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i thought tablets already had 5G capability and/or you can just tether to one of the parents phones in the car? vs. paying for a monthly subscription just for the car. how much is it?
Tablets usually have two versions of networking capability - Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + cellular. The additional cost for cellular depends upon make and model with a delta cost in the range of $100 to $200. For a cellular capable tablet there's also tablet data only plan cost. (Not all tablets have 5G capability and those that do few, if any, support all the 5G cellular bands.)
There is a range of plans and prices for tablet AT&T cellular data networking. Stand alone for $50/month for 25 GB data for one tablet; add-on to a multi-line plan for $20/month/tablet plan shared non-throttled 50 GB/month (minimum - amount varies by multi-line plan) ; plus an assortment of prepaid data plans of varying costs.
Per AT&T's web site the monthly cost for stand alone in-car Wi-Fi is $20/month with unlimited data of which 22 GB/month is non-throttled. There is also an add-on in-car Wi-Fi to a multi-line plan that costs $20/month with the cellular data consumption sharing the plan's data terms.
(There's also a "free" WarnerMedia RIDE (Cartoon Network, CNN, HBO MAX, etc.) with at least one of the in-car Wi-Fi plans.)
Leaving tethering aside for the moment, the in-car Wi-Fi option could be the less costly option depending upon the number of tablets involved and the data usage characteristics.
Last edited by grp52; 04-29-22 at 01:08 PM.
Reason: corrected the add-on in-car Wi-Fi terms
New girl here, hoping one of your fine folks can help me.
I have a 2021 ES300h and my Wi-Fi stopped working about two weeks ago. Each time I click on the option to turn on the Wi-Fi Hotspot I receive the "Preparing to connect to the internet. This process may take a several minutes." prompt. After about 30 seconds or to 1 minute, I receive the message, "Internet service temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."
I can probably count on one hand the number of times my Wi-Fi hotspot has been on when I've started my car. Almost always (9.7 times out of 10) I need to turn it on manually. Up until this issue, it was pretty seamless. Click the option to turn it on, wait a few seconds, and wah-la! All is great and my 11-year old isn't losing his mind in the passenger seat next to me.
When it first started to be on the fritz I just assumed there was an update going on and I needed to find some patience. (I don't generally have a bunch to spare)
One day I noticed the Wi-Fi option was missing completely from my setup menu. I thought that was strange, but again just figured updates were happening (maybe it was the fix to not have to manually turn the Wi-Fi on every time!) but alas no dice. The Wi-Fi option finally came back, I was able to manually turn it on for a day or two, and then my present issue appeared and apparently wants to hang out with me for a while.
I called Lexus Connect today and they connected me (no pun intended) with the Wi-Fi peeps. I talked to a lovely representative who really tried to help me, but after trying a few things (including deleting all of my personal data), she referred me to my local dealership.
Before I give them a call, I thought I'd check here to see if anyone has experienced this or if you have any advice.
And before you ask, yes I did pay my bill with AT&T
Please let me know if you have any questions! Thank you in advance if you can help me.
DiD you ever find an answer to the lack of menu to set up a Wi-Fi hotspot??
I have a Verizon $20 plan for my 2019 ES 350. I have found that every 90 days the Lexus E form app locks you out so you will sign up to their plan. We have called Verizon and they say it's the Lexus side and Lexus says nothing wrong here! I recently tried to not update E form and it still knocked me off. I have to delete all data and re enter info to log in witch I have to re enter phones and everything. This is very annoying to the point I am gonna give up WIFI all together which sucks because it was a feature when buying.
We’ll, your problem might be different. I had a similar problem, perhaps not the same. I was unable to retrieve the menu item “wi-fi”. The dealer did a firmware upgrade on my new 300h, and I’m now logged in(at&t however). I’ll wait 3 months and see.
Maybe the S-mode is separate to the Eco heat/cold setting. I just started my car and it defaulted to Normal Drive Mode and Eco Heat/cold...perhaps your driving around in Eco Heat/cold mode?
Here is this screen when I switch to Sport mode... See the auto switch... Perhaps tune that off so it won't be controlled by the Drive Mode or default at start?
04-29-22, 12:37 PM
