Sales issue with 3g service

[Hpnewport]

During my one and only test drive of the P85D I asked about the 3G service thinking it had long since been abandoned by providers. Was specifically told 3g was alive and well and because no one really uses it anymore, it would be lighting fast! Imagine my disappointment that it is not only extremely slow, for anything but minor uses, it loses connectivity and/or strength continually. Would I have still bought a Tesla if he had told me it was rather slow? Yes, of course i would have, but under promise and over deliver is always better.

Another thing I can't fathom with Tesla being in Cali is the UV coating that prohibits toll tags from working, when there is probably as many roads, lanes that use RFID here than anywhere in the country!

 

[TexasEV]

The web browser is slow, but 3G for everything else is fine. If you're having loss of connectivity try rebooting, and if it persists call for service. That shouldn't be an issue.
The windshield area to the right of the rear view mirror doesn't have the metallic coating that blocks toll tags-- you should mount the tag there. Search TMC for toll tags and windshield and you'll see a lot of info on it.

 

[Kalud]

Its been said that LTE is coming soon, with rumors of an retrofit modules for existing owners.

LTE roll out

 

[Kbra]

I have a feeling many of the cars rolling off assembly since late 2014 or soon probably have LTE hardware. Tesla just needs to activate it. Hopefully they dont charge for it but it may be an upgrade they charge for and leave 3g free since they really need everyone to maintain some cell connection for service and updates.

 

[apacheguy]

How does LTE benefit Model S? Unless you're a heavy user of the horrible embedded browser I don't see much utility for faster speeds. 3G works just fine for streaming music in mine.

 

[Hpnewport]

I tried mounting it all around the mirror, both sides, below, etc but does not work. Reading other posts reassures me there is no spot that is uncoated.

Last night i velcro'd it inside the nose cone...we'll see if that works!

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I've had trouble listening to podcasts and even some music takes time to buffer? I agree 3G is likely fine, especially since it's free, but would like the option to upgrade or at least hotspot to my ATT LTE phone, which doesn't seem possible??

 

[mikeash]

Slowness seems to be more a function of the CPU/GPU than the cellular connection. LTE is certainly better than 3G, but good 3G is still pretty good.

You can tether the car to your LTE phone if you have a hotspot on it. Just turn on the hotspot, then tell the car to connect to the phone's WiFi network. This would at least be a good experiment to see how much better it is on LTE. My bet is not much, but I'd certainly be interested in seeing real results.

 

[strider]

I have a feeling many of the cars rolling off assembly since late 2014 or soon probably have LTE hardware. Tesla just needs to activate it. Hopefully they dont charge for it but it may be an upgrade they charge for and leave 3g free since they really need everyone to maintain some cell connection for service and updates.

I'm sure it's a cost/contracting issue. AT&T likely gave Tesla a sweetheart deal on 3G since they (AT&T) have very little usage of that network. If Tesla moves to 4G/LTE then AT&T will likely want market rate for the bandwidth and Tesla needs to decide if they want to continue to eat that cost or pass it on to owners. Didn't Tesla say 4 years of free connectivity?

 

[markb1]

It's silly that Tesla still doesn't support LTE, but 3G coverage is much better than LTE. So I don't think that's the cause of low/no signal.

 

[Barry]

The cell providers really can't do away with 3G. If you're in a marginal signal area, the slower speeds will still work. The higher the bandwidth, the stronger the signal needs to be.
A few weeks ago, I was in a very marginal area in the mountains and my 4G phone was using 1X!

 

[Hpnewport]

inside nose cone did not work for fastback