I'm not the conspiracy type. I'm replying what I heard directly from Porsche and the dealership. They decided to associate with att and don't expect the PCM to connect with any other different SIM card, which I know, not only from you, that it's not true, at least for Verizon. I'd like to hear from more users that tried different providers but so far nothing.

I also know that others were successful using iPhone as external wifi provider and the google services worked fine .

I have two different Alcatel hotspots, two iPhones and no joy. I'm going to try with my home wifi and see what happens... I won't be able to carry around but helps troubleshooting

Edit --> my home wifi worked flawlessly, traffic, search and google earth.
Settings and technical specs in the SIM card being incompatible I understand, but dedicated hotspot was a surprise.
I guess I'll try either a hotspot from another vendor or a SIM card

 

That's good progress, at least you've now got solid evidence that your PCM can actually get data through a network other than AT&T. There was a chance there was something about that particular PCM's configuration that was somehow preventing it. Anything's possible as these things are essentially just computers inside and there's a ton of little things that have to be programmed "just right" for things to work.

If I read correctly, that you tried an Alcatel SIM that came out of one of their hotspot units? Which hotspot device? With which cell carrier's network?

Have you tried using the PCM->wifi->that hotspot? Just as you tried your home wifi network?

That'd at least prove the data connections through their network would pass the traffic. This would also give an example of some hardware that's capable of using the card in your location. That could be used to compare against what AT&T uses in other devices and potentially infer what the PCM uses.

There's also the chance that SIM is locked to use only in the device it was supplied with. I'm no expert with hotspots or SIMs, but have dealt with enough of this stuff in the past to understand how to muddle through.

Eventually, this will drill-down to something that explains why the PCM isn't making use of that particular SIM. Beside it being just Porsche's fault.

 

Alcatel is the vendor but the SIM card in it is T-Mobile. I changed the settings to emulate my home wifi and will try again. It's possible that the pcm somehow sees the hotspot (Alcatel or iPhone) connected to a T-Mobile antenna, but that's a lot of effort from whoever programmed it.

I need to try a different provider SIM card or hotspot. That will pinpoint the issue.

 

I'd think you'd want to avoid using the same name as your home wifi network. PCM is able to connect to something else, just keep it a simple name. Various embedded systems like the PCM have sometimes had trouble connecting to "creatively named" wifi networks. Best to keep it simple for test purposes.

Me, I've always gotten a chuckle using "$13.99 per minute" as the hotspot name on my cell phone. I giggle a little when I hear someone complaining "geez, the free wifi is expensive here!" So, yeah, don't do that for your PCM->hotspot test.

I'm unclear on what you mean by this:

 

dedicated hotspot can transmit the imei and SIM card number. What I meant is that a programmer would have to go out of his/her way to create a field to block certain combinations of imei and SIM card numbers.

I think the Alcatel hotspot with a T-Mobile SIM card might need specific settings to work, there aren't many to edit but the ones available I made it the same as my home wifi.

Perhaps a visit to Verizon to see if theirs work might be easier at least for test purposes.

My insistence with T-Mobile is the added monthly cost - about $3 (fees) for 6gb

 

Or T-Mobile has set up that SIM to specifically only work with that particular brand of hotspot hardware, or even just that single device's IMEI. This is not terribly hard to for them do, but fantastically annoying to users that want some flexibility.

This is akin to the 'locked phone' situation, essentially the same kind of thing. If that's the situation then no amount of configuring would let that SIM work in another device besides that hotspot. I've no idea if T-Mobile does this, or did this with that particular setup.

This is why I said try the PCM speaking THROUGH that hotspot. Put the SIM back in the hotspot, set up a WiFi network on the device and configure the PCM to communicate through it. If THAT works then there's nothing on Porsche's end doing anything to block traffic. Which you've basically already proven by using your house's wifi.

This could mean there's something about using the SIM that either "will never work" or is missing some key bits of configuration in the PCM settings. Those APN and other values are important. It's possible, and likely, the hotspot device is either already configured with those or it's IMEI is already recognized by the cell network. Using the SIM, if it's not locked, in another device would require that device use the APN (and possibly other) values to tell the cell network, yes, use these settings to let me communicate.

Remember, your PCM's IMEI is only involved when there's a SIM in it. When you use the PCM through another wifi network (home or cell hotspot device or phone) it's not sending the PCM's IMEI. It's likely sending some other identifying information. When the PCM is using another network it's just sending packets of IP network data.

