Upgrade from 3G to LTE

[Tozla]

Apologies if this has been discussed but a search of the Oz forum only brought up a thread from 2018 through to early 2019.

I'm going on a road trip up North this year and was wondering whether you can get an upgrade of 3G to LTE for older Model Xs. Mine was purchased in June 2016.

I remember my last trip from Victoria to Canberra there were areas where there was no coverage making the maps useless. Coverage may have improved but I don't want to be caught out and yes I know I can hotspot to my phone.

So can you purchase an upgrade through Tesla? If so, what's the process and can it be done via a home service visit or does it need to be taken into Tesla.

Thanks in advance for any advise.

 

[jamesgo]

Technically, the Powerwall 2 units, before the updated Backup Gateway 2 came out, has 3G only as well. The Backup Gateway 2 (which looks like a mini powerwall changed that to 4G). If it's a grey cabinet for the gateway it's 3G inside.

That said you can preferrably use ethernet/wifi on the powerwalls.

 

[Tozla]

Technically, the Powerwall 2 units, before the updated Backup Gateway 2 came out, has 3G only as well. The Backup Gateway 2 (which looks like a mini powerwall changed that to 4G). If it's a grey cabinet for the gateway it's 3G inside.

That said you can preferrably use ethernet/wifi on the powerwalls.

I was referring to the cars connectivity.

If I ever build a new house I will install a powerwall.

 

[ARMARM]

AFAIK, the only upgrade path to 4G/LTE is to upgrade your MCU to MCU2, which has literally only started happening in Australia and costs $4K.

 

[Akikiki]

Apologies if this has been discussed but a search of the Oz forum only brought up a thread from 2018 through to early 2019.

I'm going on a road trip up North this year and was wondering whether you can get an upgrade of 3G to LTE for older Model Xs. Mine was purchased in June 2016.

I remember my last trip from Victoria to Canberra there were areas where there was no coverage making the maps useless. Coverage may have improved but I don't want to be caught out and yes I know I can hotspot to my phone.

So can you purchase an upgrade through Tesla? If so, what's the process and can it be done via a home service visit or does it need to be taken into Tesla.

Thanks in advance for any advise.

I can't speak with a more absolute assurance for you for your country, but Tesla started putting LTE/4G in the cars in late spring of 2015. I am confident when I say, its more than likely that your car already has it.

 

[ARMARM]

I can't speak with a more absolute assurance for you for your country, but Tesla started putting LTE/4G in the cars in late spring of 2015. I am confident when I say, its more than likely that your car already has it.

Not in Australia ... pre March 2018 cars have 3G and post March 2018 have LTE/4G. Read somewhere on these forums that US cars could just do a simple upgrade, but that's apparently not the case here.

 

[Tozla]

AFAIK, the only upgrade path to 4G/LTE is to upgrade your MCU to MCU2, which has literally only started happening in Australia and costs $4K.

4k?

Tethering it is then.

 

[Tozla]

AFAIK, the only upgrade path to 4G/LTE is to upgrade your MCU to MCU2, which has literally only started happening in Australia and costs $4K.

Out of interest sake what other benefits if any are there to MCU2 in the older model cars?

 

[paulp]

Out of interest sake what other benefits if any are there to MCU2 in the older model cars?

Probably more games as the older cars only have two camera’s

 

[Akikiki]

Not in Australia ... pre March 2018 cars have 3G and post March 2018 have LTE/4G. Read somewhere on these forums that US cars could just do a simple upgrade, but that's apparently not the case here.

With 3G going away with most carriers in a short time (about 13-14 months in U.S.), I would not at this time, pay for a LTE upgrade. Tesla wants/needs all cars connected to the mothership as much as you want your car connected to the mothership and Internet. I would wait. I predict there will be a push by Tesla to upgrade the cars before carriers shut 3G down. And I suspect there will be a lower cost campaign to get it done. Save some money - wait.

 

[aegidius]

3G gets switched off here in Oz soon too (I'll ask people I know in telstra if they know any more). After that, it's caching maps via wifi before heading out on the road. One thing not mentioned here about that $4k MCU2 upgrade is that you lose your FM radio too, you only have internet-connected options.

 

[possum22]

I asked Tesla to do a LTE upgrade in Oct'19, when I was getting my car's MCU1 replaced, they wouldn't do it, even when I would be paying for it.

 

[moa999]

Mid-2024 is Telstra's current 3G switch off date, but like the 2G switch off wouldn't be surprised to see it pushed out.

It's a harder switch with inconsistent support for VOLTE (Voice over LTE) on phones and amongst MVNOs.

 

[Vostok]

3G gets switched off here in Oz soon too (I'll ask people I know in telstra if they know any more)

Telstra is closing 3G on 30 June 2024 - here’s the announcement:

Telstra 3G Service Closure

Optus and TPG have made no public announcements about their 3G closure plans, if they have any plans.

In general, something like this which impacts millions of customers needs to be notified by the carriers with at least 2 years notice. Migrating all those old devices, especially embedded ones in cars etc, takes a lot of time and costs a lot of money, so if Optus or TPG said they were closing their 3G networks with less than 2 years notice they would probably be sued to kingdom come, face consumer law actions, and suffer massive reputational damage. All IMHO.

 

[paulp]

Telstra is closing 3G on 30 June 2024 - here’s the announcement:

Telstra 3G Service Closure

Optus and TPG have made no public announcements about their 3G closure plans, if they have any plans.

In general, something like this which impacts millions of customers needs to be notified by the carriers with at least 2 years notice. Migrating all those old devices, especially embedded ones in cars etc, takes a lot of time and costs a lot of money, so if Optus or TPG said they were closing their 3G networks with less than 2 years notice they would probably be sued to kingdom come, face consumer law actions, and suffer massive reputational damage. All IMHO.

Every lift installation in Australia now has at least one 3G connection per lift following the introduction of the nbn without power failure backup. Most have two 3G sims on two different carriers rather than an nbn connection. Thats a significant number of devices to be replaced, although the more aware owners purchased a future compatible device.

 

[Vostok]

Mid-2024 is Telstra's current 3G switch off date, but like the 2G switch off wouldn't be surprised to see it pushed out.

Telstra’s 2G closure occurred when they said it would - December 2016. They gave 2.5 years’ notice (It’s time to say goodbye old friend).

Optus ended up with a staggered closure that was delayed 3-6 months compared to the original announcement, and Vodafone delayed almost a year, if I remember correctly.

 

[Akikiki]

Telstra is closing 3G on 30 June 2024 - here’s the announcement:

Telstra 3G Service Closure

Optus and TPG have made no public announcements about their 3G closure plans, if they have any plans.

Two years? There's time. By then, you might be on the way to a Starlink connection. (And there goes the boom).

 

[Vostok]

Every lift installation in Australia now has at least one 3G connection per lift following the introduction of the nbn without power failure backup. Most have two 3G sims on two different carriers rather than an nbn connection. Thats a significant number of devices to be replaced, although the more aware owners purchased a future compatible device.

Not just that... you know those nice looking CommBank portable POS terminals with the big screen on the front? 3G. Parking meters - 3G. Smart metering in some states - 3G.

The list is long and ugly.

 

[Tozla]

I just want my maps to load faster.

 

[Akikiki]

Your continent is too big to get faster map loading.