Anyone using the Unlimited Wifi through OnStar?

[DennisT]

A few months ago I signed up for the unlimited wifi plan at $15/month. Our cell data is not unlimited and we travel a lot in the Denali. I also used it while in campgrounds with our camper. The speed was never at full LTE speeds but was acceptable at 5 to 10 meg. Recently, we're finding it to be unusable with download speeds less than 1 meg. Does anyone else use the service and what are your experiences?

 

[sealandsky]

A few months ago I signed up for the unlimited wifi plan at $15/month. Our cell data is not unlimited and we travel a lot in the Denali. I also used it while in campgrounds with our camper. The speed was never at full LTE speeds but was acceptable at 5 to 10 meg. Recently, we're finding it to be unusable with download speeds less than 1 meg. Does anyone else use the service and what are your experiences?

I have it and it works well. However, I don't use it for downloading movies or anything like that. I'd also expect that multiple users will slow it down considerably. For my use it's one or two users.

 

[RST Dana]

I have it with ATT. It’s about $20 per month. Not fast, but does have connectivity in places where ATT normally has issues via smartphones.

 

[Staggered 02]

Thanks for asking. I have been considering the service for the Duramax. I'll research it a bit more.

 

[DennisT]

The service has worked well at times. We use it running I75 to Florida and it mostly works OK. My problems recently have been within 5 or 10 miles of my home and it has been so slow that we have to turn wifi on our phones off in order to access anything on the internet while in the truck. I know the service is provided by AT&T, but does it use cell towers or satellites to communicate? If towers, maybe it is just that the ones in my area are over-congested. However, our AT&T phones work just fine in the same area.

 

[Bob2C]

I think they treat the the data plans in the cars and trucks like prepaid plans which are not prioritized meaning they are in line behind post paid subscribers. That’s the reason the cell phones work fine. I run exclusively prepaid cellphones and it happens to me from time to time and when the tower is congested forget it. Hardly any service. But it doesn’t happen often where I am.


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[wjburken]

The service has worked well at times. We use it running I75 to Florida and it mostly works OK. My problems recently have been within 5 or 10 miles of my home and it has been so slow that we have to turn wifi on our phones off in order to access anything on the internet while in the truck. I know the service is provided by AT&T, but does it use cell towers or satellites to communicate? If towers, maybe it is just that the ones in my area are over-congested. However, our AT&T phones work just fine in the same area.

In looking at the plan details a few things come to mind.

1). After a certain amount of data, AT&T can throttle your network speed to 2G speed.

2). AT&T may prioritize phone accounts over OnStar accounts.

That would explain why phones work better on their own vs with OnStar.

 

[RST Dana]

In looking at the plan details a few things come to mind.

1). After a certain amount of data, AT&T can throttle your network speed to 2G speed.

2). AT&T may prioritize phone accounts over OnStar accounts.

That would explain why phones work better on their own vs with OnStar.

The throttling is per device, so only the device using the mega data would get throttled and the others on the account would work fine where coverage is great.

 

[wjburken]

The throttling is per device, so only the device using the mega data would get throttled and the others on the account would work fine where coverage is great.

Interesting. So if your family has their phones going connected to your OnStar WiFi connection, AT&T doesn’t treat the OnStar connection as a single connection but instead looks past it and treats each device connected to it as an individual device? I assumed it was like having internet in my house that was limited to a certain amount of data and it is split up among all the devices connected to it. Not challenging what you said, just trying to understand how that all works.

 

[BG1988]

I have it with ATT. It’s about $20 per month. Not fast, but does have connectivity in places where ATT normally has issues via smartphones.

that is because cars don't have power or Antenna size limitations wise and can have a HIGH gain Antenna in/output....



as soon as your cellphone has a Mr.Fusion reactor then it will be less of an issue

 

[RST Dana]

Each device and car have their own accounts, meaning its own data limit before throttling. However, the vehicle hardware (without better reception many times) seems to already have a speed limit of less than 5 Mbps, where as the mobile devices each speeds north of 100 Mbps at times.

 

[Cantrepeat]

I don't have a lot of experience with the GM wifi on our 2019 Tahoe. Once the free trial ran out I did not extend it.

Possible a Jetpack from verizon? It'll cost more but the speeds are pretty good. This is what we use now.

 

[wjburken]

Each device and car have their own accounts, meaning its own data limit before throttling. However, the vehicle hardware (without better reception many times) seems to already have a speed limit of less than 5 Mbps, where as the mobile devices each speeds north of 100 Mbps at times.

Understand completely.

That would explain what the OP was describing where he said that they had to turn Wi-Fi off on their devices and not use the vehicles Wi-Fi to get any sort of data speed when they got close to their house. With Wi-Fi on, devices will default to cars Wi-Fi network for data and have to share the limited bandwidth of the cars system and not use cellular data. With Wi-Fi off, each device uses their own cellular network connection and operate independently of the cars Wi-Fi connection.

Strong antenna signal but slow data speed limit (car wi-fi) is sometimes get you better performance than a weaker antenna signal with higher data speed limits (phone).

I see this a lot when I’m at home. If I’m in my house, with a strong Wi-Fi signal, I will have my phone connected to Wi-Fi for data. If I am outside where the Wi-Fi signal is weak, my phone will hold onto the weak Wi-Fi signal and struggle. Once I turn off Wi-Fi and force the phone to use cellular data, it is much faster.

 

[trailblazer]

5-10 Mbps is FAST; it’s better than my broadband at my house.
I’m lucky to get 2G when I go camping and preferably no data or voice (and I have a Wilson amp in my vehicle). It’s actually hard now to actually find a place near me that truly doesn’t have coverage.
Here is another trick: AT&T’s unlimited “Tablet Plan” is $35/mo for 4G LTE. You’ll need an actual LTE-capable tablet’s IMEI/serial number to register the SIM to the device. Then insert the SIM into any sort of LTE hotspot or LTE Router. AT&T’s system thinks it is in the tablet and has no idea the SIM is inside of a router. If you live in a good coverage area then this could be worth it as it’s substantially cheaper than Comcast or Charter. Plus no contract.



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[DennisT]

We’re on our way south now. Once out of KY the WiFi was providing 5 to 7 Meg in TN and now in GA we’re seeing 8 Meg on our tablet. I can live with those speeds. But in my home area it is unusable.

 

[petethepug]

Yuppers, holiday congestion, literally. XMAS eve every cell, each on its own SIM card in the truck, had sucky service when stuck in traffic. I remembered the always crowded Italian restauarnt we frequent gugs down like that too. 150-200 devices clumped up, reaching out for data in one spot freaks out the towers.


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