Aug 17, 2013
fiksegts Anyone with version 5.0 test out tethering the car to an LTE hotspot, or even to a high speed wifi connection? Does the web browser performance improve dramatically? Over 3G I can't tell if the slowness is due to the Tesla's web browser performance or the painfully slow 3G connection...�
Aug 17, 2013
shawnwalters Interested in this too!�
Aug 17, 2013
captain_zap Browsing performance is substantially improved when connected to wifi from the garage; screen refreshes are a lot faster. Also works great with my T-Mobile 4G hotspot. I think this will be my solution once we have to start paying for 3G.�
Aug 17, 2013
cinergi I tethered to my iPhone 5 Verizon LTE ... testmy.net reports 6.6 Mbps down 1.3 up (phone native gets 20 down 2.7 up). The in-car 3G was about 200 Kbps down and I forget what up.
Browsing's a little faster but it feels CPU-constrained. Map tiles are a little faster but not significantly. (although map performance in 5.0 overall is much better)�
Aug 17, 2013
fiksegts thanks, I can't wait to be rolling in my 5.0!�
Aug 17, 2013
shawnwalters Thanks for the info. How bout the connection to wifi when you first get into the car? Does it take a while, or is it pretty quick?�
Aug 17, 2013
ken830 Shouldn't it stay connected to WiFi? Or have we determined that app access can still be achieved?�
Aug 17, 2013
captain_zap I don't notice any major additional delay over 3G. The slacker stream starts right up. The transitions between 3G and Wifi when I pull in/out of the garage are also seamless...the Slacker stream is not interrupted.�
Aug 17, 2013
FlasherZ I have observed that in sleep mode, WiFi disconnects but 3G remains connected. I haven't tested that extensively to confirm that, but it's my hypothesis at the moment. My video shows the car waking up from sleep using 3G only.
In other news... this is my 2000th post. Yay.�
Aug 18, 2013
ken830 If Tesla's connectivity plan is too expensive, I'm planning to just use a 4G hotspot and leave it in the car. But the app would have to work. Otherwise, this would be no different than just tethering to my phone when I'm in the car.�
Aug 18, 2013
jerry33 My guess is that 3G doesn't go down because that's Tesla's primary way of monitoring the car at present.
And very informative they have been too.�
Aug 18, 2013
Al Sherman Time for another dumb guy question.
My wife has (finally) agreed to get a cellphone. I'm an Apple guy so I'm gonna get her an iPhone and might as well upgrade my old 3GS.
I'm with AT&T. I'd like to switch to Verizon for better coverage.
Is there any reason(s) NOT to switch as far as my Model S and/or Tesla is concerned?�
Aug 18, 2013
jomo25 Can't think of any reason it should matter at the moment. If the MS had user-swappable SIMs, then it could matter if you could add the MS as a device to a shared data plan. But since it doesn't, its stuck with AT&T. So, IMO, having Verizon on your phone might actually be better so that you have 2 networks if you ever get into a remote area where one might not serve as well as the other.
There may be other reasons, but I can't think of any.�
Aug 18, 2013
shawnwalters I plan on using a 4g phone as a hotspot all the time. If nothing else for the added speed of the network, maps etc. The only issue I am not sure of it connecting to it and the speed at which it will do it. Hopefully that will be a non issue. And also where the charge ports are in the car. Is there one in the glove box? Or somewhere you wouldn't have to have the phone visible?�
Aug 18, 2013
NigelM USB ports and 12v are all at the rear of the center console space, below the arm rest. So always visible.�
Aug 18, 2013
Discoducky A new iPhone is coming out in a month so be on the lookout.�
Aug 18, 2013
vfx I heard that when the tethering comes out so will the owner price for car connectivity.�
Aug 18, 2013
Al Sherman Thanks. I may as well wait since I seem to keep the darn things forever! Technologically speaking. :smile:�
Aug 18, 2013
dsm363 If you are grandfathered into an unlimited data plan on AT&T and your search to Verizon you would lose that of course but definitely wait. Supposed to be announced Sept. 10th.�
Aug 18, 2013
garcilamd I have Verizon and you can't use voice and data concurrently. AT&T can do if you're going to use the phone for Internet this is something to consider.�
Aug 19, 2013
Electric Machete It is my understanding that Verizon's network doesn't allow data streaming to occur simultaneously with speaking on the phone. If your car is using data streamed through the phone, would you still receive calls? If you received calls, would data streaming be suspended? You should find out before switching carriers.
