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.



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 drivers make.