible if the phone is equipped with rsap.

Audiphobe

Actually I think this should be easy to do. Most wifi components work two ways. The Audi should be able to connect to a hotspot with equipment included. I just don't have the technical knowledge on the car.

fkaufman

Yes, it should be easy to do. However, the system has to be designed and configured by the manufacturer for that functionality.

snagitseven

Very true. Not hard at all to design the software and hardware to accommodate tethering. Unfortunately, the wireless phone providers in the U.S. have been mostly successful in maintaining a stranglehold with their revenue streams. They fight anything that would eat into their ability to charge for data wherever possible. When Audi negotiated with T-Mobile (and now AT&T for the A3), I'd guess they had no choice but to design the Audi Connect system to not accept other sources for data communication.

Turbo Freak

It would be too clever if the car could do that, but Audi would rather have you pay more money for a data plan for the car which is completely stupid !

Audi should realize that the money spent on this extra useless data plan could be used for extra options on their car...

onthebeam

I remember reading an old thread on this forum about being able to pay for data / mapping a la carte using an sd card. Wish I had a more specific memory now that I'm about to get my car. Everyone who was using it loved it from what I recall.

Snagitseven, does this ring a bell?

fkaufman

That discussion was a solution of using a different SIM card (not an SD card) from another wireless provider. However, it still is a separate service from your cellphone.

This discussion is about using the data portion of your regular mobile phone account and get the car system connect to it, so you would not need a separate mobile data account for the car.

snagitseven

Sure. P-Tel and TruPhone, to name two, offer pay-for-use sim cards (not SD cards) which use the T-Mobile network for Audi Connect. Do an AW global search for either one and you'll find lots of threads. Note that if you will be using the Google Earth overlay regularly more than the cached 20 mile or so radius from home or the car's hot-spot wifi (both can be data hogs), you might come out ahead with T-Mobile's 30 month prepaid unlimited data program for Audi Connect which works out to $15 @ month after the 6 month trial. As mentioned, these will not be a phone tethering solution.