Anyone use OnStar with the 4g hotspot?

[RVcircus]

We just picked up a Chevy van and activated the trial of OnStar which included 3gb of data. The OnStar service itself doesn't seem that useful with all the smart phones we have, but the hot spot may be nice. The only issue is it looks like the van needs to be on for the hot spot to be active. Thoughts? Experiences?

[MrWizard]

why do you need more than 50 ft
Park the car in front of, or beside the RV
And you should have Wi-Fi in the RV
Yes any Wi-Fi extender/ repeater should work
Location is the key, where are you going to place it

[rvcampdad]

I have a question. I camp a lot and want WIFI in the RV. My Car has On Star Wifi. Can I connect a wifi booster inside my RV to extend the range of my cars onstar's car hot spot? Has anyone tried this to get more than the 50ft range?

[joebedford]

Yes, we have OnStar. We travel for months at a time in a foreign land far from home and it has proven useful. One time we were at a truck stop in Tennessee and the check engine light came on. OnStar was able to run remote diagnostics and tell us we were OK to run the 1000km to get home.

We've used the data while traveling: usually the months bookending our snowbirding. It's OK but the range is limited outside the truck - we use our range booster setup in the 5th wheel to connect if the truck is unhooked.

I was very surprised that key on ACC will flatten both batteries overnight. Oops. They were so low that my 6v/12v auto charger thought it was charging 6v batteries. I had to connect one of the RV 12v batteries with jumper cables to fool the charger to go into 12v mode. I'm surprised 18 months later the truck batteries are still in good shape.

[RVcircus]

Thanks for all the info!!! I'll take a look at the Mobley now. As for the other OnStar services, I doubt I'll use them

[lexi51]

Ya Onstar uses the AT&T network so if no coverage it won't work.

[rockhillmanor]

Just a note about what I found out about OnStar:

OnStar Might be good for playing around with a hotspot BUT as a life saving/emergency assistance unit 'as advertised' don't count on it helping a family member on the road that is involved in an accident.

It runs off cell towers. No cell tower in the area where you have an accident NO help. 😞 I personally thought it ran off satellite thereby giving you protection where ever you traveled, not.

Friends 74 year old mom stills likes to RV solo so daughter made her get an OnStar for her safety......long story short she hit a deer on one of her trips. She hit the Onstar button for help and zip, zero. No cell towers close by so it did not work.

Just saying don't count on OnStar for you families 100% safety because it does NOT work in all areas.

[ktmrfs]

lizzie wrote:
ktmrfs is right on. We are in our 70's and often travel far out in the boonies. We have had both OnStar and a Verizon Wi-FI for the past five years. I can't tell you how many times one has worked but not the other. Since we are gone for months at a time and must take care of business on the road, the combination has been a life saver for us. lizzie

we've found exactly the same thing. I now have a list of which places I can get verizon, ATT, both or in some cases nothing.

for the nothing situation I have a garmin inreach to send and recieve text messages and/or ask for help if it ever came to that situation. works anywhere in the world that iridium sat's work, which is about 99 percent of any open area. and you can set it up so friends or family can access a map that gives our gps location every 10 minutes.

Grandkids liked it as they tracked us on our cruise around south america.

[ktmrfs]

bob_nestor wrote:
Not mentioned yet, but OnStar (and AT&T) now have deals where you can get unlimited data for $20/mo. Great deal if you have service and need or use the data.

I have the trial OnStar in my new Chevy, but like others I'll drop it when the trial runs out. OnStar just doesn't really impress me all that much. Instead I picked up the AT&T Mobley device that plugs into the OBD-II port on any vehicle. With it I get unlimited data for the $20/mo plus tax. With a USB or 110v power cord to the Mobley I can even run it without having it attached to a vehicle OBD-II port.

but does the mobely device have high output power and high gain antenna that the onstar 4G wifi has? not a big deal if you are in good cell service range, but something onstar does give if your in the boonies.

and it sounds like it is the same cost/month as the new onstar wifi with ATT.

sounds like two choices, pick which works best for YOUR application.

