Mobile operators to shut down 3G networks in 2022

[jlv]

I found CarWings/NissanConnect to be buggy and more trouble than it's worth anyways.

+1

[LeftieBiker]

I find it very useful for preheating, and for precooling in really Hot weather. I may not be driving a Leaf with it after this Summer, but we will have the 2020, and I'll be really POd if that loses the feature.

[G3NG4R]

The 2020 Nissan Connect manual has some information on page 5-6 that seems to imply the car is capable of 4G & 3G. It also says in no uncertain terms that the owner is responsible for any cost if an upgrade is required. It doesn't mention if Nissan will/won't offer an upgrade.

https://imgur.com/a/B5xXDa6

Others may want to check their manuals to compare.

This information being in the Nissan Connect, rather than the Leaf, manual is interesting. It means this issue is wider reaching than just the Leaf since the systems are shared among many cars. I'm not sure how far back that's the case, but this could impact a lot of cars if Nissan didn't add 4G until recently.

[LeftieBiker]

I don't read that as saying that the car has 4G capability.

[G3NG4R]

I've been doing some more reading on this and found some more information.

On a Nissan Truck forum a user claims Nissan Connect Support told them it was only impacting 2018 and older trucks as they used ATT. New trucks use Sirius.

https://www.titanxdforum.com/threads/ni ... 022.44613/

I know my 2020 says it's backed by Sirius in several places, so this may be an indicator if your vehicle is impacted.

[knightmb]

I have some skin in this topic as well, but I haven't been able to find any definitive answers about which my EV is using. Luckily the industry that I work in, I have special radio equipment to just site survey my vehicle in a frequency scan to see which protocols it appears to be using. I'll report back what I find here, but keep in mind, I only have my own 2020 to test with, so unless someone has a 2019, 2018, etc. nearby that I can borrow and probe, my findings might be limited...

I do have some reference to go by in my area, should be easy to turn my vehicle climate control on and off with the spectrum scan antenna pointed right at my car to find out.

3G : 850 MHz Cellular, 1900 MHz PCS
4G : 700 MHz Lower B/C, 1700/ 2100 MHz AWS, 2300 MHz WCS

[Learjet]

The 2020 Nissan Connect manual has some information on page 5-6 that seems to imply the car is capable of 4G & 3G. It also says in no uncertain terms that the owner is responsible for any cost if an upgrade is required. It doesn't mention if Nissan will/won't offer an upgrade.

https://imgur.com/a/B5xXDa6

Others may want to check their manuals to compare.

This information being in the Nissan Connect, rather than the Leaf, manual is interesting. It means this issue is wider reaching than just the Leaf since the systems are shared among many cars. I'm not sure how far back that's the case, but this could impact a lot of cars if Nissan didn't add 4G until recently.

My 2019 manual says the same.

[knightmb]

I had some time to kill this morning, so I did two test on mine.

First test, RF Spectrum Analyzer, pointing a huge antenna at my vehicle with it running, then doing some simple stuff like checking battery charge, turn on climate control, turning it off, etc. Everything was working in the 4G frequency, so I would say it must support it and was using it, but... it is possible for 3G to re-use some of the 4G frequency if the cellular operator wants to do it that way. Highly improbable that AT&T was doing that in my area, but I wanted to make certain. So I found a 3G dead zone that has 4G service, brought along equipment (and even a 3G only phone for giggles), drove out to the dead zone (happen to be a church parking lot close by, so it was easy to park and test with). Verified that 3G service did not work where I was, no signal, no coverage, even the 3G only phone showed no service just in case of frequency re-use. First thing I noticed, Leaf still showed a connection to the network on the dash (good sign), then did the same test of checking battery charge, playing with climate control, etc. Everything was still working fine, so at least as far as the 2020 models, they have a 4G radio in them. I can say that with certainly without tearing up the EV and checking the FCC codes on the electronics.

If all of the Gen 2 Leaf have the same radio chip-set, then I would say the Gen 1 Leaf are the ones that will be disconnected once they shutdown the 3G side.

[Stanton]

If all of the Gen 2 Leaf have the same radio chip-set, then I would say the Gen 1 Leaf are the ones that will be disconnected once they shutdown the 3G side.

And that's the rub: I am looking for some definitive info from Nissan on when/how they are going to upgrade the Gen1 TCU (assume a new modem daughter board--lust like the first time). I would even pay for a third party solution (if they are able to obtain the board specs), but I'm not sure if the biz case would work. At least Nissan can fund it out of the maintenance (and obligation) for the overall vehicle.

[rpiotro]

I had some time to kill this morning, so I did two test on mine.

First test, RF Spectrum Analyzer, pointing a huge antenna at my vehicle with it running, then doing some simple stuff like checking battery charge, turn on climate control, turning it off, etc. Everything was working in the 4G frequency, so I would say it must support it and was using it, but... it is possible for 3G to re-use some of the 4G frequency if the cellular operator wants to do it that way. Highly improbable that AT&T was doing that in my area, but I wanted to make certain. So I found a 3G dead zone that has 4G service, brought along equipment (and even a 3G only phone for giggles), drove out to the dead zone (happen to be a church parking lot close by, so it was easy to park and test with). Verified that 3G service did not work where I was, no signal, no coverage, even the 3G only phone showed no service just in case of frequency re-use. First thing I noticed, Leaf still showed a connection to the network on the dash (good sign), then did the same test of checking battery charge, playing with climate control, etc. Everything was still working fine, so at least as far as the 2020 models, they have a 4G radio in them. I can say that with certainly without tearing up the EV and checking the FCC codes on the electronics.

If all of the Gen 2 Leaf have the same radio chip-set, then I would say the Gen 1 Leaf are the ones that will be disconnected once they shutdown the 3G side.

Thanks. I just bought a new 2020 and was wondering about that. I have been unsuccessful in determining what radio I have. I still haven't found anything 100% definitive. The Connect manual suggests 4G and your experiment reinforces that notion but no-one can say with absolute certainty.

I had a 2014 Infiniti Q50 hybrid before this. It came with 2G which was obsolete pretty quickly. They offered an upgrade to 3G for about $350.00 which included a year of premium service. I took a pass because why do that for something that will be obsolete again soon. Now Q50 owners will be left holding the bag as there are no plans for a 4G upgrade. At least not yet.