This is all predicated, however, on whether that SIM and T-Mobile's cell network settings in your area are compatible with the radios in the PCM. Again, I'm no T-Mobile expert so I don't know.

http://www.t-mobile.com/company/comp...ss-device.html
https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-6991
https://support.t-mobile.com/communi...hing-sim-cards

Given the complexity of all the pieces involved here, I'm willing to give Porsche a pass on default to the "use only and AT&T SIM" suggestion. They want to aim for a reliable user experience. That's never easy to do with this many pieces involved. Certainly not for a company that's not had a lot of experience doing this in-house. It's threads like this that will hopefully help others understand what's really going on.

 

The one thing I've yet to check is just how much data all of this consumes.

I've been accustomed to using my cell phone for Google Maps any time it was necessary, and have a data plan sized accordingly. But I'm not certain how much data the PCM will consume given the added features for hotspots, google map overlays and traffic. Simple searches wouldn't use much.

Using the PCM itself as a Hotspot has potential to gobble a ton of bandwidth, but that's manageable by not blindly letting devices use it. This may surprise some folks because tablets and phones tend to treat any WiFi connection as not being cost-limited. You'd set yourself up for a shock if your tablets and phones started using the PCM's connection for firmware and app updates. Trouble is most of those devices only have a 'cell network or wifi' toggle for updates. Nothing about the PCM's hotspot would prevent them from treating it like a 'free' landline-based network.

I've never used the 3D mapping or imagery overlays on my phone. I'd have to do some digging into my Verizon account to examine how much data this SIM uses with various features active.

 

A couple of added info:

The att SIM card is physically different from the 3 in 1 T-Mobile card, of course, but it contains extra fields. I'm not sure if it's relevant to the issue. Some of the fields I know are for different things but they are the same across different devices. See the pic, magenta is T-Mobile as usual. Maybe ask for an old school SIM card? I don't know how the Verizon sim looks like, should be similar to T-Mobile.

Second, att SIM card do not broadcast isp name while T-Mobile does. When connected to my home wifi, it also register Comcast as isp. So as it works with my home wifi, I don't think the isp is the issue.

I do think that the phone number associated with the sim is part of the handshake with google services, the home wifi doesn't have a phone number, so that's one variable.

 

I suppose the only way to really know what's going on between the PCM and the Porsche servers would be to run wireshark and sniff the packets. As in, connect the PCM to a WiFi network using an Access Point with a connection through a hub that has a PC running a wire protocol sniffer on it. This would be able to record all packet traffic between the PCM and whatever it needs to make the services function. Look through that and see if there's anything readable like a VIN or 'something else' used during the activation of the PCM features by the dealer.

The fact that the PCM can do everything via WiFI tends to make me think the SIM info is not involved at all. The fact that mine works fine with a Verizon SIM likewise seems to support that logic. Because nothing in any of my registrations with Porsche had anything to do with any of my Verizon numbers.

 

I just spent some time trying some things, and taking a picture of the Verizon and AT&T cards I've got. The one on the left (marked 2) is the Verizon SIM. From the looks of it, my Verizon card has the same kind of pad areas are your T-Mobile SIM. It does not have the same areas in the middle as the AT&T card. It's working fine.

I popped out the SIM and reconfigured the PCM to use a local WiFi network. It took some time before it'd start returning results from online searches. No idea why. It wouldn't return results, but wasn't throwing any error messages either. But at some point it started working via WiFi and everything seemed to function. I didn't really do anything to 'get it going'. Puzzling. I went in an enabled Google Earth satellite and other map layers. Those loaded, including when I moved the map around to areas I've not traveled before.

I did muck around a little after that using a packet capturing app on my Android phone. I hosted a hotspot on the phone and configured the PCM to use it. This let me see a bit of the packet traffic the PCM was sending. But trying to do this sort of thing through a touchscreen on the phone is too tedious. If I needed to know more or see more of what it's trying to do I'd see about setting up a more robust wireshark and PC combination.

 

That is awesome troubleshooting.

The first time connecting via Wi-Fi or not does take a little longer for Google earth to show up. The problem is that Google earth shows up and about 10 to 15 minutes later it falls. Traffic is showing as enabled but the traffic messages are nonexistent. The online searches, if they take too long it's probably failing as well as the same happened to me. The only error message that you get, and not all the time, is that online services are not available. Also, if there's a message checking for a services contract and nothing else happens it is probably also not working.