Sorry, I think your question has just been answered above.�
Aug 19, 2013
mitch672 You can also buy a "hotspot" from most of the providers, here's an inexpensive one from virgin (who uses the Sprint network)
Virgin Mobile | Overdrive Pro 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot No Contract
The advantage to these is, they can be left in the car, plugged into the USB port, so they won't run out of power. One caveat: it has been mentioned when the car goes to sleep, the WiFi gets shutdown...�
Aug 19, 2013
gaswalla Verizon 4G on Android definitely allows tethering and voice simultaneously�
Aug 19, 2013
NigelM Verizon/iPhone5 pairing seems to be that all calls go to voice mail while data is streaming via tethering. It's apparently different for other phones.�
Aug 19, 2013
scaesare I'm with you, Ice.�
Aug 19, 2013
adurstewitz Yes, if you decide to use the phone for teathering. On Verizon you won't be able to teather and talk on the phone at the same time. So, if someone calls you, your Google maps, slacker etc will all stop.�
Aug 19, 2013
Rodolfo Paiz Rather than buying a hotspot, I prefer to buy a small tablet with cellular connectivity (say, the new Nexus 7) and then tether to that. You get a great deal more functionality for your dollar, and the monthly charges are cheaper: I'm on Verizon's share-everything plan, and a hotspot costs me $20/month while a tablet costs me $10/month. The tablet pays for itself very quickly compared to the hotspot.�
Aug 19, 2013
AmpedRealtor My understanding is that this is a network, rather than a phone, limitation.�
Aug 19, 2013
NigelM Maybe, I'm just comparing local info I received here in FL with gaswalla's statement about his android phone in San Diego. If an incoming call forces me to drop slacker for the duration then no problem, if it affects NAV that's going to be a PITA. If I can't receive calls when I've got nav or slacker on then that's also a major PITA. Whether the limitation is phone or network it's going to get annoying pretty quickly.�
Aug 19, 2013
gaswalla I wonder how much data is needed for navigation and slacker. Freedompop.com will give 500mb free per month after you purchase a mifi from them: could be a very cheap substitute for an expensive Tesla plan and addresses the iPhone/Verizon crowd that can't tether and talk at the same time.�
Aug 19, 2013
Sacrament055 Voice and data simultaneously works fine on Verizon with Samsung Galaxy S4 so I can say if there is a limitation it must be on the iPhone's implementation for Verizon.�
Aug 19, 2013
ElSupreme It is a problem with Verizon's CDMA network. It is not possible to negotiate both at the same time.
Verizon is upgrading to LTE, which allows for both talk and data at the same time. So the iPhone not being LTE is the culprit. If your S4 isn't on LTE it also will have the same issue as the iPhone and not be capable of doing both.
ATT and T-Mobile use HSPA, and UMTS, for 3/4G as well as LTE. All of these protocols are capable of serving both voice and data at the same time.
