Hi,

Sorry this is a long post. Today’s cars are just getting more and more complex. When my mates asked me how my new S3 was, my initial reply was “it’s great, but I’m having difficulty connecting it to the internet”.
This post relates to connecting my Samsung S7 to my vehicles Wi-Fi but then losing mobile internet connectivity on my phone for as long as the Wi-Fi is connected.

I have a 2017 Audi S3. This has the tech pack which comes with 3 years subscription to Audi connect. After quite a faff setting up the Audi Connect service, I now have it all working. My Google maps work and when I go into the Audi Connect menu I can read news articles, see the weather, check fuel prices etc. I have successfully paired my Samsung S7 and can see my phone contacts, emails and text messages on the MMI screen. The MMI says I am using the internal SIM for Audi Connect Services and my Phone for phone calls, emails and text messages.

So far so good.

The issue I have now is with my S3's Wi-Fi. I have given my S3 Wi-Fi a name (SSID) and created a password. I can connect my Samsung Galaxy S7 to my Audi S3 Wi-Fi no problem. I need to connect my phone to the S3 Wi-Fi because the Audi Connect app which I have installed on my phone needs a Wi-Fi connection to use some of the features. For example, the car finder feature on the Audi Connect app on my phone says you need a Wi-Fi connection from the phone to the vehicle so the App on the phone can store the vehicles location. This is true, because before I connected the Wi-Fi the Audi app on my phone didn’t remember where I had parked. You also need Wi-Fi for calendar appointments on the phone to show up on the Audi MMI screen. Both the car finder and my calendar appointments work when the Wi-Fi is connected.

The Problem

Connecting my phone to my vehicle’s Wi-Fi disables mobile internet on my phone. I don’t browse the web while I’m driving, but I do use the Google assistant a lot. This is voice controlled so I can use it while I'm driving. I just say "okay Google" and then ask my question. No internet on my phone means no Google Assistant. No new emails arrive either while I'm driving.

The deal I have with my UK network provider (three.co.uk) means I can’t use my phone as a Wireless Hot Spot. But I don’t think that’s the issue. The issue is that my car is the mobile hot spot, but the built in SIM used for Audi Connect Services only allow those services to use the built in SIM. This means the news and weather work but other devices that are connected to the vehicles Wi-Fi are unable to use the vehicles data connection to connect to the internet.

Upon further investigation it appears the company who provide the in-car data for Audi vehicles (a company called Cubic Telecom www.datainside.com) sell data plans. For £132 per year you get 25GB of data. I’ve registered with www.datainside.com. I had to enter some details, including my vehicles VIN. The portal found my car which is now registered. I posted a question to their technical support to find out more. Apparently if I pay the £132 my Audi S3 will have a “data plan”. This means mobile devices can connect to my vehicles Wi-Fi and in turn can access the internet. This means my phone will be able to access the internet via my S3’s Wi-Fi. My kids could also connect their iPads to my S3 Wi-Fi. This will be pretty useful, although 25GB per YEAR isn’t that much data.

My S3 also has a SIM card slot in the glove box. I’m now looking to see if I can get a pay-as-you-go SIM card that will allow my phone to connect to the Wi-Fi via another SIM card. I don’t use much data so a pay-as-you-go SIM card might only cost me £5 per month in data charges which would be half the cost of the datainside inside plan.

I suppose I can understand why Audi prevent additional devices from connecting to the built in SIM and eating up data.

If only I didn’t need to connect my phone to the Wi-Fi this wouldn’t be an issue. My Google Assistant and emails work but car finder on my phone and calendar appointments wouldn’t.

Do any Audi owners with Audi Connect have all of this fully configured and working? E.g.

• Phone contacts, emails and text messages working
• Google Maps with Street view working
• Audi Connect services working (news and weather)
• Audi Connect app (on iOS or Android) connected to vehicle via Wi-Fi

Thanks for reading (if you got this far ! : -)