It seems now in my case it may be related to AT&T set up. I'm reaching to them as they messed up in the beginning when I bought the Cayenne and already had the 911 account. At that time when I tried to add the cayenne to my account, the 911 account disappeared and the Cayenne could not start the trial. The trial only became available after the 911 trial ended. So I do not know if there is something else between AT&T and Google services that is a limiting my access.

So far the following sums up:
(By Works referring to google services, Internet hotspot creation and Wi-Fi communication with the phones works in any combination).

Verizon Sim card works.
Home Wi-Fi works.
T-Mobile Sim card do not work.
T-mobile based hotspot (iPhone or dedicate hotspot) do not work.

Worth mentioning again, Google earth lasts for a while and then goes away. How long it lasts varies from a couple of minutes to 15 or 20 minutes. There is a handshake protocol Called CHAP that maybe involved in this.The online search and traffic messages never work. On the right hand side of the screen google earth, traffic and even weather appear as viable options, you can click on them but should the exception of google earth, nothing will happen. The fastest way to see if the online services are working is actually online search under navigation.


Funny how I thought the Wi-Fi hotspot generated by the head unit would not work at all using an external hotspot, which would limit the workings of the PCM connect app but it turns out that the PCM works like a bridge router and you can always take your phone to the head unit no matter where the data is coming from.

I bare little hope that AT&T will be willing to help considering I'm trying to get data from somewhere else. I have no idea how to reach Google services or if they would be able to help me as their contract is with Porsche and so far the latter only said that nothing is possible besides AT&T Sim card, even considering all their written material saying otherwise.

 

I think you may be on to something here. It's possible you're running into some kind of trouble with the servers the PCM is trying to contact, because they don't have your PCM registered properly on their end.

My suggestion would be to contact the vodaphone telematics folks. Those were the people I worked with to get my account straightened out. I sent you a PM with the contact info I received.

I'd wonder if you could use the existing AT&T SIM you have in the 911 as a means to smooth over the "AT&T vs other carriers" part of the problem?

At some point they'd (being cobra/vodaphone) HAVE to use more than just an ICCID to register each PCM in their servers. I'm guessing they have a batch or range of those cards that help 'automagically' correlate the use of the SIM with a new PCM. As in, "hey, new device reporting in... with this never-before-seen-PCM info..." and they use that to build the database entry for it. As opposed to someone having to read off a PCM serial number or something.

Somebody thought it'd be 'easier' to do it this way. For a great majority of situations that's probably correct. But for edge cases, or where something gets screwed up, all that 'simplicity' turns into a pain in the ***.

I'd call them on the phone and attempt to "politely" work your way up the chain of command to get to the folks that fix things like this. Let the 1st tier folks have a crack at it, but when that fails (and it probably will) suggest this be escalated to "the IT folks".

 

I specifically would NOT call AT&T. That'd just muddy the waters, likely making things worse.

That and perhaps some contact with the Porsche North America factory personnel might be in order? Not just the 800-Porsche folks.

At some point, someone running the PCM services is going to have to take a look at the 'big picture' of what's going wrong in your particular situation and tell the right people to "fix it". That could be you, now armed with enough information to be dangerous, or it could be someone at PCNA 'leaning on them' to stop screwing a customer around.

I still don't have an answer to the question of "what, if any, services on my PCM will cease to function if I let the AT&T SIM account expire or close?" I'm not facing that question until February 2017. But I'd very much like to know the REAL answer before that time. I don't think any of the 1st tier or marketing folks (at PCNA or voda/cobra) are going to be able to answer that question, at least not without quoting the party line. I just haven't found an 'insider' to really figure it out. Yet.

 

Vodafone/cobra provide services regarding connect (my car, valet services, car info, car lock etc). I don't think they are related to the issue at hand as att provides connection to google services (connect plus). Porsche marketing did a poor job choosing names as they are VERY confusing.

If att is blocking my access to google services, which I think they are, on purpose or not, I will need someone up the chain at PCNA to add some pressure beyond the QA prompt from the 0800 (I.e it's not possible whatever you want to do cause I can't be bothered to find out, the manual refers to different markets does not really apply to the US).

Technically it's a 155/year service (google services) and there is nothing written anywhere that this it tethered (no pun) to att providing data. It may be included (not free for sure) for the first year, but after that I would not renew if I must use the expensive att connection. As I said, included not free, as in you paid for that first year amongst everything else in the car.

 

I still don't think AT&T does anything more than act as a transport for the data. I don't think they provide any actual data services. Yes, the naming is annoyingly confusing.