So the problem lies with Verizon (and Sprint) and their 3/4G systems. But their LTE systems are available to handle both simultaneously.�
Aug 19, 2013
NigelM Apparently not true for iPhone5, for which Verizon blames Apple.....http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/iphone-5-calls-data/?_r=0�
Aug 19, 2013
gregincal For people too lazy to read another article, right now it's not true that LTE does voice and data at the same time, in fact it can't do voice at all yet. The Galaxy S4 gets around this by having an extra antenna to do CDMA voice at the same time as LTE data. The iPhone 5 lacks this extra antenna. On ATT the iPhone 5 also falls back to 3G when a voice call comes in, but can continue providing data at 3G speeds while the voice call continues (which isn't possible with CDMA).�
Aug 19, 2013
Al Sherman You guys are freaking me out. So, should I stay with AT&T, or switch to Verizon if we're gonna use the iPhone 5 or the new 5S?�
Aug 19, 2013
dsm363 If you have AT&T and are happy with it (especially if you have unlimited data plan) if stick with it. We will know more when the 5S is announced most likely.�
Aug 19, 2013
patp Amazing idea!�
Aug 20, 2013
PhilBa Some information (and questions) about Slacker to help make a decision. Slacker delivers two different kind of streams depending on the client implementation. Either 128Kb MP3 or 40Kb AAC. Phone apps supposedly use 40Kb AAC so I'll go with that as the Tesla version. If it's MP3, triple the data usage. Does anyone know for certain?
Anyway, based on that, listening to 1 hour of slacker a day will use, at minimum, 540 MB of data in a 30 day month. If you frequently skip ahead in the middle of songs, you will consume more data since the pre-buffered song bits will be not be used (delivered but unplayed, counts against your data usage). It's not clear how much slacker buffers (though, they clearly don't buffer enough at times) but when there was a server error on slacker's side, it appeared that an entire song was buffered. Also, there is some delivery overhead but I'm not sure how slacker does their streaming and error handling.
So, for example, if you listen to 30 minutes of slacker a day, you will burn through at least 250 MB a month. Adjust that based on you personal usage and keep it in mind when choosing a data plan.�
Aug 20, 2013
PwrOutage Iphone's do NOT support WIFI tethering (as of a few years ago) I'm pretty sure they still don't without jail breaking the phone. Tesla Vr. 5 firmware looks to only support WIFI tether.
I use a Android Motorola Maxx and use an app called PdaNet+ which works great on trips. Everyone can connect to the web in my car without any issue.
I'm on Verizon, they probably have paid tethering add on's.�
Aug 20, 2013
fiksegts iPhones tether just fine via WIFI..... no jailbreaking needed....
�
Aug 20, 2013
Teriyaki88 I'm going to tether to my iPad with LTE connection. It's data is shared with our other devices.�
Aug 20, 2013
gregincal As of a few years ago, neither iPhones or Android phones even existed. Your information is sorely out of date. The last 3 versions of the iPhone support Wifi tethering.�
Aug 20, 2013
Gear It depends on your definition of "a few years" I suppose. The iPhone came out over 6 years ago now.�
Aug 20, 2013
PwrOutage Correct in all ways. My def is 3-4yrs. Sorry, when I say didn't support tethering, I meant for free. After some research it's only been a year since the FCC ruled that tethering has to be available in 3rd party apps which means the carriers no longer charge for it either. This was not always true and that's where my information was out of date.
Of course now the carriers charge a ridiculous amount of money for data so not much has changed.
Wow, time does fly though. Six years since the first iPhone, wow.�
Aug 20, 2013
Merrill So if Tesla decides to take away connectivity, I assume you will lose navigation along with Internet access. Do not know much about technical info, but learning slowly. Can I then tether my iPhone to have access.�
Aug 20, 2013
nrcooled This is pure genius and it gives me a great excuse to upgrade my Nexus 7.
:Leans over: sweetie, if I buy a new Tablet it will save is money!�
Aug 20, 2013
jvonbokel This sounds like a solid estimate based on your math. And with map tile caching also enabled in 5.0, the map should use little to no data long-term. (I'm assuming/hoping it will do periodic tile updates overnight while connected to wi-fi).�
Aug 20, 2013
swegman I have unlimited data on ATT with an iPhone. At one time ATT said you could not tether with the unlimited data plan. Is that still true? Or has it changed, based on comment #44, above?�
Aug 20, 2013
bluefuego Not sure about this... in my initial testing monitoring usage while tethered on my husband's phone, I observed a 3MB download per song. I need to try this again to confirm data throughput, but from what I saw and assuming a 3 minute song length, 30 minutes of slacker a day (10 songs per day) for 30 days (300 songs) would add up to 900 MB per month (and yes, I do a lot of skipping to the next song - that's not even factored in). I will have to give this a try with the lower quality slacker setting.
