Inyoury

Hey guys, does someone know if audi connect will work if your car enters Canada and your car is registered in the US? More specifically, I plan on taking my car up to Toronto for a few days and I was wondering if I can still use the wifi hot spot and other internet functions. No one at the local dealer knew and someone was suppose to call me back two days ago they haven't yet.

Thanks

superswiss

It will if you enable roaming in the settings. T-Mobile has free international, albeit heavily throttled roaming, you will only get about 128kps. If you are using AT&T then you will incur their standard roaming charges or you can add the passport service to your account, which gives you discounted roaming.

Inyoury

Thanks for the info. Also since I am still in the free trial period till January, would they still try to charge or Bill me? I don't know how they can bill me since they don't have my credit card for the A6 sim. Will Audi allow the Audi connect to operate outside of the US? When I complained about the speed being throttled, Audi said it was AT&T. When I complained to AT&T, they blamed Audi and checked the sim serial number and said it wasn't even in their system. This seems to be a big mystery. Maybe VW trickery is I the works with Audi Connect?

superswiss

No idea what the restrictions are during the free trial. Your SIM may not roam during the free trial as you don't really have a subscription yet. If they let you roam, they'll most likely will send you a bill for the roaming charges. They don't need your credit card to send you a bill. They've got your address from Audi.

EDIT: Oh and Audi Connect doesn't care where you are driving. As long as you have a data connection you can connect to the Audi Connect services.

13c7a6

Sorry, but AUDIConnect does not work in Canada. The T-mobile SIM and the associated IMEI won't establish a data connection in Canada even with roaming on.

Google map overlay will work for a while even after crossing the border until it has to refresh the map or you stop the car and restart it later.

Even with the cached map, overlay won't work unless there is a data connection.

My car is 2013, not sure if the 2016 will work since the MMI on the 2016 is completely different.

Inyoury

Thanks guys. I heard back from Audi connect. As the poster below mentioned, Audi connect does not allow roaming with the AT&T. I can still use the map but not the Google overlay or wifi hotspot.

I also find out the answer as to why the LTE on the 2016 A6 is slower than the Smart phone LTE regardless of them both being from AT&T. The Audi connect works on a different network (non-cellular), that is why AT&T Audi connect doesn't work in Canada or Mexico due to different equipment that is not supported outside of the US. Once my free trial is over, all 2016 A6 and A7 owners will get a free 6GB of data for a certain time (900 days). Then I'll add the car as a device and can roam being on a cell network. That's should improve the speed as well.

superswiss

Yes, with a 2013 that's correct. The cellular modem in the 2013 MMI only supports the T-Mobile UMTS band in the USA. As of MY2014, the cellular modem was updated to support HSPA+ and more bands, including the Canadian bands as far as I know. This new modem also supports full 3G service on AT&T. Audi has a hardware exchange for MY2013 to upgrade the cellular modem to the same one in MY2014+. T-Mobile is changing their 3G band in several markets and MY2013 cars get downgraded to 2G in those markets unless you do the hardware exchange. I have an updated MMI in my 2013 RS5 and have been using AT&T since the beginning of the year.

That sounds like a bunch of BS. What network would that be? The 2016 MMI uses a regular cellular LTE modem just like a mobile hotspot or other data only device.

DB22

The dealer probably assumed that you were a boarder and not that you were crossing the border or did Siri screw up again😄

snagitseven

FWIW, the nav maps have nothing to do with Audi Connect or any cellular network. The map data, provided to Audi by NavTeq in North America, are loaded on the car's internal hard drive and the car receives GPS satellite signals to determine the current location.

As Superswiss stated, there is no such thing as a "non-cellular" network for Audi Connect. That's simply hogwash. For the US, it's T-Mobile or AT&T or nothing.

Inyoury

That came directly from Audi Connect themselves. They told me that the Audi connect AT&T does not use the AT&T cell network for the 2016 A6/A7. When AT&T checked my 2016 AT&T SIM card, they couldn't pull up anything in their records.