Porsche Connect with 3rd party SIM

[pete]

Well, as expected, Porsche have now started charging a slightly hilarious £29 per month for their 7GB data package, after many months of offering it free - presumably as a sweetener for a slightly crap service. Given that you can pay £14 per month for 10GB from Three, I'm planning to switch over to using an external SIM in my Cayenne.

I think I read somewhere that there are a few pitfalls with this, such as the external SIM being used for *all* data (including supposedly free system updates, map downloads, Google satellite view, remote services, etc), as the Porsche Connect hardware can't differentiate between the core services and the user services like wifi hotspot and Amazon Music. I'm fine with that; I doubt I'll use anywhere near the limit with a bit of streaming or hotspot use. I considered just setting the car up to tether to my phone's hotspot, but I like the flexibility of a separate connection for the car itself so the kids can connect their tablets on occasion.

Has anyone else tried using Porsche Connect / PCM4 with an external SIM?

[rbh]

I use my iPhone connected through the usb and it works fine, assuming you have sufficient data allowance.

Rob

[Porsche911R]

I was wondering what a sim gets you as I seem to have every thing via my phone !

Data is cheap now, so no need for an extra sim imo just add a fiver to you phone contract for more Data.

[moonigan]

pete said:

Well, as expected, Porsche have now started charging a slightly hilarious £29 per month for their 7GB data package, after many months of offering it free - presumably as a sweetener for a slightly crap service. Given that you can pay £14 per month for 10GB from Three, I'm planning to switch over to using an external SIM in my Cayenne.

I think I read somewhere that there are a few pitfalls with this, such as the external SIM being used for *all* data (including supposedly free system updates, map downloads, Google satellite view, remote services, etc), as the Porsche Connect hardware can't differentiate between the core services and the user services like wifi hotspot and Amazon Music. I'm fine with that; I doubt I'll use anywhere near the limit with a bit of streaming or hotspot use. I considered just setting the car up to tether to my phone's hotspot, but I like the flexibility of a separate connection for the car itself so the kids can connect their tablets on occasion.

Has anyone else tried using Porsche Connect / PCM4 with an external SIM?

If its anything like the Audi system (which I suspect it is) then I have been using it with a £5 GiffGaff goodybag. My primary use is for live traffic on maps but kids have used the internal Wi-Fi occasionally but it isn't 4G in the Audi so they only use it when their phones are dead. I've used 30MB this month and it renews in 8 days. Wont you still have to pay a monthly charge to use the connect services even if you provide your own SIM? With the Audi system you get 3 years access to the connect service but have to provide your own SIM from the start.

[pete]

moonigan said:

If its anything like the Audi system (which I suspect it is) then I have been using it with a £5 GiffGaff goodybag. My primary use is for live traffic on maps but kids have used the internal Wi-Fi occasionally but it isn't 4G in the Audi so they only use it when their phones are dead. I've used 30MB this month and it renews in 8 days. Wont you still have to pay a monthly charge to use the connect services even if you provide your own SIM? With the Audi system you get 3 years access to the connect service but have to provide your own SIM from the start.

I suspect it's a lot like the Audi system - you'd hope they would build the platform once and use it across the whole group!

The way the Porsche services work sounds more or less the same. You have subscriptions for a number of online navigation and info services, and another subscription for remote services, both included FoC with the car for 2 years. You can then pay the additional (crazy) monthly sub for data which allows you to use the car's 4G hotspot, and integrates things like Amazon Music and online radio streaming with the PCM. What's interesting is that if you don't pay for a monthly data package, the data used by the remote and nav services is free and provided using the car's inbuilt SIM, so you still get traffic info, online navigation routing etc.

I'm going to try a cheap monthly data SIM from iD Mobile, who use the Three network, and have cheap monthly rolling contracts. I don't use lots of data every month, but it's very handy on long journeys for the kids to be able to connect their tablets, and the Amazon Music streaming direct from the PCM works well.

[Cheib]

I've used an external SIM in our Cayenne for a while with PCM4....primarily because we take the car on long trips and the kids can use the WiFi. No problem at all with it. Don't know about the car using the data for updates etc.

[Cheib]

I’ve just signed up for a Data SIM to put in my Macan PP...£8 a month for 20GB of Data. They give you a Wi-fi hotspot included too so you can take it out of the car when on holiday etc.

That’s really good value I think.

[chazd]

I used a ‘three’ sim with 30gb data that lasts one year from activation. Just put my second sim in as used it for a year but did not exceed my data allowance. They can be found on eBay for £30ish.

Just make sure you get one that is 12 months not 3/6.

[5to1]

chazd said:

I used a ‘three’ sim with 30gb data that lasts one year from activation. Just put my second sim in as used it for a year but did not exceed my data allowance. They can be found on eBay for £30ish.

Just make sure you get one that is 12 months not 3/6.

We use the same for our test devices. You can get them with various allowances and sometimes they are on offer. Also they allow roaming with "feel at home".

Definitely makes more sense then signing up for a contract.

In fact I doubt i'll even bother with a Pay Go SIM. The only feature I've used which requires the Data sub is Internet Radio and even that rarely.

Edited by 5to1 on Saturday 8th December 22:22