LexusLSguy

I was not interested in paying Audi / T-Mobile rates for the data and figured I would try out the Truphone prepaid plan. So far so good. Sim arrived in the mail today, cost $30 and they give you free $15 of data. Automatically configured itself and got full bars of 3G data. I mostly use my phone but sometimes I would prefer to use the cars system or if for some reason I did not have my phone. Definitely a great alternative to the overpriced connect plans particularly if you only want to use it here and there. If your car has a AT&T based sim this option will not work.

Puzz1

How long do you think the prepaid will last?

LexusLSguy

You add data as necessary, so it really depends on the user and what they do with the data. From what others have reported the google maps does not use much. I don't have a baseline to measure yet but others have mentieod they have not used $30 worth in 6 months. The tethering feature is what would eat it up a lot. I expect to spend maybe $60 or $90 over the course of a year vs $30 a month to T-Mobile.

the_duke

So it does work with Google maps? Can you do a voice search of Google?

LexusLSguy

I have not personally tried that but it gives you all the functionality you would normally have. No difference from the normal data plans. I guess I should say google earth overlay vs google maps... lol, I admit I'm not exactly familiar with the full capabilities of the system.

the_duke

I've read in the C7 forums that the Google voice search doesn't work without an actual Audiconnect subscription.

LexusLSguy

ah interesting, I will give it a try tomorrow and update.

LexusLSguy

I was bored and went out and played with everything. Good news, it does work I can confirm. The google search via voice command, google POI, Earth, and the Audi Connect phone app. Very cool. I had no idea the car even had this feature.. I had totally forgot that I needed to enter the Truphone APN in previously. The sim was connected but not downloading anything... doh

You need to enter in the APN: truphone.com (It needs to be lowercase make sure the t is not capitalized by default) Leave the other settings blank. I also went into the Audi Connect website and was playing around and was able to get the system to generate a pin. Not sure exactly, I think I was just setting up a profile or something but I'm obviously not paying for the service through Connect. I entered this pin into the vehicle and voila, it downloaded the 3 saved destinations I has saved for a test. The Audi Connect iPhone app appears to be working correctly as well allowing me to create a destination and upload it to the connect server and the vehicle will download it.

Panerai197

Here in the UK I've had my Three data sim 12GB over 12 months £30.00 GBP, I have Google maps on all the time use google search as voice command (Online Destination), even with my lad streaming from the wifi hotspot 12 GB per year is more than enough.

LexusLSguy

Nice Panerai, honestly the US data rates through Truphone are not great if you use a lot. It is more useful if you use sparingly and do not want to be locked into a contract.