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2020 Outback Onboard WiFi

27K views 68 replies 20 participants last post by  aspexin19 
#1 ·
Do you folks have any idea how the Starlink AT&T WiFi hotspot works with the Outback? I know you can activate it from the Starlink app and that it's $15/month for what appears to be essentially unlimited data (up to 22gb when it throttles). It's a pretty good deal if you do a lot of road trips or might use it a lot, but we really only need it for road trips a couple times a month for our kids' iPads.

Is there a sim somewhere in the car that you can replace? I'd love to use our family Google Fi plan, which lets you add data-only sims for free and it shares the pool of family data. But I'm guessing there's some proprietary nature to all this that will lock you into AT&T.

Any insight here?
 
#63 ·
OK so kind of a late response to this thread.
I activated my Trial last week, and have extensively tested the Subaru Onboard ATT Wifi.

Kind of a good/bad news overall though.

Generally, after what seems like a bazillion tests between here and Ann Arbor Michigan and back, the car performed very consistently at around 20mbps down and 20mpbs up. Sure there was a bit of variation depending on location, but that's about the gist of it. As a perspective, the 20mbps UP is the thing to get excited about as keep in mind most of our home internet runs at packages like 200/15 or 200/20. Mine is 300/25. (Sure google fiber does 1000/1000 but we have that option here). So if you are on business and need to upload things to the office or send email and etc, you re getting about 3 megabytes a second going UP which is solid IMO.
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The bad news is that I was also checking my Verizon cell connection at the same time as testing the Cars onboard ATT wifi. When the reception was good for the car, the reception was good fo the phone and it netted more than Double the speeds on a few occasions.
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These readings were pretty consistent over the entire time that my 1gb demo was active. I pretty much used up the whole 1gb doing speed tests in various areas.

In my experience, the Cars onboard WiFi was more consistent when connected to devices than my iPhone Xs built-in hot spot, but I"m betting that's due to the size of the antenna in the car. The other thing is that I know for a fact that when my phone is doing the hotspot it tends to get pretty hot relatively quickly, whereas the car probably wouldn't change the temperature using the wifi.

My hotspot usage is probably different than most folks, We don't have kids I use it for work generally to upload files to FTP so to each their own. I can see paying the $25 for a long road trip if my wife had to work on her laptop in the car just because it would be easy and convenient. Otherwise for me personally I'll just stick with the iPhone Hot Spot.

I hope this helps anybody wondering.

Merry Christmas everyone!
 
#64 ·
+1 yup that pretty much mirrors my experience. I think only once did I have single digit up/down. Otherwise when you have signal it works great. It is the dead spots that just kills it. We had ATT up until 2015 here in the mid-West and they just didn't have great coverage here. Guess much hasn't change since then.
 
#66 ·
The only things I can think of
1. Hopefully a better antenna in the car thus giving a little edge in distance over the phone
2. WiFi for passengers in the car without unlimited data plans

I have the #2 situation which is the only reason I will keep it for now. If that changes then I may drop it too.
 
#68 ·
I havent even had it activated. Im close to the Adirondack State park and there is only coverage in Towns and Villages. And that coverage ends pretty quick as you head out of town. Even where I live coverage is thin and hit and miss. I wish it was a satalite service that you could use away from any cell service area. Then it would be worth it. But of course it would cost much more.
 
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