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AT&T, Audi Announce In-Car 4G LTE Plans, Starting At $99 For 6 Months
Lucas123 writes "Audi is set to became the first car company to offer native, in-vehicle broadband in its 2015 A3 models through AT&T and it has just listed pricing for the service. Audi and AT&T will offer two data plan options: a 5GB, 6-month plan for $99 and a 30GB, 30-month plan for $499. Audi and GM first announced the upcoming availability of in-car 4G LTE during the CES show this year. GM plans to roll out 4G LTE in vehicles later this year and will eventually have more than 30 models supporting it. Audi said it plans to expand 4G LTE capability across its entire lineup as new or refreshed models come to market."
'Nuff said.
Highway robbery!
I'll get me coat.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I have a phone. It has a 4G LTE plan. It is always with me.
I have a tablet. I cannot use it simultaneously with my phone (in the sense that I'm actively doing something that consumes data with one device).
I have a laptop. I cannot use it simultaneously with my tablet and phone.
I have a car. I cannot use it simultaneously with my laptop, tablet, and phone.
Clearly the proper metric that used here is to charge for LTE data use per individual (or even per GB). Not per device. The "correct" solution here is to get your cellular data plan with your phone, and have your phone operate as a hotspot to share that data with your tablet, laptop, and car. Attempts to charge for service on a per-device basis is just double-, triple-, or quadruple-dipping by the carriers. If service is being metered per GB, this shouldn't even be an issue. Pay a nominal fee for an LTE SIM card, link it to your phone account, and add the data it uses to your monthly usage. There is absolutely no need for the device to have its own separate plan.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
I am not up to date on US broadband prices but wouldn't it be much cheaper to get a MiFi access point instead?
Cheaper? Maybe, but probably not. (see below)
More versatile? Definitely. It wouldn't be stuck to your car so you could use elsewhere.
Less convenient to use, probably. You'd have to figure out how to pair your car to it, remember to bring it with you, and the car antenna installation is probably better than anything that fits in your pocket inside the car, so reception of the mifi won't likely be as good.
But I guess if I had the money for a new Audi, I wouldn't care about 99$ a month for a overpriced broadband service.
99$ for six months. so $16.50 per month. That's not Audi money, that's Honda Civic money. :p
It is LTE. LTE-Advanced (the real "4G") is supposed to start rolling out this year.
The average vehicle life is 11.4 years. That means this car will have an obsolete wireless connection for nearly 11 years. At the rate that new standards come out and frequencies shuffle, you may not be able to get service at all in the last couple of years.
This is the LAST thing I would want in my car. For it to automatically send GM whatever information GM thinks they would like, as often as it wants, on my dime, and then GM can sell/rent/lease/make available to whomever shows up at their door with a warrant or a dollar.
And my phone already has a data plan, which is with me in the car when I drive around. At best, I might let it do a software upgrade via my phone.
This is really just about GM [and the other manufacturers] to get ongoing revenue out of me, while doing absolutely nothing for it.
Kind of like "tethering plans" from your cell phone provider.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
How long until it is mandatory to have a data plan for your car to use any of the infotainment features, ie, their is a built-in incompatibility or missing feature to pair your car with whatever mobile data device you already own (phone tethering, MiFi-type device, existing municipal wifi, etc)?
Car maker makes data usage exclusive to one carrier, earns spiff for every subscription, carrier just ups data plan cost to cover spiff.
Total ripoff.
Never. AT&T is known for raping it's users.
What I did was I bought a china double din Android 4.0 car stereo, then put a Kindle Sim in it's sim slot. 100% free internet in my car as long as I am not a moron and try to stream videos or music. but it makes Waze work perfectly as well as pulling current weather and other info.
I already have a system that is 80X better than anything that Audi will ever sell in their cars, because it's 100% open android.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.