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Wi-Fi Speed Test - 2015 Audi A3 Long-Term Road Test
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Wi-Fi Speed Test - 2015 Audi A3 Long-Term Road Test
The 2015 Audi A3 offers a 4G LTE connection as part of its MMI Navigation Plus package. Is it any faster?
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1) My 3g connection here in Germany varies between 15-30 Mbps, where as my LTE is usually in the 60 - 80 Mbps range.
2) Here we do not pay extra for tethering since it violates EU law for phone companies to charge extra for a service you already pay for
3) Here we can order additional sims for the same plan, so your car, tablet, and phone all work off one plan, with only a 10 Euro upfront cost per additional sim
4) The purpose of the car having a connection is because it has built in antennas and you should get a stronger signal
The reason why I mention this is because while it makes a lot of sense here to have a sim card for your car, in the US it seems completely insane and its not just an Audi issue, but rather an issue with cell service providers in the US. I think you can see that while this systems makes sense here in Germany it doesn't make that much sense in the US given the insane prices in that market paired with subpar coverage. I think all of the speed difference you observe has to do with service difference in that location between Verizon and ATT, more bars doesn't mean faster, it just means you're better connected to whatever speed is available at your location. It would make more sense to test the same service provider at the same time, surely someone has an ATT plan at the office. But like I already said, these in car systems don't make much sense in the US given the high costs of data and general poor coverage, as compared to here in Europe, where population densities are much higher and where the car in question was designed. So many things don't transition well across the pond.
I agree that this makes no sense. $20 per meg is pretty steep, but it'd be okay if it was linear, but its not. I'm sure if it uses even 1k of data, you're going to get charged $20 minimum monthly. 1.1 gigs becomes $40.
Tethering is a touchy subject and it often either violates the terms of your provider or they charge a ridiculous extra fee for it (like $30 per month). I'm with Cricket and that'd be awesome to provide internet in the car for iPads and other tablets, but I'd risk getting in hot water with them since they clearly state that its not allowed.
Connected cars are complete ripoff and joke in this day and age. They should just equip cars with a 5GHz WiFi adapter and call it a day. I have a cell phone, I don't need to pay AT&T or Verizon or Sprint (sadly - The UConnect provider) more money to gain this feature that comes with most plans, is standard on most phones. I refuse to support it for that reason. It's redundant revenue generation control by the auto manuf's and the two most expensive carriers. VZ and AT&T have pretty much all of this market on lock. It's up to us to let them know we don't want to keep paying them more money for the same thing.
Maybe AT&T's network is better and faster in other areas or slower in others. Unfortunately you're stuck with it, unlike a cell phone where you can easily switch handset and carriers. Which is one problem I have as newer technology comes out years down the road and you're stuck with what the car came with. That's one reason why I'd much rather the car be able to tether.
The other is prices. Thanks for posting the manufacturer's fees and I'd love to see that mentioned in all future articles that talk about in-car WiFi. I guess it might not be terrible for someone that doesn't already have the ability to tether or is always running out of data, but dang, those prices are expensive compared to something like T-Mobile's $30 pre-paid with 5GB high-speed and unlimited 2G/Edge speed after that. Even on most normal contract plans with the bigger carriers it would normally be cheaper to add tethering than paying for these in-car plans. And with your phone, you could use that everywhere, unlike in-car where I can see it mostly catering to passengers and can't be used elsewhere.
I'm starting to wonder if it's actually the Wi-fi router that's the issue and creating a bottleneck. I can't seem to find the admin access though, to log in and tweak anything or reset/update. I renewed my data contract mostly for the maps and internet POI searches, but wish it would actually do what was advertised!