Chevrolet becomes the first major automaker to offer unlimited 4G LTE data in its vehicles

[Shawn Knight]

Wireless data plans are in vogue right now with carriers announcing new plans at a rapid clip only to improve upon them days later in response to the competition.

On Tuesday, the unlimited data offering spilled over into the automotive industry with Chevrolet becoming the first automaker to unlimited 4G LTE connectivity.

Available from March 3, those whose vehicles are equipped with an OnStar 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot will have access to an unlimited prepaid data plan priced at $20 per month. The offering, which will be available across Chevrolet’s entire retail lineup, is powered by AT&T.

Up to this point, monthly data through OnStar would set you back $10 for 1GB, $20 for 4GB and $40 for 10GB. OnStar also offers a 250MB day pass for $5 and a 20GB pass that can be used over the course of 12 months for $150.

Chevrolet notes that customers last year used nearly 200 percent more OnStar 4G LTE data in their vehicles compared to 2015. To put things into perspective, the automaker says owners and passengers streamed the equivalent of more than 17.5 million hours of video in 2016.

Curiously enough, Chevy’s press release didn’t say how much high-speed data its unlimited plan actually affords. If it’s anything like the wireless industry, you’d be foolish to think that unlimited actually means unlimited. If I had to guess, it probably adheres to AT&T's standard 4G threshold in which only the first 22GB of data is of the high-speed variety.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/68372-chevrolet-becomes-first-major-automaker-offer-unlimited-4g.html

 

[Phr3d]

To beat on the dead-horse dream of failover - guess that buying a chebby to use as my cel-hotspot is the economical answer (until that 20 GB for 12 mo becomes available in other devices, like, I dunno, maybe a ubiquitous household internet device.. hmm..)

 

[p51d007]

Unlimited until people figure out how to send the unlimited data to their home/phone/tablet and start "abusing" the so called unlimited data, then it gets RESTRICTED.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Unlimited until people figure out how to send the unlimited data to their home/phone/tablet and start "abusing" the so called unlimited data, then it gets RESTRICTED.

too much hassle - you'll have to leave your car on... what are you going to do? leave it running? or just power it on and put the battery on a charger so it doesn't die because the engine is off.

I don't see how this could be abused without it being a big pain in the neck. Sure - you could have 3 kids all streaming video on a big road trip, but those are exceptions.