[mikew]

I've been researching data only SIM cards for the I-Pace and have come across the Three Mobile Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband 24Gb Data SIM. As the name implies its data allowance is 24Gb and it lasts for a generous 24 months.

It costs £60 direct from Three, but can be had for just £45 from Amazon.

Not knowing how much data will be needed in a typical month I'm tending to shy away from contract SIMs, but this seems like a great initial alternative. As much data as you'd get in a year on a monthly 2Gb contract, for a lot less money. Plus it will keep you going for another year if it turns out you only need 1Gb per month.

Obviously I have no way of trying it out just yet, so can't guarantee it is fully fit for purpose. That said though, I see no reason why it wouldn't be.

I'm not going to buy it until nearer the time, so if anybody knows of a better deal then I'd be pleased to hear about it.

 

[johnd]

The 3 SIMs usually work fine for in-car connectivity. Just two minor caveats: one is simply that 3 coverage isn't as good as eg EE, but it's largely OK.

The other is a bit more obscure: it never used to be easy to monitor usage, if that matters to you, because you needed to have the SIM inserted in a device like a phone to set up the account to monitor the usage. But the catch is that most in-car SIMS tend to be full-sized ones (maybe i-Pace will be different, but then again maybe not) whereas most users don't have access to a phone that takes a full-sized SIM any more. Ends up as a sort of Catch 22. But again it would be nice to think that the mobile industry has now caught up with the fact that cars may use full-sized SIMs and now offer alternative ways of setting up PAYG accounts.

 

[mikew]

Thanks for the feedback John.

Three has an App that looks like it can report on usage. Assuming of course the SIM stores usage data in the Cloud and can be accessed from any mobile device. Which I guess it may not. The I-Pace takes a micro SIM, so a bit easier to find an old device that takes it if that's what is needed.

I've heard EE has the best coverage, but Three looks a lot better than what I'm used to with O2 on my mobile. Especially in the Scottish Highlands where I will be using the car quite often.

 

[Guest]

My 3G Sim 12gb card in my F-Pace used like 4gb total, for about 7000miles of driving.

Therefore if a 12gb card was good for 20,000 miles a year, then I'd say a 4G 24gb card is enough for a year - assuming your passenger isn't surffing the web while you drive, or the kids are not using the car's wi-fi to watch Youtube!

 

[Thincat]

At the Solihull event we were told that because the I-Pace will be the first Jaguar to have over-the-air software updates it will be supplied with a 4G SIM that includes sufficient data to allow all of the updates needed and that it will be free for the first 3 years. I was worried about coverage at my house and asked which network they would be using. The answer was that Jaguar has done a deal with one of the networks (they didn't know which one) and the SIM would have the Jaguar brand so it might be difficult to tell which network was actually being used. I then asked if the over-the-air software could be accomplished via a Wi-Fi connection in which case if there was no network coverage at my house I could use my home Wi-Fi for the update. The answer was that the software COULD be updated using a Wi-Fi connection.
I think that this means you don't have to worry about getting a data SIM in advance, the car will come fully equipped.

 

[mikew]

Many thanks, that's very interesting and it would be great if your understanding is correct.

However, I seem to recall reading about a built-in SIM vs. an owner supplied one. I could easily be wrong, but are there two different SIMs? In the online user manual some update functions say/imply there is no need for an owner supplied SIM, but others, like advanced satellite navigation features, imply you need one. And what about the Wi-Fi hotspot? Would you need to have your own SIM for that to work?

 

[Thincat]

Many thanks, that's very interesting and it would be great if your understanding is correct.

However, I seem to recall reading about a built-in SIM vs. an owner supplied one. I could easily be wrong, but are there two different SIMs? In the online user manual some update functions say/imply there is no need for an owner supplied SIM, but others, like advanced satellite navigation features, imply you need one. And what about the Wi-Fi hotspot? Would you need to have your own SIM for that to work?

I can't see any reason why there would need to be two SIM cards. On my F-Pace the single SIM Card I have supplied delivers everything including the 3g hot spot and the satellite view on the sat-nav but I don't use either feature because I have to pay for any data in excess of the small monthly allowance. So the manual is correct in saying that a SIM is required but doesn't make it clear that Jaguar will be supplying it (for the first 3 years).

 

[John32]

Isn't the 2nd Sim for the tracker?

 

[johnd]

I can't see any reason why there would need to be two SIM cards.