I would be interested to know how well tile caching is working. It seems like every time I leave my garage and switch over from wifi to 3g, there is a significant amount of time where I have no map at all (save for 3 or 4 tiles). It's an odd behavior that seems to be related to how far away from the house I can go with a weak wifi signal before 3g switchover. Slacker also will not play for the few blocks that I drive after leaving my garage. Kind of annoying.�
Aug 20, 2013
gregincal My guess is that's the sort of thing reported by early users that will be fixed in subsequent 5.0 updates. Wifi shouldn't make things worse.�
Aug 20, 2013
bluefuego I, too, have been grandfathered into an unlimited ATT data plan back from the days when iPhone was initially launched. I have been warned that if I were to make any changes to my plan (even adding to my plan such things as more texts) I would immediately lose my unlimited data plan. I have NEVER once come close to using enough of my data on a monthly basis to justify the increased cost that I pay for the unlimited; but I kept it for the sake of having it. I suspect that if you were to 'legally' turn on tethering on your iPhone through ATT, you would likewise lose your unlimited plan. Now, you could jailbreak it (not that I am nec. advocating that) and get around that. But be aware that even though you have something that says it is 'unlimited', I believe ATT introduced the right to throttle your usage after a certain threshold (prob 2GB). You will still have data, but it will be at Edge speeds.
I suppose it never hurts to ask?�
Aug 20, 2013
swegman Throttling begins at 3GB; ATT did that to me once. I know you can jailbreak the iPhone to enable tethering, but at one time ATT could detect the tethering by examining the data stream. Is that still the case, or has the jail break tethering programs been revised to simulate the data stream of the phone?�
Aug 20, 2013
bluefuego It makes sense that they could detect possible tethering usage via examining data streams.. but I would think that they would only do that to heavier users. I do not know if modern tether jailbreak solutions can hide their data streams - if not, that is certainly a good idea.
I do find the whole extra charge for tethering to be annoying as my usage is limited to the abilities of my phone, it's not like I can actually get anymore data than I am allotted without paying for it or suffering SLOW speeds. When I first heard about the whole throttling being introduced, I would turn on Netflix and stream movies while driving around just to use up my data as my very small and insignificant act of protest. But then I got lazy and even after a few days, I never came close to the throttle point.�
Aug 20, 2013
HHHH I just would use my AT&T iPad with LTE for the connectivity if/when it comes to that...�
Aug 20, 2013
PhilBa What was slacker running on? The MS? Do you have 5.0? That data rate implies MP3 at 128K rather than AAC. A 3 minute song is 2.8MB with 128K MP3. It would be a shame if the MS slacker implementation used MP3.�
Aug 20, 2013
bluefuego Yes, 5.0 installed on my MS. I just re-verified ~3MB per song (3:00+) at Best quality setting. Dropping to Medium quality setting drops it down to just over 1MB (for a 3:00+ minute song). In my 15 or so minutes streaming songs (and skipping to the next song) I used almost 41MB of data (again, both at Best and Medium quality settings, but mostly at Best).
I hope that some find this helpful. I have been struggling to figure out what my best option will be when the connectivity plans are revealed. I currently have an iPhone 4 on AT&T. I am looking to switch to TMobile so that I can at least save a little on my monthly bill, but the possible addition of tethering or another mifi type of device (and the amount of data that I will require for all of my devices including the MS) has my head spinning trying to figure out what my best option will be.�
Aug 21, 2013
Electric Machete I have the unlimited plan from AT&T as well. I called and the only way to tether without jailbreaking is to change to a tiered plan with a minimum of 5GB per month. I don't think they will let the unlimited plan stick around too much longer anyway so I'm considering making the change.�
Aug 21, 2013
sublimaze1 I have two jailbroken phones - a 4 and a 4S. Sadly, neither are LTE. Both have unlimited data plans One is a corporate phone (on a $150K/mo account) and the other is my personal phone. Observations:
(1) the personal phone gets throttled down at 3GB just like you say.
