In the USA, Volvo put in an AT&T SIM card good for a 3 month trial I believe. You can renew with AT&T at the end of the trial or put in your own GSM compatible SIM from T-Mobile or whomever.

Note that if you take out the SIM the car still has it's own separate communication (presumably an inaccessible SIM card?) that the Volvo On Call app uses (whether the car ignition is on or off) as I've tested that.

 

All the better for them to spy on you with :/

 

[emoji14] I wouldn't be surprised if VOC fine print terms (that everyone takes the time to read with their lawyer seated next to them) required spying as it's the epoch of "big data".

Does Volvo renew the 3 month trial with CPOs? I know the 3 month trial (or whatever the trial terms were) was for our new Volvo.

 

No idea. No one mentioned it when I bought the car. I just stumbled across it in the Sensus menu and tit connected when I enabled it.

As far as spying goes, I have this sneaky theory that they use real world drivers to train Lane Assist.

You know how you have to have your hand on the wheel at all times? I wouldn't be surprised if it records all sensor input during the times the driver input differs from what the Lane Assist would have done on its own and then adds that to some sort of Machine Learning algorithm.

 

Lol. I just realized I was posting in the XC90 subforum, not the S90 subforum. Whoops...

I guess for this topic it doesn't matter though

 

my carrier does not charge for extra data-only sim cards, so I'll order an extra and pop it in the Volvo.

What carrier do you have that does this?

 

It's Google Fi. They are technically an MVNO but they are better than most MVNO's.

On your phone it dynamically switches between Tmobile, Sprint and US Cellular's networks depending on which one has the strongest signal. It requires a phone which is compatible with this switching feature though. These devices are reportedly supported:

LG G7 ThinQ
LG V35 ThinQ
LG V30
Moto X4 (Android One version)
Moto G6
Moto G7
Nexus 6
Nexus 5X
Nexus 6P
Pixel and Pixel XL
Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL
Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL
Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL
IPhone 5S and later (beta)

For any other device it just sticks permanently in Tmobile mode.

They will also do calls and SMS over Wi-Fi if available.

There are two plans, the regular plan in which you pay $20 per month for unlimited calls and SMS messages, and then pay $10 per gigabyte (prorated) for data. There is also cap above which you won't have to pay more. For individual plans it is 6GB, after that the remaining data is free for the month, but if you go way above it you may be throttled. This one is great if you are a modest data user.

They also just introduced an unlimited data plan for a flat monthly rate of $70. These costs go down per line as you add more lines. If you have 4 lines on the unlimited plan it costs only $45 per month per line.

I think you can request up to 5 data only SIM cards for tablets, cars, or whatever you want to stick them in, and pay only for the data you use with the regular plan, or nothing at all with the unlimited plan.

One cool feature is that you don't have to pay for data roaming internationally either. When you travel the data costs you the same amount as it does domestically.

You can check it out at fi.google.com.

I've had it for just over four years now, and I've been very happy with it. I know TMobile and Sprint don't have the best reputation for coverage (US Cellular doesn't operate any towers in my neck of the woods) but in my four years only once have I not had signal, and that was in the middle of nowhere, Coventry, CT. So I guess th e"picking the best of the carriers" strategy works pretty well.

Highly recommended.

 

What apps are not working for you now, with the inactive SIM card, that you wished worked? Spotify and weather and tune in all seem to work for me without any att plan and any other apps that I can think of off hand that I need are on my phone....I think a lot of people are paying att for apps that they can get for free (spotify and weather for example)


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What apps are not working for you now, with the inactive SIM card, that you wished worked? Spotify and weather and tune in all seem to work for me without any att plan and any other apps that I can think of off hand that I need are on my phone....I think a lot of people are paying att for apps that they can get for free (spotify and weather for example)

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I guess you are one of the lucky ones
I've tried your theory and nothing worked except the weather App from travel link

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I just activated my 3 month 3 GB AT&T Connected Car trial and noticed that everything (navigation, local search, Spotify, etc.) runs smoother than when I was connecting through my phone's hotspot. I expected some difference since the car's modem and antenna is bigger and more powerful than the phone's... but the performance improvement is quite significant.

 

You can swap the PSIM with your own SIM, but it's up to the carrier to allow access..Verizon does not for example despite there being a technical ability. Google Fi, TMO, etc.. will work.

Any low bandwidth app, weather and traffic for example are free with the car. You pay when you want wifi and streaming like Pandora or TuneIn to work, Spotify seems to be the exception. However, since it needs to be paid maybe that's why others report it works without paying ATT.

The telemetry data from what I was told is engineering only, and not identifiable to a customer. One would hope for some kind of maintenance or wear and tear reminders were on the radar like other brands..

 

You can swap the PSIM with your own SIM, but it's up to the carrier to allow access..Verizon does not for example despite there being a technical ability. Google Fi, TMO, etc.. will work.

I can verify. Google's Fi is working beautifully for me (after finding a sim card adapter to make it fit)

Any low bandwidth app, weather and traffic for example are free with the car. You pay when you want wifi and streaming like Pandora or TuneIn to work, Spotify seems to be the exception. However, since it needs to be paid maybe that's why others report it works without paying ATT.

Sounds more like someone messed up the firewall rules. I wouldn't be surprised if they "fix" this at some point.

The telemetry data from what I was told is engineering only, and not identifiable to a customer. One would hope for some kind of maintenance or wear and tear reminders were on the radar like other brands..

We can only hope. You never know what the Chinese may get their tentacles into.