dewdman42

So I have a 2012 A7. I have been using a TruPhone sim in this car for nearly 5 years since I purchased it. At first it was using T-mobile 3G most of the time, then T-Mobile upgraded their 3G towers to be incompatible with the cellular device in the car, however it continued to work with AT&T 2G connectivity...

Until Dec 31, 2016 when AT&T shut off 2G support in order to add more 3G support.

So as of now, TruPhone will not work at all with the 2012 A7 and I'm guessing that none of the Audi Connect stuff would work either and probably no AT&T sim would be able to work either...the car is now officially unable to work anywhere here (USA) without an upgrade.

Do I have that right or is there some way to make the existing cellular device in the car work? It picks up an AT&T cel signal but it cannot find the Truphone.com APN anymore...so 2G doesn't come on and I can't use google maps anymore.

what are my options at this point?

superswiss

Your options are limited at this point. You can still use T-Mobile or an MVNO that uses T-Mobile's network such as FreedomPop. Don't use US Mobile as there are issues. You will only get a 2G signal, though if you live in a market where T-Mobile has already refarmed their network. Eventually, that will be nationwide. In 2020 T-Mobile will also shutdown their 2G network and then you are out of options.

The only other option to avert all this is to upgrade the telephone module, but that's been a challenge for many as Audi only offers the upgrade to original owners and cars that are still under warranty.

dewdman42

So the TruPhone sim card I have now would work with T-Mobile 2G? When I turn the car on it detects AT&T signal and hangs on to that, but won't get 2G going. How do I configure the car or the sim card to ignore AT&T and use T-mobile instead? T-Mobile does have coverage in my area, its not quite as thorough as AT&T but for the most part in all the areas I need its there.

If I can get that working that will be fine to get me through the next couple years with this car, I don't need fast, I only use it to look up addresses for NAV on google maps and nothing more. 2G data has been perfectly fine.

Should I change from TruPhone to FreedomPop or will TruPhone work with it? Looks like FreedomPop is basically free aside from $20 for the sim card. I might order one of those, but I still am not sure how to force it to latch on to the T-mobile signal instead of AT&T since both are prevalant in the area.

in 2020 my Audi will be 8 years old, probably I will trade it in for something new anyway... but I'm gonna ask my dealer about the device upgrade, though I seriously doubt they are gonna do it since I'm out of warranty even though I am the original owner, but I can always ask.

dewdman42

So I see TruPhone dropped support for T-Mobile entirely middle of 2016, so that at least might explain why I'm only getting AT&T signal now, but without data because of no 2G anymore.

I will order a FreedomPop sim and try that. Anyone know how I can force FreedomPop to look for T-Mobile signal and ignore AT&T signal or will it figure that out automatically since T-Mobile will have the 2G and AT&T won't have 2G?

superswiss

FreedomPop uses T-Mobile, not AT&T, so there is nothing you have to do and yes, TruPhone used to use T-Mobile, but switched to AT&T last year, so it's no longer an option with the old telephone module. It is still an option with the upgraded telephone module which properly supports AT&T's 3G bands.

Watch out for FreedomPop, they'll sign you up on their paid plan. If you want their free plan you have to go into your account and explicitly downgrade.

dewdman42

Yep I noticed that already when I bought the card. Am planning to make sure to keep only the 200MB free plan, which is more then I will ever use for GoogleMaps NAV (no sat maps).

Their site did say though that it works with AT&T too, so hope it won't be an issue, but we'll see.

On hold right now with Audi, doesn't sound hopeful though on the cel module upgrade

dewdman42

found out more from audi. First there are not cities in my state that have been effected by the T-Mobile "turn down". In other words, my entire state is still using the original T-Mobile towers with the older 3G technology. In theory if I still had the original T-Mobile sim card, it would still be working. In fact they are sending me a new T-Mobile sim card in case I want to signup for Audi-connect now. It also means I would not qualify for the module replacement as that was only offered to T-Mobile customers residing in specific cities where the "turn down" occurred.

I think this also means the FreedomPop sim is going to work perfectly fine with T-Mobile once it gets here, even in 3G!

TruPhone can not work here any more since TruPhone dropped T-Mobile support and AT&T dropped all 2G.

So basically I think I still have the option to use Audi Connect if I wanna pay for it, or I can use FreedomPop for free it sounds like. I will post back in a few weeks after I get the sim cards.

dewdman42

UPDATE

I got the FreedomPop sim that was mentioned earlier and it works like a charm, so problem solved.

Except for one thing. Ever time I turn on the car, I am prompted for whether I want to allow data roaming. I have tried already to check the box called "data roaming" but it doesn't seem to make any difference. FreedomPop had a comment about the fact that it might be considered roaming but "dont' worry about it". Except that its highly annoying to have to answer YES every time I start up the car and go to NAV. Is there any way to tell my audi to leave the data roaming accepted as always on and allowed?

Otherwise FreedomPop seems to work great, it will basically be free as long as I watch out for those trial offers they automatically added me too.

snagitseven

My understanding with Freedompop is you actually have to go in to your account online before the trial ends and change to the "free" plan or you will automatically get rolled into a pay plan

dewdman42

Will do.

any idea about how to silence the Audi roaming prompt?