(2) the corporate phone does not notice throttling.
(3) I have pushed over 10GB/mo twice on the personal plan. I make no phone calls (okay, maybe one or two every six months) from that phone and I text rarely. So if there is any phone that ATT is going to ID as jailbroken, that is it ... I have been doing this for two years. No intervention (e.g. billing, phonecalls, emails) from ATT whatsoever
(4) jailbreaking your phone is not illegal, so there is no fear of legal reprimand
(5) I used redsn0w on the corporate phone, but recently upgraded it to absinthe (I think - it's been a while) and the home phone has redsn0w still on it - since I do nothing but stream data, I don't care about some of the functions that absinthe has overcome.
FWIW�
Aug 21, 2013
FlasherZ Depending upon how much you drive, this may make the Tesla plan worthwhile.
AT&T's tether-eligible 5GB plan cost is $50 absent any discounts you may receive via employer, supplier, etc., with $10 for each GB. If every 2.5 hours of driving generates just under half a gig, you could be in for a wicked surprise if you relied upon tethering. This is not to mention the loss of 3G availability when you're not in the car (unless you simply buy a mifi point).
Unlimited plans from other carriers + a tether device might make a separate plan + tether worthwhile...
For me it will depend upon what's included. If remote app access depends upon having the connectivity plan, that pretty much decides it for me right then and there. If Tesla were to commit to tethering off the car's connection, that too will be a big factor.�
Aug 28, 2013
hans Not sure you would want to share a 3G link with more devices than just the car and console. This makes more sense when combined with a 4G/LTE upgrade of the cars cellular data connection. I think that is how Audi does it for their WiFi hotspot feature.�
Aug 28, 2013
ZestyChicken I can't believe providers can charge for tethering...what a rip. AT&T still does, Verizon can't. I'm gonna switch to Verizon.�
Aug 28, 2013
FlasherZ Actually, with the right plan it's included on AT&T. It is against their terms of service on lower-tier plans and unlimited plans.�
Aug 28, 2013
Klaus There was a ruling that they can't charge for tethering. So they "fixed" that by only offering it with their most expensive data plan.�
Aug 28, 2013
ZestyChicken If you're talking about Verizon, you can tether with everything but their unlimited data plan. Which I think is fair.
AT&T is not required by law because they didn't buy the same spectrum Verizon did. This spectrum has restrictions which required shared access. When I signed up AT&T's mobile shared plan, you had to go with the loads of GB plan to get the tethering free. Now that isn't the case. Which means I have tethering after all. Woohoo!�
Aug 29, 2013
Klaus Firmware 5.0
I was clearly replying to a statement regarding AT&T, and I misremembered the time sequence. First, they charged $20 on top of their more expensive, but no longer unlimited 2GB data plan (see ATT iPhone Tethering: An Extra $20/Month—If You Abandon Unlimited Data ). Then they made it available at no cost only on their most expensive 5GB plan (which is what I was referring to). Last year they started their new data plans that include shared plans, and now they allow tethering on all plans (at least that's how I read it on Cell Phone Plans, Data Plans, Prepaid Plans, & Family Plans from AT&T ) But you still can't use it on older plans such as my grandfathered "unlimited" aka 2-3GB or so plan.
And you're right, the ruling was regarding Verizon which prompted the other providers to update their plans. And AT&T used to shaft their customers for tethering, but now that's history.�
Aug 29, 2013
AnOutsider Hey guys, this is slowly leaving the boundaries of the current discussion. As a reminder, we have a few threads to discuss tethering, including these:
Connectivity: service plan/upgradability/speed
LTE Hotspot Tethering Performance?�
Aug 29, 2013
andrewket I'm paying for tethering on Verizon with an unlimited LTE plan.�
Aug 29, 2013
hans So am I, for $30/month. I also have a grandfathered unlimited 4G LTE data plan.