That's certainly true in a technical sense, but it doesn't mean that there won't be two. The Porsche system uses two for instance because the tracker is tied into a contract with Vodafone AIUI because an arm of Voda is also responsible for tracking alerts and other tracking management, whereas you can use any network you like for the general-purpose SIM (satnav, OTA updates, WiFi hotspot etc).

So it's less that you need it technically but more that Porsche decided that it's best to have two classes of service which are therefore best handled by two separate modems, each with their own SIM. I've no idea whether JLR will use similar thinking or not but just pointing out that there may be marketing/service reasons for having two SIMs.

 

[Thincat]

I can't see any reason why there would need to be two SIM cards.

That's certainly true in a technical sense, but it doesn't mean that there won't be two. The Porsche system uses two for instance because the tracker is tied into a contract with Vodafone AIUI because an arm of Voda is also responsible for tracking alerts and other tracking management, whereas you can use any network you like for the general-purpose SIM (satnav, OTA updates, WiFi hotspot etc).

So it's less that you need it technically but more that Porsche decided that it's best to have two classes of service which are therefore best handled by two separate modems, each with their own SIM. I've no idea whether JLR will use similar thinking or not but just pointing out that there may be marketing/service reasons for having two SIMs.

I agree that is possible I'm just saying that my F-Pace only has one slot for a SIM card and all communication including the tracking is done via that. I suppose that if I wanted to have a separate tracker fitted then it would be totally independent and have its own SIM.

 

[johnd]

Yep, on my Macan you only have access to one SIM. Wherever the tracker modem is located (presumably somewhere in the bowels of the ICE circuitry), it doesn't have an accessible SIM and for all I know the SIM is very possibly non-interchangeable - indeed may well be in the form of firmware rather than a demountable SIM - there's no obvious reason to have an accessible SIM, or even a SIM at all, if it's never going to be changed.

 

[alex_haddock]

I'm with EE and have 31GB per month on my personal phone that I don't tend to use up most months. With impending arrival of car in March ordered an additional Data only SIM with 5GB at £10 month. Other offers give more for £10 but the fact I can shift my data from my phone line as needed and get the benefit of EE signal (overall I've personally found it to be the best) works for me. Using this mechanism also means I'll more likely use the car SIM as a Wifi Hotspot rather than just car data (watching Netflix on the ipad whilst it charges or doing work email....)

 

[sjur]

It never occured to me that the I-Pace would draw on my mobil data. On my Tesla this was all inclusive.
Extremely irritating!
Can anyone give me a hint as to how much data it would need for navigation assistance alone (map info, traffic info, chargers etc) ?

 

[tedca]

I've been researching data only SIM cards for the I-Pace and have come across the Three Mobile Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband 24Gb Data SIM. As the name implies its data allowance is 24Gb and it lasts for a generous 24 months.

It costs £60 direct from Three, but can be had for just £45 from Amazon.

Not knowing how much data will be needed in a typical month I'm tending to shy away from contract SIMs, but this seems like a great initial alternative. As much data as you'd get in a year on a monthly 2Gb contract, for a lot less money. Plus it will keep you going for another year if it turns out you only need 1Gb per month.

Obviously I have no way of trying it out just yet, so can't guarantee it is fully fit for purpose. That said though, I see no reason why it wouldn't be.

I'm not going to buy it until nearer the time, so if anybody knows of a better deal then I'd be pleased to hear about it.

Just renewing my DataSim bought in Sept 2020 with 24GB for two years from Three as you recommended - it has just run out after 19 months. I only use for traffic navigation and the odd bit of browsing. Three do not offer a way of extending the DataSim, and their best data offers are £6 per month. However, the Amazon link you provided is still valid and so that looks like the best offer available.

 

[NigelC]

way

That's interesting. Our car will be 3 years old in September, so I'm thinking about data slims at the moment.

When you say you only use for navigation and a bit of browsing, that sounds slightly different from our usage.

We would only use navigation occasionally, but would have an i-Phone hooked up to for Apple Car Play, and would use the I-Pace voice control for chosing and changing music. Does that use a lot of data?

I suppose the only way to find out is to "suck it and see".

I was going towards the Three, 24 month data sim. Anyone got any views on alternatives?

Kind regards,
Nigel

 

[rsilk]

Using Asda Mobile (Vodafone)
No contract, 3Gb data for £5/month

You will need to activate the card in an old phone which uses a micro SIM. This will prevent breaking out the nano sim from the carrier. Jag advises not to use any adapter otherwise the nano sim can get stuck in the slot.