# Audi Connect - Data useage



## TondyRSuzuka (Dec 3, 2011)

Hi chaps, in receipt of our new TTRS as of Thursday. More on that later...

We've got Audi Connect up and running via Hotspot from our iPhones... Not ideal for many reasons as you can expect. Seen a comment on here from Brittain regarding the '3' Data Sim from Amazon, top choice!

However, Im curious to know what the likely data useage may be using the Google Maps, and a few other bits, per month / year? In order to buy the right data sim package...

If anyone has a clue anyway, perhaps its a bit unknown and down to amount of mileage you do as to how often the Maps will be streaming data from google?

Thanks in advance.


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## TondyRSuzuka (Dec 3, 2011)

From research via another forum, it appears a rule of thumb is 2000 miles = 1GB of data.

10,000 miles a year = 5GB
12,000 miles a year = 6GB
14,000 miles a year = 7GB
16,000 miles a year = 8GB
18,000 miles a year = 9GB
20,000 miles a year = 10GB

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love2surf-...&qid=1524392329&sr=8-4&keywords=data+sim+card

As recommended by Brittain, the above link seems like a great package. 12 months data, use it or lose it! Should be sufficient upto approx 20,000 miles of driving connected to the web (subject to level of use).

Personally I find Audi Connect so far is great to see Satellite view, check fuel prices, and to fire google directions from my iPhone to the car... Other than this the other features seem a bit pointless to me, but cool non the less, just cant see me ever needing them.

Curious to see where Audi take this Tech and what features may come up in the future, not that us Mk3 owners will probably get any feature updates... But the future is here, and its in our hands!


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## ChadW (May 2, 2003)

Hi

Slightly off topic but my old o2 sim finally run out last week (had extra month of data apparently) when it was in use I could see the LTE on the dash against signal icon. Now using the 3 sim card that was shown on here I now only see 3G. Is there a setting not right here or is it that this 3 sim card does not allow 4G LTE?


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## Toshiba (Jul 8, 2004)

I'd say that's not correct, it's a little high but not too far out. The measure should take the number of miles you drive that are the "same".. You cache around 2GB of data so it really really does depend. 7k miles and i used 7GB of data including streaming a football match to the iPad while driving - it was an important match..

I now have 1 on 12GB and the other 2 cars are on 6GB plans.


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## thegingerone (Nov 5, 2011)

Depends how you use it. I do a 100 mile commute and would stream Amazon music and internet radio constantly so my usage is quite high. Some months it can be up to 10gb. I have a 40gb shared data plan with EE.


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## Blackhole128 (Dec 24, 2015)

ChadW said:


> Hi
> 
> Slightly off topic but my old o2 sim finally run out last week (had extra month of data apparently) when it was in use I could see the LTE on the dash against signal icon. Now using the 3 sim card that was shown on here I now only see 3G. Is there a setting not right here or is it that this 3 sim card does not allow 4G LTE?


I've just done exactly the same thing with the same result - moved from EE to 3 and now only see "3G" on the signal strength icon.

The packaging on the SIM says that 4G is available if you're in a 4G area (yes) and the device supports 4G (yes) so there's something not right!

========================
Update - been on to Three tech support with no luck. They told me to go to settings to change carrier from 3G to 4G, but I don't have a Three phone to do it in and the dash has no way to access such things.

Next thing is I'm going to take it into the local Three store to see what they suggest. Will post my results.


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## Blackhole128 (Dec 24, 2015)

Another update - Went to Three store and they said it's got to be set from the car Settings to allow 4G. Have looked and there's no such setting.

This is very frustrating as I've used EE pre-paid data Sims without problems for 2 years. I grabbed the Three one as it lasts for 24 months. This turns out to be a bad thing as I now have 24 months of annoyance!!

Has anybody successfully used a pre-paid Three data sim and got "LTE 4G" in their TT ?


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## pcbbc (Sep 4, 2009)

Blackhole128 said:


> Has anybody successfully used a pre-paid Three data sim and got "LTE 4G" in their TT ?


Im not sure I've ever seen it say 4G, no...

But then on the other hand it's a very good priced offer, and the performance under 3G is perfectly satisfactory. For my usage at least. YMMV. So I'm not sure I'm missing much. Perhaps if you are streaming lots of music, then you need the 4G, but then also probably you will need more than the 12GB also...

I haven't seen an option in the VC menus for this either. My personal thoughts are that if 4G needs to be specifically enabled, this must be an industry standard way of doing this on the network or SIM? And therefore that Audi must have encountered this and coded for it to get 4G to work at all. Unless it's perhaps an optional feature set to enable/disable and only required under 3, whereas other networks do not implement that feature (and switch automatically), or preconfigured to ON?

Perhaps if you place the SIM in a phone or tablet you can select 4G, and then the network or SIM will remember the setting for the car? 3 certainly give instructions for turning on/off 4G on iOS. So perhaps try that?


