any newer model of tomtom gps that doesn't rely on bluetooth tethering for traffic update?

lostagain215

i have a Go 60 that i'm disappointed with in that it uses bluetooth tethering for traffic update. for the US market, this is a costly option because most cellular provider charges extra for this feature nowadays. for example, Cricket Wireless charges, i believe, $10 per month just to enable this feature on their cell phone. if i need to pay $10 per month to use Tomtom, i might as well just use my cell phone, or switch to Garmin for my navigation.

dmulv

Not that I'm aware of, sorry.

There's the other option of receiving data through a tethered wi-fi connection, however I suspect that would be even more expensive on your phone's plan.

DougLap

Hi @lostagain215

Seems you only other option is the Traffic Receiver/ Charger.

https://www.tomtom.com/en_us/drive/accessories/chargers-cables/traffic-receiver/

Doug

lostagain215

Thank you for your prompt reply. While it's a viable option, don't you think TomTom ought to charge less for the device considering the competition from Garmin and Google map? Heck, it should've been bundled with the device. I had a similar charger with my XL device and it was not very durable.

DougLap

Hi @lostagain215

I am in the UK and we do not seem to have the charging structure you have for data. SHMBO has a phone with Unlimited calls, and Texts with 2gb of data per month and it costs £5. There is no charge for using it as a data source for a Tomtom.

One other option you could use on one of the later models is possibly a Mifi. I recently had a problem with the inbuilt Mobile sim on my Tomtom failing to work as there was a problem with the TT servers and they would not connect to the units via that facility for a few hours. I have a Mifi which I turned on and connected it via the Wifi on the GO 5200 and instantly I got Traffic data. The reason I did it was at the time where I was there was Traffic chaos because of major road works and a Premier League Football match involving Manchester United. The roads were gridlocked but the Tomtom helped get me around the problem once I logged on using the Mifi.

We can buy Data sims that have 25gb and last a year and they would be covered by about 3 months of your $10 costs and would easily do a years Traffic data. Is that a cheaper option for you ?

Doug.

lostagain215

Thank you for taking the time to answer. The problem in the US is not data as many carriers have unlimited data plan for reasonable prices but they've all discovered to extract extra fees to enable Bluetooth tethering, perhaps to prevent consumers from sharing the bandwidth with other devices.

lostagain215

Unfortunately, the pricing policy of Bluetooth tethering of cellular carriers will adversely impact Tomtom's business in a big way. I'm surprised that TomTom hasn't taken steps to combat it as more and more consumers don't even want to buy GPS nowadays since they can use Google map as an alternative.