3G Sunset - Which Cars Are Affected?

[Chick Webb]

So, there's a piece on CNBC this morning about the big cell network providers shutting down their 3G services this year to open up spectrum for the new 5G services. This is going to affect both Connected Driver and BMW Assist Safety plans after Feb 1, 2022. While I'm not particularly happy about it, since we do have other options for some of these features through our cell phones and car apps, I am disappointed about BMW Assist going away because I think that's an important feature; I astill have the text message from them when my wife's car got totaled.

What's really galling, though, is BMW's lack of transparency on which cars are affected. If you read the CNBC article (3G networks will disappear this year — and that’s bad news for your car. Here’s why), most manufacturers are being very explicit about the affected vehicles.

BMW, on the other hand, says, in part:

1. "factory-equipped with 3G telematics devices or retrofitted 2G vehicles will no longer be able to receive anyConnectedDrive/BMW Assist services"
   
   
2. And, while they appear to be offering some sort of upgrade, "Not all BMW vehicles will be eligible for a technology upgrade. Customers will be notified via email or First-Class Mail about whether their vehicles are eligible for an upgrade or not."
   
   
3. Further, it appears that even newer cars may be negatively affected, as there's this - "Some vehicles factory-equipped with 4G telematics devices will no longer have access to services that require a voice connection, such as BMW Assist eCall and Concierge Services, but will continue to receive certain ConnectedDrive/BMW Assist services such as Advanced Real-Time Traffic Information, Remote Services and BMW Online, depending on your BMW model."

See the attached PDF for all the details.

This is a big issue for those of us in NA, so I gotta say, "WTF BMW"? They're shutting off important services and we can't even tell whether or not we're affected? We're expected to just sit her in the dark like a bunch of mushrooms while we wait for them to shovel some manure our way? They can't even spin up a website were we can punch in a VIN to see if we have an affected vehicle? I consider this very poor customer support and suggest that we all get on the horn and make our displeasure clear to BMW NA, at least.

[visionaut]

AFAIK, any NA BMW car owners affected were directly contacted by BMW, with a free offer of an upgrade. I was, and got the upgrade. If your car was just-older than the range, and it was going to be affected, but an upgrade wasn’t available , BMW also contacted you. Not contacted? Likely not affected. (You needed to have active ConnectedDrive services in effect.)

The affected BMWs are a small selection of late 2015 & 2016 build vehicles, equipped with NBTevo HU, running iDrive4, that while already equipped with 4G, still used older 3G-based Connected Drive voice services. The upgrade switches those voice services on 3G to use 4G, so they’ll continue after 3G gets phased out by the carrier.

If you had a model early in the affected range, you got a hardware swap (TCB2 for the old TCB) and an ISTA step update. Later models in the range needed only the software update.

If you want to verify if your car or CA services are affected, contact BMW ConnectedDrive. This was all going on last spring.summer, given the phase out planned for 2/22.

[sspade]

Confirming that my 2016-02 build date is not eligible for the upgrade, according to rep at BMWNA. Also confirmed, I have NBT Evo ID4 and from what I gather... factory equipped with the 3G based TCB unit in the trunk vs. the TCB2 unit that is directly attached to shark fin.

Anyone know of aftermarket options; preferably without tearing into the dash and dropping the headliner?

[visionaut]

I’m guessing that your car was either only initially equipped with just 3G ATM (even tho NBTevo ID4, and a 2016) - or you did not keep an active ConnectedDrive services contract?

[sspade]

Originally Posted by visionaut

I’m guessing that your car was either only initially equipped with just 3G ATM (even tho NBTevo ID4, and a 2016) - or you did not keep an active ConnectedDrive services contract?

I definitely have an active ConnectedDrive contract and have since I bought the car CPO in May 2020 so must be the first one...