Swapping cell provider on built-in hotspot?
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I recently initiated my "free trial" for the WiFi connect feature. It was the usual frustrating AT&T experience. I purposely waited until our first long road trip to start it...AT&T told me the three month trial started on the day I picked up the vehicle, so I only have three weeks (I know I avoided clicking on anything that would start the WiFi connect when I was setting up the remote connect features.). Then, the 2GB of trial data was consumed in one day of driving with my wife looking at static web sites, a much higher burn rate than when at home watching internet TV. I smell another AT&T rat with this feature. I think I will just stick with the hot spot on our phones.
Thats really odd that you chewed thru 2gb that quickly. I went thru 8gb in one day, but that was with my kid watching hours and hours of YouTube in HD as we drove. Something must have been active on one of your devices that gobbled up data, somehow.
To be fair on the start date of the trial, all of the Toyota documentation clearly states your trials begin on the day you purchase the vehicle. I'd blame the salesman for not making that clear to you when you took delivery, but it's not really anything shady by Toyota or ATT.
I've had zero issues with the service, except that in mediocre signal areas the van struggles to establish the Hotspot. If you are in a populated area its no issue. Here's my usage in the last week (the att website randomly resets the usage it tracks. I have definitely used at least twice this amount since this billing period started on March 5... I used 8gb on March 5th itself).
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I have a rental Toyota Tacoma right now and my kid activated the wifi trial yesterday and it's good until July. So it clearly goes by when it was activated. It is using AT&T and it clearly sucks service wise. I just had my phone connected to the wifi for a 70 mile trip to Minneapolis and I had to shut wifi off and go back to 5G on my TMobile for data service.
I think this might have to do with service areas. I've used it a lot over the last year and haven't had any trouble with my kid streaming Disney+ and us using our phones for normal data activities like streaming music or podcasts. Browsing is a little slow when the kid is streaming at 1080p and it's not really possible to have two devices streaming 1080p without lots of buffering though.
Our compromise is that YouTube goes on Data Saver mode so it only streams at 480p maximum, which allows everyone to stream what they want basically.
It's not fast but it's not unusable for the function it provides, in our experience. I think the speeds I saw most of the time were like 5-7up/2down.
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can't sim swap the 2021 and 2022 models for any of the NA lineup, they are all AT&T, and they are Esim, so you can't change it. the "wifi" data and the data network the car uses to connect for the remote connect are the same, thus, toyota pays a bulk fee to connect all their cars forever to collect all the data that the cars gather. Dunno about overseas in EU or JP, because cell regulations are different there. even if you don't pay for the hotspot data, your car's internet never shuts off, otherwise your remote connect or the toyota data collection would stop working.
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77 Posts
Can’t be done. I wanted to get rid of AT&T as well.
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We were required to add the $299 Pulse program to our new 2023 Sienna we just took delivery on! They could keep getting their data if they'd let me transfer the Wi-Fi to Verizon...but they're going to find their car in a permanent dead zone otherwise!
Interested in any news or tips anyone might have on how to reprogram the supposed eSIM??
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So...Toyota wants us to pay a higher rate to their choice of WiFi provider to THEY can monitor the car??!!! They're going to find our car has no internet once the trial runs out!!
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I’ve no idea what their motive is, other than I’d bet AT&T has an exclusive contract for whatever consideration….
Think they can monitor independent of wifi working or not.
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281 Posts
The wi-fi modem is separate from the remote functions modem. It is locked to AT&T. If you want a different provider, add the appropriate plan to your (or just "a") cell phone, or buy a stand-alone hotspot on the provider of your choice. There is nothing saying you MUST use the built in modem.
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Different modems. I'm sure by locking the wi-fi modem to AT&T, they get a major discount on their side for the remote functions to work. To the best of my knowledge, no manufacturer has a built-in wi-fi system that allows you to choose what network you want. With eSIM, it may happen in the future, but for now it's just one. The network is hardcoded into the electronics. GM products are AT&T as well.
I have travelled all over the country, and can tell you generally speaking, AT&T has the best nationwide coverage. Yes, there are pockets where other providers are better, but on the whole, AT&T blows the others away. In my immediate area, in order, it's: US Cellular, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, then Verizon (Sprint is now under the TMobile banner). Verizon is making major investments in my area, but any direction other than south, signal is lost immediately. That should change in the next few years as they expand into the area.
For those of you on MVNOs (Tracphone (and all it's flavors), Mint, PureTalk, etc.) your using the towers from one of the above networks.
There is only one cellular modem in the car. It serves as both the remote services connection and the source of the Internet connection used by the in-vehicle wifi. It is true that it is AT&T only.
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Not that it really matters, but that's not what I was led to believe earlier. I know in my new (2022) Ford Maverick they are separate pieces of hardware. My truck was one of the ones that had the wi-fi delete force added with a whole $20 credit. It may just be a chip or two on a common motherboard, but from the end user point of view they are separate devices.
Based on experience with the loads of trouble that I have had with the DCM (data communications module), it is one device. In fact, when that device stops working, the app communication stops working and the Internet service via wifi stops working.
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281 Posts
There are two updates that should fix your DCM problems. Since loading the updates, I haven't had any issues beyond the wifi not consistently turning on automatically.
Still monitoring, but after almost 2 years with the issue, I finally got a second update installed in late December. The first update did nothing for the problem.
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