[bob_nestor]

Not mentioned yet, but OnStar (and AT&T) now have deals where you can get unlimited data for $20/mo. Great deal if you have service and need or use the data.

I have the trial OnStar in my new Chevy, but like others I'll drop it when the trial runs out. OnStar just doesn't really impress me all that much. Instead I picked up the AT&T Mobley device that plugs into the OBD-II port on any vehicle. With it I get unlimited data for the $20/mo plus tax. With a USB or 110v power cord to the Mobley I can even run it without having it attached to a vehicle OBD-II port.

[lizzie]

ktmrfs is right on. We are in our 70's and often travel far out in the boonies. We have had both OnStar and a Verizon Wi-FI for the past five years. I can't tell you how many times one has worked but not the other. Since we are gone for months at a time and must take care of business on the road, the combination has been a life saver for us. lizzie

[jorbill2or]

If your instant can hotspot that onstar ATT now has a deal where you can get unlimited data 22 g and then may be throttled if in a congested cell tower. Most report not throttling. This is the same thing that you can get with a mobley device .. which goes in the obd port. There are lots of posts on this, here and other forums .. google mobely. It appears to be sold out everywhere . The device is for those without a late model wifi on star ..or for those who just want a deal without the car ( adapter to plug mobley into without the car) luckily you don't need the mobley to take advantage of this offer
In any case you can blow away the 3 gig deal with the "limited time" unlimited offer for 20 bucks per month

[ktmrfs]

it all depends on your application what the value of the wifi and phone is to you.

1) The wifi and phone use higher power than your normal cell phone so it can give you coverage in areas you don't get coverage with an regular GSM phone. It uses ATT as a carrier
2) If you currently have ATT service you can add it as a line to your normal service
3) If you have a CDMA carrier, such as verizon, and you will have a better chance of getting service since now you have access to both system, GSM and CDMA
4) it will NOT guarantee coverage everywhere.
5) you can run the wifi for about 10 or 15 minutes with the ignition off. the trick is to turn to accy, wait for radio to come on, turn key to off and remove and get out the PASSENGER side of the car. If you get out the drivers side opening the drivers door turns everything off.

we use it because we travel in many places where either GSM or CDMA service is not available and it gives us both carrier options since our cell phones are CDMA

so decide if you want the phone and/or wifi and pick and choose.

[DutchmenSport]

We had On-Star on both our vehicles when we purchased them new. After the trial, we let it die.

Then we were somewhere in Tennessee at a very remotely located diesel-gas station. We were all outside the truck and our SmartPhones were inside the cab, windows rolled up when "it" happened!

Dog stepped on the door locks and locked all the doors! Panic! Shock! What do we do now! We're in the middle of no where and all the keys are inside the truck. We couldn't even access the trailer. And we're parked in a fuel pump bay.

My adult son was with us, and luckily, he had his phone in his pocket. We were able to finally call OnStar after going through hoops, and they remotely unlocked our doors. While we had the representative on the line, we renewed our On Star subscription right there on the spot! We carry just the basic minimum so we can unlock the doors with our SmartPhones if it ever happens again. We went ahead an kept it for the car too. It's kind of nice when one of us is on our way to or from work, the other one can track where the vehicle is with the map/gps system. And it's nice to start the truck (diesel) in the winter when I'm at work and let it warm up before leaving the building.

We decided the On-Star WIFI Hot Spot, or whatever it is was not worth it. Like you, we have all that capability with our SmartPhones, we don't need internet access via the vehicles. It's an extra cost and since we have it on the phones anyway, it did not make sense for us.

Because we do a lot of work from home, we finally went with an unlimited data plan for our phones, and for our purposes, the phones and the phones hot spot for our laptops and I-pad and traveling has worked very well for us.

For only a few dollars a month, it IS worth it to be able to unlock your doors if you leave your keys inside (or the dog steps on the door locks)!!!!