[Coastal92]

The 2015.5 S60 T5 Platinum purchased in July included a 6-month free trial subscription for the on-board modem via a 3G AT&T card. Since its free, I have been using Pandora (mainly) and a few other apps heavily. I find the system very slow and the 3G reception poor. Pandora usually takes 30 to 50 seconds to spool up with the car but only about 10 seconds with my AT&T 4G/LTE iPhone. It also takes a 5 to 10 seconds between songs on Pandora once it get going. Yelp takes 60 seconds to spool as well. I live in Tampa and Verizon/AT&T have pretty solid coverage in this area.

I haven't tried wi-fi connection via my home network to identify if its just Sensus that is slow or the 3G connection. What has been the experience of others on the forum?

 

[bofus]

Need to try streaming Pandora on it, but I do have it setup and it played one song fine...I didn't leave it for any length of time. Agree that spool up takes forever, so I'm not going to bother to show it off to anybody as it is rather embarrassing. It feels like the processor is low-rent, probably just a hard drive spinning somewhere (I can hear it) instead of an SSD would which have been a lot snappier.

 

[volvobuff]

The 2015.5 S60 T5 Platinum purchased in July included a 6-month free trial subscription for the on-board modem via a 3G AT&T card. Since its free, I have been using Pandora (mainly) and a few other apps heavily. I find the system very slow and the 3G reception poor. Pandora usually takes 30 to 50 seconds to spool up with the car but only about 10 seconds with my AT&T 4G/LTE iPhone. It also takes a 5 to 10 seconds between songs on Pandora once it get going. Yelp takes 60 seconds to spool as well. I live in Tampa and Verizon/AT&T have pretty solid coverage in this area.

I haven't tried wi-fi connection via my home network to identify if its just Sensus that is slow or the 3G connection. What has been the experience of others on the forum?

I have had pretty much the same experience as you. The system is pathetically slow. Even switching from one favorite TuneIn Internet radio station to another within the same app takes a minute or so to sync up. Whenever the car is turned off, it takes the 3G system several minutes to reboot and resync when the car is restarted. The in-car wi-fi hot spot also disconnects if the car is turned off for a period of time, such as overnight. It is necessary to drill down through the My Car/Settings/Internet Settings menus to recheck the wi-fi box each day, which is very tedious. It does retain the pairings with four different wi-fi clients, although it takes varying periods of time up to five minutes for some of them to reconnect after start-up.

I have found that AT&T 3G reception is acceptable enough although very slow in my home area, but on a recent one week road trip, the AT&T 3G reception was spotty at best, not just in rural areas but in some suburban locations around major cities as well. There were many areas where the speed dropped to 2G, at which point both the apps and the wi-fi hot spot functionality were essentially useless, although my Verizon cell phone service remained solid. And there were many rural areas where the AT&T 3G service was simply unavailable.

Volvo has told me that both the modem and the SIM are essentially locked to AT&T and that a Verizon SIM will not function in the car modem, but I am not convinced that they know what they are talking about. They also told me that the 3G modem would not be operative in Canada, but that information proved to be false. Just like cell service, it functions just fine as a guest client on a roaming basis. Once the six-month free trial period is up, I am going to give a Verizon SIM a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I do know that the Volvo in-car modem will function in Europe with a variety of SIMs for different carriers in different countries. It remains to be seen whether the Volvo modem in the US market has the same flexibility or is a different unit that is in some way locked to one carrier.

Worse care scenario, I will use my Verizon phone as a wi-fi hotspot and sync the car to the phone, bypassing the car's modem entirely. Even if Sensus Connect itself is still sluggish, it can't be any worse than when operating through the car's modem. And there is always the hope that future Sensus Connect software upgrades might rectify at least some of the speed issues. I suspect that the modem's problems are hardware-based and not amenable to improvement.

 

[BrianU]

Volvo has told me that both the modem and the SIM are essentially locked to AT&T and that a Verizon SIM will not function in the car modem, but I am not convinced that they know what they are talking about. They also told me that the 3G modem would not be operative in Canada, but that information proved to be false. Just like cell service, it functions just fine as a guest client on a roaming basis. Once the six-month free trial period is up, I am going to give a Verizon SIM a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I do know that the Volvo in-car modem will function in Europe with a variety of SIMs for different carriers in different countries. It remains to be seen whether the Volvo modem in the US market has the same flexibility or is a different unit that is in some way locked to one carrier.

For what its worth, in Canada we don't have any specific cell provider "alignment" and the car seems to be unlocked (worked with two different carrier SIM cards when I tried). Wasn't hard, just pop out the SIM in the glove box and drop in the other one...

I agree its slow for the initial launch... after the first kick on startup it seems to be faster.

 

[Phantasm]

I have a US Spec in Germany and have a German SIM in the glove box. My issue is the SIM/Carrier is 4G rated, but the Volvo only runs it at 2G. I rarely attempt to use it as it is crazy slow as a result. BUT it does do internet/wifi hotspot/apps as it should just really slow.

 

[BrianU]

I have a US Spec in Germany and have a German SIM in the glove box. My issue is the SIM/Carrier is 4G rated, but the Volvo only runs it at 2G. I rarely attempt to use it as it is crazy slow as a result. BUT it does do internet/wifi hotspot/apps as it should just really slow.

Thats strange... might have to do with the bands the cellular chip supports (which ever chip they used... Broadcom or Marvell maybe?)... I have noticed mine going from a red X on car start (initialization and unlocking of SIM) to 2G then finally to 3G...

B

 

[volvobuff]

For what its worth, in Canada we don't have any specific cell provider "alignment" and the car seems to be unlocked (worked with two different carrier SIM cards when I tried). Wasn't hard, just pop out the SIM in the glove box and drop in the other one...