Hopefully by now everyone understands that mobile carrier billing plans are a dogs breakfast of all the previous plans that every subsidiary and acquired company has every offered. You just can't say definitively that AT&T does X, and Verizon does Y, for anything other than brand new customers. Even that is subject to change, promotions, and coercion ;-)�
Nov 10, 2013
jamieb I haven't yet tried this in my Model S (I'm 5 weeks, 6 days out from a factory pickup - not that I'm counting...) but I recently purchased a Karma pay-as-you-go LTE hotspot. I've been quite happy with it and it does not lock me in to a monthly data contract.
Check out: Karma | The Pay-As-You-Go Mobile Wi-Fi Provider
It is tiny:
It recharges using a micro-USB cable and the battery lasts about 8 hours or so. Reaches at least 5MB/sec download speeds in good coverage areas (uses the Sprint/Clear network, so there are definitely coverage gaps).
The concept is that you pre-purchase your data in chunks (if you buy 5 or 10 GB ahead of time the cost/GB drops to about $10/GB, pretty reasonable) and when you have it in your pocket at a public place and someone else uses it (it's visible to everyone as a Karma hotspot but your devices are kept separate - they can't see your laptop, for example), you get a 200MB credit for having 'shared' your bandwidth. They call it 'social bandwidth'. Obviously when you're driving no one will be tacking on to your Karma.
I have found this to more than pay for itself when traveling on business by avoiding the $15-20/night charge for internet at hotels, in good coverage areas the speed is often better than in-hotel wi-fi or the 'free' wifi in airports.
The device is $99 from their website or from Amazon
Coverage isn't complete, however - for example New Orleans (where I have a trip next week) isn't covered at all. They have a detailed coverage map on their website and you can zoom in to see if you'll be covered where you live and travel. I've found the map to be pretty accurate - i.e., no coverage at my home but coverage starts where the map says it should about 3 blocks away.
There are a few other pay-as-you-go hotspots on Amazon, I have no experience with the others. Pricing seems comparable.
When I get my Model S (5 weeks, 5.9 days out - not that I'm counting) I figure I will carry this in my pocket when I'm traveling in areas with good coverage and will see whether the increased latency of maps and internet is worth the $. Easy to turn on and off when needed.�
Nov 11, 2013
ausdma Their coverage is pretty good in major metro areas but not so great on the highways between cities or in smaller cities/towns, so it would be good if you are covered in the city where you drive mostly but not so good if you spend much time on the road or in smaller metros. Humorously, where I live in central Austin is right on the edge of a not covered island surrounded by coverage.�
Nov 11, 2013
Mayhemm Wow, you guys get ripped off on your mobile service! The public mobile carrier here provides unlimited national LTE coverage (still limited to cities though) and no-charge tethering/hotspot function for $65CAD per month.
That is insane! I've never been charged for the internet in a hotel! Now that I have an LTE phone, I just pair that to my laptop since it is so much faster than the "free" WiFi. I plan to do the same with my Model S.�
Nov 12, 2013
Gizmotoy Yeah, it's ridiculous. I just started thinking about moving to one of AT&Ts shared plans so that the Tesla could be added to it. I'm currently grandfathered in to a pair of unlimited LTE iPhone plans. For our usage, just moving to plan suitable for our current data usage that would allow me to add the Tesla to the shared data pool will cost $70 more a month than the $130 we're already paying. Then add in whatever the Tesla costs. It'll be cheaper to add it to a standalone plan. Asinine.
