WiFi hotspot - carrier, payment?

[Jim Glass]

Ok, the car has built-in WiFi. Who pays for that? Monthly? Ford or us if it is used for updates? Who is the carrier? Do our personal phones hook to this WiFi? Or do we need a separate card for our personal phones? Or is it effectively “free WiFi” for the user? Can more than one occupant used it, e.g. the wife uses her iPad on trips. asking for a friend!

Sponsored

 

[rgparham]

Ok, the car has built-in WiFi. Who pays for that? Monthly? Ford or us if it is used for updates? Who is the carrier? Do our personal phones hook to this WiFi? Or do we need a separate card for our personal phones? Or is it effectively “free WiFi” for the user? Can more than one occupant used it, e.g. the wife uses her iPad on trips. asking for a friend!

I believe it is through AT&T. I think 6 months trial then monthly payment. It is an access point so multiple people can use it.

 

[Jim Glass]

Sounds good too me although in some places AT&T is not the best. That’s what I have now in my Audi and there are no issues for me.

 

[JellyBelly]

Car has its modem for mobile connectivity and you don’t have to pay for the car to only connect and do what it needs to with Ford servers. It’s 4g .

you can connect car to your home WiFi for it to use home WiFi for OTA updates.
Not to be confused with WiFi for you or others from the car cell connection .. it’s just using the car as hotspot and you have to pay ATT for that.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

There's a couple of different things here.

The car has a cellular modem ... this works regardless of whether you enroll in the WiFi plan.

The car also can join a WiFi network (as a client). The idea is you'll join it to your home WiFi so that when you're home it can get OTA updates over WiFi (vs. cellular) which is faster (and your Ford app can communicate with it via WiFi).

The WiFi plan ... is for when the car is NOT at home (on your WiFi network) ... and it allows you to tether WiFi devices (things like iPads, tablets, laptops, game devices, etc.) to the car WiFi ... which will relay via the car's AT&T cellular. If your cellphone plan includes a tethering option ... this is basically the same thing except your car offers the WiFi instead of your phone.

 

[Jim Glass]

Car has its modem for mobile connectivity and you don’t have to pay for the car to only connect and do what it needs to with Ford servers. It’s 4g .

you can connect car to your home WiFi for it to use home WiFi for OTA updates.
Not to be confused with WiFi for you or others from the car cell connection .. it’s just using the car as hotspot and you have to pay ATT for that.

So there is a separate slot somewhere (in the glovebox?) to insert my current account card at the end of the trial period?

 

[macchiaz-o]

So there is a separate slot somewhere (in the glovebox?) to insert my current account card at the end of the trial period?

No. But if you are a current AT&T customer, you will pay lower rates for this service.

https://www.att.com/plans/connected-car/ford/

 

[Accord07]

So there is a separate slot somewhere (in the glovebox?) to insert my current account card at the end of the trial period?

As far as I know, none of the vehicles on the market allow you to install your own SIM. It's either the built-in one tied to AT&T or nothing.

 

[Dangerfish]

So there is a separate slot somewhere (in the glovebox?) to insert my current account card at the end of the trial period?

No, you add your car to your ATT account just like you would another phone or apple watch. Its $20/mo.

 

[BlueMach]

You can't use FordPass and your stored Ford credit card to pay for the hotspot? I don't really want to have to create an account with AT&T when I already have one with Ford.

I really thought you could do it inside of FordPass or from the vehicle's touchscreen.

 

[Accord07]

No, you add your car to your ATT account just like you would another phone or apple watch. Its $20/mo.

AT&T runs promotions from time to time on their Connected Car data plan. When I first signed up on my Honda Odyssey in 2017 it was $20/month regardless of whether one had a phone plan with AT&T, then they raised it to $25/month for those who did not have a phone plan with them. However, I am paying $15/month because two years ago I saw a promotional pricing and "switched", and I don't have a phone plan with them.

 

[JellyBelly]

You can't use FordPass and your stored Ford credit card to pay for the hotspot? I don't really want to have to create an account with AT&T when I already have one with Ford.

I really thought you could do it inside of FordPass or from the vehicle's touchscreen.

May be possible with Ford pass but No one knows for sure with only few cars delivered

 

[Dangerfish]

AT&T runs promotions from time to time on their Connected Car data plan. When I first signed up on my Honda Odyssey in 2017 it was $20/month regardless of whether one had a phone plan with AT&T, then they raised it to $25/month for those who did not have a phone plan with them. However, I am paying $15/month because two years ago I saw a promotional pricing and "switched", and I don't have a phone plan with them.

That's a good deal!
However, I don't much see the need for wifi in a car anymore. All my phones have unlimited data and can have a hotspot turned on if I have someone in my car that isn't on my phone plan. So I personally see no need in using this feature.

 

[Accord07]

That's a good deal!
However, I don't much see the need for wifi in a car anymore. All my phones have unlimited data and can have a hotspot turned on if I have someone in my car that isn't on my phone plan. So I personally see no need in using this feature.

Agreed. Even though most unlimited phone plans still have a data cap on tethering, say 10GB/month, it's more than enough unless one streams video all the time. My kids use an Amazon Fire TV stick in the van frequently, in the pre-pandemic world we used ~30GB/month regularly in the summer months. I expect to replace our other car with a BEV, likely the Mach-E, but for long road trips we will take the van anyway so I don't anticipate signing up the new vehicle with AT&T.

I do hope the activation process is less glitchy now that AT&T has had more experience. When I signed up it was an hours-long process, something was amiss in their database and I couldn't sign up via their website, and when I called in they kept asking me for the phone number associated with the vehicle, which neither I nor the Honda dealer know about. All information relating to the LTE modem had already been passed along to AT&T with the VIN. They eventually figured it out, and once activation was successful I logged in to my AT&T account and found my vehicle had a "phone number" with a Maryland area code.

 

[Jim Glass]

No, you add your car to your ATT account just like you would another phone or apple watch. Its $20/mo.

I have this on my Audi now but it has a separate card that Is inserted in the glove box.

Sponsored