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## Wedge0107 (Jun 5, 2017)

Blackhole128 said:


> Another update - Went to Three store and they said it's got to be set from the car Settings to allow 4G. Have looked and there's no such setting.
> 
> This is very frustrating as I've used EE pre-paid data Sims without problems for 2 years. I grabbed the Three one as it lasts for 24 months. This turns out to be a bad thing as I now have 24 months of annoyance!!
> 
> Has anybody successfully used a pre-paid Three data sim and got "LTE 4G" in their TT ?


I have the 12 month 12GB 3 Sim (probably used 9GB in 12 months) and my car flips between showing LTE and 3G - I didn't change any settings on the car. To be honest as has already been pointed out 3G for the purpose of Audi Connect will be more than adequate for streaming music and accessing the other services including using as a hotspot. I only recently moved from an unlimited 3G only phone sim where I had no problem streaming decent quality video let alone less data intensive music.


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## ChadW (May 2, 2003)

Yeah no real issues here with the 3g speed just wondered why it no longer said 4g. Assume their signal is just not strong enough for fast moving cars. 8)


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## Mu55ona (Sep 24, 2017)

I've had my car 6 months. 5k miles in and I've used about 100mb.

Only really Audi Connect for traffic info on the sat nav, sending destinations to the nav and checking petrol prices.

I was expecting the usage to be higher, but on the back of this I will be moving to a pre-paid sim rather than a rolling monthly.


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## thegingerone (Nov 5, 2011)

Try going to Settings > Connection Manager > scroll to data connection and make sure SIM card is selected > keep the selection over data connection and press the right select button > scroll and select network settings > try manual registration to see if you get more options for your network.

I had to do this when i first put in my EE SIM and it's always went to 4G ever since.


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## migzy (Apr 17, 2007)

i bought a 12month 12gig sim of amazon and it's still working after a year and a half

ta

migzy


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## Blackhole128 (Dec 24, 2015)

I've had EE pre-paid sims for the last two years, but jumped to Three because it was 20GB data over 24 months and thought it would be nice not to have it run out in a year with unused data for a change.

The EE sims always showed "LTE 4G" in my local areas. The Three sim is permanently showing "3G", even in the centre of Chester which is a really strong 4G area.

I popped into the Three store in town today and the staff (though very helpful) didn't really have any ideas on how to get it to work. They gave me the number for their PAYG support team which I'll try this week.

As most have mentioned, 3G coverage seems good enough for traffic info, but I occasionally need the car's hotspot capability and 3G is a pain for browsing.

I'll report back with any news.


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## ChadW (May 2, 2003)

Just noticed today mine is saying LTE again. Not sure whether it is linked but the system seemed to restart itself the other day as the map display reverted back to normal and I had to re select Google view again.

Perhaps this ensured the correct signal speed for the Data module?

Either that or the clear blue sky weather is helping. :?


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## Number86 (Oct 20, 2017)

Has anyone had experience of the car requesting a sim card, even when you know it's in there. A click in and out sorts it, but it happens occasionally. Additionally, where does the data cable connect into, if the sim is down?


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## Greyscale (Sep 7, 2017)

I recently bought one of the data sims, however after a month it's had rinsed it! I don't use it for anything special! Does anyone know why?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## pcbbc (Sep 4, 2009)

Greyscale said:


> I recently bought one of the data sims, however after a month it's had rinsed it! I don't use it for anything special! Does anyone know why?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Assuming you did in fact purchase the 12 month PAYG SIM, and not just a single month...

Do you have a phone or other mobile device paired with the car WiFi? If so it will most likely be using the cars WiFi over its own internal SIMs data plan. So if you are streaming music, or possibly also making calls from phones that support WiFi calling, then you will be using the cars data allowance.

There is an option in the MMI setup menus to prohibit use of the car SIM connection from being shared with WiFi devices (and only allow its use by MMI apps).


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## ZephyR2 (Feb 20, 2013)

Seems to be a common problem but reading that made me think of something.
The iPhone, and probably most phones, will only carry out certain data heavy functions when connected to WiFi. When your phone connects to your car's SIM it sees it as a WiFi just like your home WiFi. So might start downloading the latest IOS update or syncing files with your cloud server etc. Mine will use the car SIM for WiFi Calling when connected, I don't know if that uses much data.


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## digital_dreamer (Aug 28, 2011)

Correct the iphone will pull down a lot of data in the background esp when plugged in.

It auto updates the applications on the phone unless you change the settings. This can eat over a gig of data.


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## Dino_Donis (Apr 19, 2004)

My 12GB 12 month data sim just expired as it had been in my car for 1 year, I checked how much data had been used and it was under 3 GB, I use sat nav with traffic info regularly, a bit of internet radio and other services and my phone connects to it when I'm in the car. I used 2 android phones in that time Galaxy s7 Edge then an S9....

I assume that the data sim is a 12 month one? most are not.....


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## Gh0sty (Sep 7, 2017)

Greyscale said:


> I recently bought one of the data sims, however after a month it's had rinsed it! I don't use it for anything special! Does anyone know why?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Check out the topic I posted on it - I did 24gb in 2 months! It's definiately the phone doing something updating in the background, and if it's using your data to make and take calls.

I now connect my phone via bluetooth not on the wifi - I obviously dont need it connected while driving!


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