Having visited Europe, buying SIMs along the way... American carriers suck. Hard.�
Nov 18, 2013
NigelM With FW v5.6 I connected my car to my iPhone using the phone as a personal hotspot - connection was very easy and the car remembers it easily enough when disconnected and reconnected. No noticeable difference in Google Maps but the web browser was faster than normal (although didn't seem as fast as on my home WiFi network).�
Dec 31, 2014
bwa I've been mulling over Tesla's decision to use AT&T, despite Verizon being a better network in most places. I finally realized that with the ability of the car to use a Verizon tether via WiFi gives the best of both worlds: Verizon superior coverage, if you pony up the dough, and an AT&T fallback, which doubles as a way to transceive when AT&T coverage is better than Verizon (hard to believe, but I have heard of such places existing, mostly the backward parts of the country).
I'll note that this would make an aftermarket exterior Verizon car antenna a possibly smart addition, since it would not fall victim to shielding by the car body. Also, in those rare areas where you prefer AT&T (coverage, cost, equipment failure, bringing the equipment out of range, etc.), you may have to remember to disconnect the car from tether.
All in all, not impossible to handle well enough.�
Dec 31, 2014
Gear I always thought Verizon was the clear winner too, but in my drive to Minnesota, my girlfriend and I found just as many places with AT&T and no Verizon as we did the other way around, if not even a little more, most notably in several portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, all rural areas where I would have thought Verizon to be better. I personally am switching to T-Mobile in the near future as I'm tired of Verizon's poor customer service and shady business practices. Sometimes it's just not worth putting up with all the BS to get supposedly superior coverage. Maybe that was Tesla's thinking as well. I'm sure AT&T gave them better terms.�
Jan 1, 2015
andrewket Speaking in generalities, Verizon has better coverage on the east coast and ATT has better coverage on the west. T-mobile doesn't come close to the network footprint of either. If coverage is a priority, I would stay away from t-mobile.
Having driven cross country this past summer along the northern supercharger route, my experience was that Verizon had a slight edge with 3G coverage, although I was surprised how much was already LTE. In Wyoming I hit a ~100 mile stretch that has no coverage from either network. XM still worked
�
Jan 1, 2015
Lump Warning about T-Mobile,
The good...
I recently switched because both Verizon & AT&T simply didn't work at home (live in the hills), most calls would be missed & go to voicemail without ever ringing, T mobile fixed this by offering T-Mobile Personal CellSpot Router, making calls over WiFi isn't new but using this router prioritizes phone calls & the handoff to the cell network when leaving or arriving home has been great, https://support.t-mobile.com/community/coverage/personal-cellspot/wi-fi-cellspot-router for a $25 deposit they give you a T-Mobile-branded Asus RT-AC68U Dual-band Wireless-AC1900 Gigabit Router that is one of the best routers on the market (replaced an Apple Airport Extreme) I have an iPhone 6+ so make sure your phone can make calls over WiFi.
The bad...
In SoCal anytime your in the hills you won't get service 50% of the time, I am not talking about deep canyons, areas like Pasadena, Porter Ranch, Encino etc...places where you expect to have service T-Mobile fails. Their CEO John Legere is great & I love the Uncarrier moves they have made but regret anytime I am in the hills.�
Jan 1, 2015
Gear Yeah, that's what's really making me consider the switch. John Legere has been doing a lot of really cool consumer-minded things. Verizon, in my many interactions with them, have shown a lack of caring for the customer on so many levels and assuming people will just stick around because of their network, and I'm not really interested in being one of them anymore. It looks like my house is in a bad spot for T-Mobile coverage (in the mountains), but I'm pretty sure my current Asus router supports their WiFi calling, so I just need to get a phone that does as well, as you said. I read that in 2014 they made huge investments in expanding their network, so hopefully they'll start challenging AT&T at least in network coverage in the near future. I'll probably just sign up for their test drive where they send you an iPhone 5s for 7 days to try out their network.�
Jan 1, 2015
gg_got_a_tesla After several years with AT&T - before the smartphone era and through all generations of the iPhone till recently - I purchased the iPhone 6+ outright and switched to T-Mobile.
