What network does on board sim use?

[I Feel Old]

In trying to assess which, if any, sim card to put in the car I've established the free Three card I have is 3G and has very poor coverage locally (Three 4G is slightly better, but not great). It will probably do on and off as I travel, however it seems a bit silly to put something in that On Call would switch to for it to be of poorer coverage.

Having switched to a dedicated car sim will On Call revert to the supplied on board system if the owner fitted sim is out of coverage?

[nu11eaf]

Not sure what network they use but you will always be connected to VOC, it will pick up the car sim automatically if you lose signal, run out of data or remove your data sim etc.

[I Feel Old]

Originally Posted by nu11eaf

...you will always be connected to VOC, it will pick up the car sim automatically if you lose signal, run out of data or remove your data sim etc.

This has to be coverage dependant, surely?

Knowing what network is used helps me decide whether I am better off with more data on my phone and using it via Bluetooth (cheapest option), or putting in a dedicated car sim which has, possibly, better coverage than the Volvo choice.

Does On Call default to a tethered link, or change only if a dedicated sim is put in the car?

[Quacker]

Originally Posted by I Feel Old

In trying to assess which, if any, sim card to put in the car I've established the free Three card I have is 3G and has very poor coverage locally (Three 4G is slightly better, but not great). It will probably do on and off as I travel, however it seems a bit silly to put something in that On Call would switch to for it to be of poorer coverage.

Having switched to a dedicated car sim will On Call revert to the supplied on board system if the owner fitted sim is out of coverage?

I believe that 3 has the best deal on a data-only sim with a choice of 3, 12, or 24 Gigs of data or the number of months numbered, whichever comes first.

Does it really matter that the coverage locally isn't great? I don't think it does in your car because all you really lose is Spotify streaming, should you even want that, and the weather forecast. Where the data car sim comes into its own is for an alternative to your mobile network [phone] when you are away from home and the signal isn't good and you wish to access the internet and email on your device, and especially for on the go traffic information and automatic re-routing linked to it.

Alternatives are to forget the in-car modem and just use your mobile phone as a wi-fi hotspot for your car [rather than the other way about, explained above]. Or you could use a wi-fi dongle with the SIM card of your choice as the wi-fi hotspot, which doesn't really make sense if you have the modem in the car anyway, which you do.

You can switch your car quite easily between using modem data and using phone data. I forget just now how to do it but if I was in the car it would be relatively simple, with just a couple of presses on the car's screen and making sure that the phone had its wi-fi hotspot feature switched on and paired with the car on the normal way.

[I Feel Old]

Quacker, I maybe didn't explain very well?

Ideally I would just increase the data on my phone and tether it for traffic etc. That would work if the on board Volvo system has good coverage. If it doesn't then it may be better to fit a dedicated sim card to the car.

There's no point in having a 3 card that seldom has a connection.

Not convinced I need any, actually. Just exploring the options.

It has also raised the question of the reliability of the SOS service via On Call. I wouldn't like to be depending on it.

Here's a Three, 4G coverage map and an EE 4G for comparison.

[taylora]

Vodafone is also pretty good for coverage up your way, I actually find their network faster than EE for data when I switched over recently.

[I Feel Old]

Thanks for that taylora, my last conversation with Vodafone was along the lines of; 'if Vodafone was the last network available, I'd buy myself some carrier pigeons'.

Absolutely zero customer service, but then I don't kid myself the others are any different.

EE are behind the new ESN, I'm guessing there will be some benefits for the public from the infrastructure.

I'm really surprised no one, so far, knows which network On Call is on.

[encroute]

[QUOTE=I Feel Old;2484898....
I'm really surprised no one, so far, knows which network On Call is on.[/QUOTE]

Like GPRS Credit Card machines, I expect UK/EU Volvos have a European wide Roaming Data sim that works on all networks - which would then work across Europe as well without issue.

[Quacker]

Originally Posted by I Feel Old

Quacker, I maybe didn't explain very well?

Ideally I would just increase the data on my phone and tether it for traffic etc. That would work if the on board Volvo system has good coverage. If it doesn't then it may be better to fit a dedicated sim card to the car.

There's no point in having a 3 card that seldom has a connection.

Not convinced I need any, actually. Just exploring the options.

It has also raised the question of the reliability of the SOS service via On Call. I wouldn't like to be depending on it.

Here's a Three, 4G coverage map and an EE 4G for comparison.

You dont need a data SIM and there is nothing wrong with tethering to your phone and using its data.

As said by others, there’s no issue with VOC because it roams and uses all available networks.

[I Feel Old]

Originally Posted by encroute

Like GPRS Credit Card machines, I expect UK/EU Volvos have a European wide Roaming Data sim that works on all networks - which would then work across Europe as well without issue.

That's all I wanted to know, thanks.