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BMW 3g Connectivity for online services

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TitanTim
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BMW 3g Connectivity for online services

Post by TitanTim » Fri May 21, 2021 7:30 pm

Came across this interesting article which suggests 3g connectivity for cars that use it is being ditched next year so for any BMWs that use 3g sim cards for their online services including any Apps, internet services etc will cease to function. Looks like it's not just BMW but any manufacturers using 3g carriers.

https://www.bmwblog.com/2021/05/20/bmw- ... next-year/

I don't know from what it's saying what manufacturing years are affected or when cars went from 3g to 4g.

I was just about to renew my connected drive services for the coming year but unsure what connectivity my 2016 140i has.

I'm guessing this would also affect the SOS function in case of emergency as I think it relies on the SIM card to geolocate the car and call emergency services.

EDIT. Just reading an associated article it looks like it might affect 2014-16 manufacture years. 4g was fitted from 2017 onwards.

Tim.
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BMW 3g Connectivity for online services

Post by mmm-five » Fri May 21, 2021 9:41 pm

I’ve seen it mentioned on the US forums, and owners have received letters saying so.

Not heard of anyone in the UK receiving one though.

So wonder if it’s due to an impending US only 3G switch off?

I have just renewed my ConnectedDrive on an pre-LCI 2015 F31.
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TitanTim
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BMW 3g Connectivity for online services

Post by TitanTim » Fri May 21, 2021 10:01 pm

mmm-five wrote: Fri May 21, 2021 9:41 pm I’ve seen it mentioned on the US forums, and owners have received letters saying so.

Not heard of anyone in the UK receiving one though.

So wonder if it’s due to an impending US only 3G switch off?

I have just renewed my ConnectedDrive on an pre-LCI 2015 F31.
Thanks for that, I've had a look at realoem.com for my car and the telecommunications modules fitted but although I select a Europe spec car its seems to be only listing for Chinese, Brazil and US some stating 3G connection and 4G connection later in 2016.

Theres no mention of anything on the connected drive website although looking at the Connected Package Professional the over the air map updates don't seem to be available now for my car although they were a available a few months back :?

I guess I can drop them a line over future connectivity.

Tim.
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