OK - So now I have the car - which is great to drive by the way...

 

Question about data sim - If I buy a data only sim - Will the car 'look' for the contact list on it rather than the contact list on my phone.  Presume they are seperate but would be good to know that I can install a data sim without it affecting bluetooth connection for my mobile.

Presume the satnav will use the data sim rather than my phone to avoid traffic (in the way my previous tomtom did?)

 

Any reccoemendations for a sim?  Seen a few - various data amounts and months - Just not sure how much data I'd use a day/month- 

 

grateful for any advice..

 

M.

When you stick the SIM card in, it asks if you want to use it for 'data' or 'phone+data' - if you choose data, then that's it... it is just a data connection for the Skoda Connect and Infotainment Online services. I presume if you choose phone as well, then you can use it instead of a phone connected by bluetooth... but I guess a data-only SIM might just start throwing errors if you try!

 

I'm not sure where it gets the traffic from - it's more detailed than the TMC traffic information that I got in my Octavia, so I'm assuming it's part of the Infotainment Online stuff (I think it might be sourced from Google). No idea if TMC is used if there is no data connection.

 

I got a 24GB over 24 months '3' SIM off Amazon for £40 - best deal I could find. And that's 24GB expiring in 2 years (or when used up) - not 1GB/month or anything like that.

Thanks Wiggo - very helpful -

 

I've found the same deal you mentioned now - I'll order that too. 

 

M

 

 

1 hour ago, WiggosSideburns said:

When you stick the SIM card in, it asks if you want to use it for 'data' or 'phone+data' - if you choose data, then that's it... it is just a data connection for the Skoda Connect and Infotainment Online services. I presume if you choose phone as well, then you can use it instead of a phone connected by bluetooth... but I guess a data-only SIM might just start throwing errors if you try!

 

It doesn't.

 

If you opt for 'data & calls' then it will disconnect you mobile if you try to make or receive calls using the car SIM and not the SIM in your mobile.

 

I opted for data only, as I want to make and receive calls on my mobile.

Would this be a decent deal? I have no idea how much data I could expect to use per month?

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F253570154461

Edited 30 April, 20188 yr by TumnusCat

Might be worth looking at some of the Vodafone sim only data plans, that include unlimited streaming. Also be careful not to do over the air map updates at 23gb a go, they can eat data allowances fast, best to download them on to your PC via home broadband and stick them on a USB stick and update the car that way.

2 minutes ago, Jfhuk said:

Might be worth looking at some of the Vodafone sim only data plans, that include unlimited streaming. Also be careful not to do over the air map updates at 23gb a go, they can eat data allowances fast, best to download them on to your PC via home broadband and stick them on a USB stick and update the car that way.

Aren't all the Vodafone plans monthly payments?

4 minutes ago, TumnusCat said:

Aren't all the Vodafone plans monthly payments?

They do sim only plans on pay as you go to. There’s a lot of options. Since I tend to stream a lot of music I went for a monthly plan.

How much data is realistic to use if not using the car as a WiFi hotspot?

7 minutes ago, TumnusCat said:

How much data is realistic to use if not using the car as a WiFi hotspot?

Depends on whether your streaming lots of music Amazon, Spotify etc. What I did was get a monthly 2GB plan with the unlimited music streaming option as an add on. At least that way I know what I’m  paying each month.

It will all depend on how much time you spend in the car.  I've got the same data sim as Wiggo, 24gb for forty quid, in the 7 weeks I've had the car I've used 102mb.  It's set to ask me, so on local trips I don't connect.

I've had a look around to see what was on offer and opted for the virgin sim only deal mainly due to them hopping off the EE network, from what I remember, which provides fast speeds and enough data per month.  The added benefit of data rollover is equally handy if your not using it as often:

 

http://www.virginmedia.com/mobile/sim-only/pay-monthly-sim/

 

I opted for the 5GB a month deal which is on offer at £9 from £13.  I think this should be more than enough for what I need and don't imagine the google maps to utilise too much either.

Thanks. At this point I just want the live traffic so 500mb a month should be fine.

I just got one of these from Three.

 

200Mb per month, for free. Should be more than enough as I'll be using it for the traffic updates only really...

 

 

Edited 8 January, 20197 yr by silver1011
Corrected Gb to Mb.

39 minutes ago, silver1011 said:

I just got one of these from Three.

 

200Gb per month, for free. Should be more than enough as I'll be using it for the traffic updates only really...

 

 

Wow 200Gb a month for free

24 minutes ago, Kenny R said:

Wow 200Gb a month for free

 

???But will that be enough????

200Gb would be a phenomenal amount to try to use in a month.  The offer is, if course, only one thousandth of that, at 200Mb. 

Should be, a few of the comments on similar threads suggest 150-200Mb per month.

 

I had trouble registering just now so asked them to register for me via their Live Chat. As way of an apology they credited the card with an extra 3Gb. More than ample now.

 

 

Got tired of waiting, it's bloody freezing out there...

 

1 hour ago, silver1011 said:

Got tired of waiting, it's bloody freezing out there...

 

Lol.

As I mentioned in the other thread, you need to insert the SIM in a phone initially to get things up and running.

I have noticed more 3G connectivity with the Three SIM than my previous EE SIM. Everything else looks fine though. 

Edited 8 January, 20197 yr by john999boy

I got through to Three via Live Chat whilst I was sat in the car. They've registered the card for me, so it's all set-up and ready to go. He said wait 4 hours so perhaps I was a little keen.

 

The issue is, to insert the SIM into a phone you have to break off parts of the SIM to take it down to micro-SIM or nano-SIM size. You can't then re-enlarge the SIM back to the standard-SIM size, as needed for the SIM slot in the car.

10 minutes ago, silver1011 said:

I got through to Three via Live Chat whilst I was sat in the car. They've registered the card for me, so it's all set-up and ready to go. He said wait 4 hours so perhaps I was a little keen.

 

The issue is, to insert the SIM into a phone you have to break off parts of the SIM to take it down to micro-SIM or nano-SIM size. You can't then re-enlarge the SIM back to the standard-SIM size, as needed for the SIM slot in the car.

You can. The bits just slot back together to make the standard SIM card size.

They're much looser though. The guy at Three advised against it saying that he was aware of cases where the vibrations in a car had caused 'contact' issues whatever than means.

 

That's when he offered to register the card for me so that I didn't have the break out the SIM's.

The main thing is that you're up and running.

Report back on your experiences with the Three 3G/4G situation to see if yours is the same.

I use a 3 SIM and it seems happy to shiw 4G quite a lot.  Which is to say FAR more often than my phone can lock into 4G with its EE SIM.