vjd3

Quick question: Do you have to subscribe to an outside service to get live traffic in color on the screen or can you still get it via XM Traffic?

Jeffdehr

To get traffic and Google maps you need a data connection for the PCM, the data does not come from XM Traffic. You can either use the SIM card that Porsche provides or use your phone as a wifi hotspot and connect the PCM to your phone.

If you use your phone as a wifi hotspot you won't have to subscribe to another outside service.

Porsche gives you a SIM card along with a 3 month trial AT&T data plan. After 3 months you can purchase data plans from AT&T. See www.att.com/porsche for more info / pricing.

LCW

Jeff - Have you tried to use your phone as a wifi hotspot yet? any side effects?
I plan to try in the near future as soon as I can carve out a few minutes...


thank you

Jeffdehr

I set up my iPhone as a hotspot and connected the PCM to it. Easy. Downside is phone battery drains.

I've since disabled iPhone hotspot and am running data from the SIM card Porsche gave me with the 3 month AT&T data plan. Works great but not sure I'm going to pay $20 a month once trail expires.

LCW

thanks - I feel the same way.


re: battery life, you can plug your phone in the center console...

ipse dixit

Apple Carplay

philg3

You can get it for $10/mo if you have a ATT mobile share value plan (bucket of data minutes for multiple phones/devices).

Jeffdehr

If my cell phones were with AT&T I would pay the $10/month. Unfortunately I'm with Verizon. I could get a Verizon SIM card but the PCM will only work if I get an LTE signal from Verizon. If I'm out of an LTE area the Verizon 3G and lower bands won't work with the PCM because they are CDMA, not GSM.

drgek

I've been using PCM via a WiFi hotspot on my Verizon iPhone. It seems to work perfectly well; the only real annoyance being the need to open up the setting to make the phone discoverable each time I get in the car. I still have another six weeks or so of the ATT trial. I didn't know it was only $10/month on ATT accounts (family all have ATT) so maybe I'll just do it that way. If I'm not streaming music and only rarely use Google Maps, how much data can hooking this up to my Verizon phone possibly use?

vjd3

Thanks. At least with the 991.2 you get the capability for everything with the car. With the Macan, you have to pay up (separately) for the navigation module -- $1730, and then if you want to be able to get live traffic, you also have to buy the Connect Plus option -- that gives you CarPlay and the live Google stuff and traffic --- $1300. Or you can just buy the $830 Connect which gives you CarPlay and nothing else but will not deliver the traffic. Then the monthly charges on top of that ... kind of nuts. The dealers are confused so they are ordering cars with just Nav to keep the sticker down and then there's no way to get live traffic on a 2017 car -- the XM live traffic ($4 month) option no longer works on the new PCM at all.

philg3

Porsche Car Connect Security Services offers vehicle tracking (for a fee, or course). Is this service truly secure and functional if a perp removes the SIM card?

OfficeDucati

Has anyone tried using a T-Mobile sim card?

Jeffdehr

Porsche Car Connect does not use the SIM card in the PCM. I took the SIM card out of my car and was able to use the "Find My Car" feature in the Porsche Car Connect app. After locating my car I was able to flash the light, sound the horn, and lock the car via the app.

I guess there is a built in SIM card somewhere else which makes sense for the exact concern you brought up.

VolkerW

One of the biggest annoyances with the 991.2 and PCM 4 is the whole Google Earth/RTT/Online Search and online apps situation.

Mid-January 2017 I took delivery of my 991.2. The dealer had activated an AT&T SIM for my car and everything worked well. After the trial ran out I switched to one of my T-Mobile SIMs from a “get two more lines for free” promo. After a few days Google Earth, Online Search, and RTT info disappeared as options from the menu or threw an error message after a timeout.

I looked far and wide on the web and elsewhere to find out if people successfully and consistently use other than AT&T as provider. I am with T-Mobile for some time now. I even took the car back to the dealer to have it checked. Turns out they look at you and tell you everything only works with AT&T. Well, it took them two days with the car in the shop to tell me that (I had a free loaner).

The PCM is seriously crippled when it comes to access to online services if you have a T-Mobile SIM in the PCM. In this configuration the only thing that works is using the PCM as hotspot for your phone or so. Don’t know what that might be good for other than an iPad or other tablet w/o its own SIM.

But since the manual says, you can also use an external hotspot to get internet access for the PCM, that should be the solution, right? Well, wrong! While YMMV, for me in the Seattle, WA area that is certainly not true. And using the iPhone as hotspot via “Personal Hotspot” makes it impossible to use PCM Connect via the PCM Connect app on the very same phone.

I spent a bit of money and ran some test. I ran them twice at different times during the day and in different order.
Test results below and here’s a link to the test results: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AmTsAIrPtCLQ4cNV8IpORkp1P9VAPQ

And while it is still possibility that just my car is displaying this issue, I wonder which experience other 991.2 driver had.




PCM Test Matrix

LCW

This has been my experience as well. It took me months to figure out as well as numerous visits to the dealer and hours on the phone with the support line. I was trying to use my IPhone on T-Mobile 4G as a hotspot. no luck. The bottom line is that while the PCM is meant to work with any hotspot, it only works if it is an AT&T hotspot... which kind of defeats the purpose. This is in addition to having to subscribe to Porsche Connect.... It is crazy... all of this to have traffic information - which is the only thing that is mildly useful... keep in mind, other manufacturers give you a connection to live traffic info included in the cost of the car.... but not Porsche... very disappointing !