Thanks for confirming my suspicion. I would guess that SIMs from non-AT&T carriers will work just fine in the States as well.

I have a US Spec in Germany and have a German SIM in the glove box. My issue is the SIM/Carrier is 4G rated, but the Volvo only runs it at 2G. I rarely attempt to use it as it is crazy slow as a result. BUT it does do internet/wifi hotspot/apps as it should just really slow.

Hmm. You might try using a 3G SIM and see if that works. It could be that the Volvo modem gags on the 4G and defaults to 2G. IAE, I have found that, when my AT&T service drops from 3G to 2G, the apps and wi-fi hotspot won't even sync up -- I just get the eternal spinning wheel icon. Interesting that yours is functional in 2G mode, albeit too slow to be useful.

FWIIW, my CTA, after three months of poor functionality, starting working decently this week, making me think that a Sensus Connect software upgrade was pushed from the cloud. This is Week 46, when the November software upgrade was supposed to have been implemented. See my comments at http://forums.swedespeed.com/showth...unctionality&p=2419703&viewfull=1#post2419703. IAE, the functionality of the modem, apps, and Internet connectivity do not seem to have been improved at all. Sigh.

 

[ewestland]

Thanks for confirming my suspicion. I would guess that SIMs from non-AT&T carriers will work just fine in the States as well.

FWIIW, my CTA, after three months of poor functionality, starting working decently this week, making me think that a Sensus Connect software upgrade was pushed from the cloud. This is Week 46, when the November software upgrade was supposed to have been implemented. See my comments at http://forums.swedespeed.com/showth...unctionality&p=2419703&viewfull=1#post2419703. IAE, the functionality of the modem, apps, and Internet connectivity do not seem to have been improved at all. Sigh.

I have given up on using any web-based functions on my new S80. Even connected via a speedy WIFI connection, it's too slow. I too think this is due to the hardware limitations of the car's modem. Maybe a software upgrade will help, but I'm not holding my breath. If I do need this function, I'll probably just tether the Sensus to my phone's WIFI hot spot. With it's limited functionality, I can't see adding the monthly expense of another SIM at any connection speed.

Furthermore, the one app I thought I would get is Spotify, but that is only available with the Sensus Connect Touch. I have no idea why this free app is not included otherwise, especially after all the fanfare related to its release via Volvo. Pandora is the other option, but for another unknown reason, was not installed on my car. So far, no one can tell me why.

 

[motoridersd]

Thanks for confirming my suspicion. I would guess that SIMs from non-AT&T carriers will work just fine in the States as well.



Hmm. You might try using a 3G SIM and see if that works. It could be that the Volvo modem gags on the 4G and defaults to 2G. IAE, I have found that, when my AT&T service drops from 3G to 2G, the apps and wi-fi hotspot won't even sync up -- I just get the eternal spinning wheel icon. Interesting that yours is functional in 2G mode, albeit too slow to be useful.

FWIIW, my CTA, after three months of poor functionality, starting working decently this week, making me think that a Sensus Connect software upgrade was pushed from the cloud. This is Week 46, when the November software upgrade was supposed to have been implemented. See my comments at http://forums.swedespeed.com/showth...unctionality&p=2419703&viewfull=1#post2419703. IAE, the functionality of the modem, apps, and Internet connectivity do not seem to have been improved at all. Sigh.

If the system was designed with AT&T in mind, the cellular modem probably only supports AT&T's 3G/FauxG frequencies. This means that using a T-Mobile US SIM card for example could leave you on 2G if you're in a non-refarmed LTE area (it also means that it doesn't support Europe 3G frequencies and that's why it only works on 2G in Germany. No way to fix that, unless it's disabled in firmware and an update opens it up). It doesn't sound like the system supports LTE, so the most you'd get would be HSPA+ (probably, it might be UMTS only, and that would be silly since HSPA+ modems have been around for a long time and would be cheap. They should have supported LTE too).

One thing I am shocked to find out, as mentioned before, is that Spotify is gone! WTF? This is a huge downside to the new system. The old one was also hackable (Android based) and people were able to run Waze and other apps. This one is pretty new, so some hackability might surface.

 

[ewestland]

One thing I am shocked to find out, as mentioned before, is that Spotify is gone! WTF? This is a huge downside to the new system. The old one was also hackable (Android based) and people were able to run Waze and other apps. This one is pretty new, so some hackability might surface.

I finally heard back from Volvo:

Spotify has not been compatible with Sensus Connect, it is only available in Sensus connected touch, which is the accessory touch screen available for model year, 13, 14 and 15 vehicles.
As for Pandora, the Apps reside in the cloud, not in the car. If you are connected to an overseas network, it probably won’t show up because they don’t have Pandora. Pandora is a U.S. Application. When you arrive back to the U.S. you will get the Pandora App in Sensus.

So, I went to the Pandora site and sure enough, Pandora cannot be used in Belgium. I pay $10 monthly for Spotify and can use it in Belgium at any time - I would think both Volvo and Spotify would want the app in my new car. I wonder if the Sensus Infotainment 2.0 system that was installed is just too lame to handle Spotify?

 

[volvobuff]

As for Pandora, the Apps reside in the cloud, not in the car.

OK, so the reason why the execution of those apps is as slow as molasses is not Sensus Connect <I>per se,</I> but rather the AT&T 3G connectivity. I do recall someone (perhaps GV?) mentioning that Volvo is considering offering a 4G service, either in place of or in addition to, the 3G presently available. That might be a huge improvement. Meanwhile, I suspect that most stateside users, once the six-month trial period with AT&T is up, will simply tether their 2015.5 cars to their smartphone's wi-fi hotspot.

 

[AeroDan]

Spotify only works in Sensus Connected Touch with a premium (paid) Spotify subscription. The Tune-in app works w/o a sub.