Although I've loved some aspects of T-Mobile - unlimited text and data overseas (I was able to make use of it heavily in India and Qatar recently), ease of switching service plans, free tethering and the WiFi calling - coverage has indeed been a problem. Both my home and workplace, right in the heart of the Peninsula in the SF Bay Area, have very weak coverage and I'm lucky to get a 3G signal let alone 4G or LTE. For the past couple of weeks in Hawaii, coverage has been abysmal and I've had to grudgingly defer to my wife's iPhone on AT&T to get online.�
Jan 1, 2015
andrewket I signed up for a line with t-mobile (2nd phone) just for the international access. Then I discovered the hard way they will give you the slowest speed the local network can provide. In many places I had 2G. Not worth it. Much better to just pick up a local sim.�
Jan 1, 2015
spentan I've had Harbor Mobile (business reseller of T-Mobile), and it's been soooo cheap, that I really cannot justify switching to Verizon. I tried AT&T and I seriously got worried every day regarding data usage (2GB data instead of Unlimited was just terrible).�
Jan 1, 2015
ecarfan @gg, my wife and I recently did exactly the same thing; we bought unlocked iPhone 6+'s and switched from AT&T to T-Mobile. The free tethering has come in handy, and the overseas ease of use is a nice change compared to pricey AT&T. And I have tethered to my my S.
�
Jan 1, 2015
gg_got_a_tesla I heard about that too but, did get solid 3G in both countries.�
Jan 1, 2015
spentan I went to Australia a month ago, and every one of my friends both here in USA and Aus were astonished at the unlimited data roaming and texting.
Was roaming on Optus 3G, which isn't amazing, but was more than enough for navigation, Uber, iMessage and other text/messaging apps (Google Hangouts/Whatsapp/FB Messenger).
Most of the places I was visiting had free wifi (otherwise I'd tether my local Nexus 5), so I wasn't hard strapped for data.
Even though the reception sucks sometimes, the Wi-Fi Calling, and other awesome features (such as unlimited everything for $50 per mo) is amazing. I just can't leave T-Mo (through Harbor Mobile - Business Reseller)
Using Wi-Fi Calling was awesome as well, Anytime I was on Wi-Fi it was showing "T-Mobile Wi-Fi"�
Jan 2, 2015
andrewket I still have verizon unlimited data and texting, so there is tremendous value to me to stay with verizon. I have to pay for the hotspot feature, but it costs me an extra $22 or so after a corp discount. This billing cycle has been insane because of travel. I've already used 34 GB and I'm a week in. Kids streaming video in the back seat...�
Jan 11, 2015
steve841 For those who prefer to tether their Model S to their cell phone... using an Android phone. I've had sporadic luck with "auto" tethering apps- especially on the new Nexus.
I have finally found one that works (but its somewhat complicated -drop a note if you need help). The app is called Automate in the play store.
So the bottom line: When you get in your car, when bluetooth connects, the phone automatically turns on hot spot. Conversely, when you get out of your car, hot spot turns off. All without having to do anything.
Just completed the setup and it appears to be working.�
Jan 11, 2015
wayner (sorry - I didn't read through this entire thread so some of this may have already been mentioned) I have a Netgear/Sierra 763S LTE mobile hotspot. It is on Rogers here in Canada - AT&T sells the same model in the US. One thing to note is that the USB tethering doesn't work which is disappointing as that should give the best connection. Perhaps Tesla could change this in the future. I do seem to get somewhat better speed when tethered for web browsing.�
Jan 11, 2015
zzzzdoc I don't understand how a device like Karma works. How does the data stream when it's switched to wifi by the hotspot increase over the maximum that LTE provides? I can see how it could change the Tesla from 3G to 4G LTE speeds, but wifi speeds??? How can they exceed the LTE speeds if the connection is then routed through LTE (the bottleneck in the system)?�
Jan 11, 2015
HankLloydRight Looking at the Karma site (I'm assuming this is what you're talking about: How it Works | Karma ) they only claim 4G LTE speeds.
It seems no different than tethering your 4G/LTE phone over wifi to other devices.
but yikes! $14 per GB!�
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