BMW Assist Coverage Area in US - GSM or CDMA
 

What is the coverage area for BMW Assist in the US? IOW which cell phone carrier(s) does BMW Assist use? Does the system roam to other carriers? What areas in the US does BMW Assist not work because of lack of cellular coverage?

In the Western US there are large areas with only one cellular provider and some areas (e.g. Big Bend National Park) with no cellular coverage at all. We are planing to travel in the west and would like to understand just where we might be 'out of range' for BMW Assist. I ask here because I have been unable to get a straight answer from my dealer or two different BMW Assist 'operators' when we set up BMW Assist*. Perhaps others have been luckier.

Funf Dreisig

* Both my CA and the BMW Assist 'operators' told us that BMW Assist uses Verizon. But we were at home when we setup BMW Assist. Verizon doesn't work at our house, because the towers are blocked by the hills. So either the X5 has a honkin' good antenna or BMW Assist uses/roams to AT&T. We get 5 bars with AT&T at our house.

Thanks.

A quick Google of "BMW Assist AT&T" turns up several links that describe the new BMW Assist MyInfo which is part of the extra cost BMW Assist Concierge service. Most of them include the exact words "Utilizing newly introduced hardware operating on the AT&T Mobility GSM network..." that makes them seem to be based on this press release.

But a few of the links indicate that BMW has switched from Verizon (and the older US only CDMA technology) to GSM and hence AT&T. It makes sense, since the rest of the world uses GSM. Why have two different sets of hardware for BMW Assist?

Thanks again - Funf Dreisig

Does anyone know when model year made the switch to the AT&T GSM-based BMW Assist?

From what I've been reading BMW made the switch by Sept. of 2008 for all models except the X3. The key seems to be whether BMW offered "BMW Search" for that model/yr since it depends on Google maps and GSM.

Funf Dreisig

My 2007 E70 must still be on the old version then as I don't have the Google MyInfo feature on my car.

I'm reviving this thread to handle the OT discussion I started in the Thread about Battery Issues.

Funf Dreisig

I think it is pretty clear from the press release posted by AlexK that BMW switched BMW Assist to GSM in 2008 on all models except the X3.

"Utilizing newly introduced hardware operating on the AT&T Mobility GSM network, this unique service identifies the current location and destination of the vehicle automatically and then displays the local results with details of address, phone number and distance.
...
BMW began offering "MyInfo" with the introduction of the X6 back in April, now extended to all other 2009 BMWs except for X3."

Now that press release does not explicitly say that the voice communications part of BMW Assist use GSM. But my physical experiment, contacting BMW Assist in an area of known strong GSM signal and essentially non-existent CDMA signal makes me believe the whole thing is GSM now.

Funf Dreisig

Convinces me.

A bit of bad news, since I plan to use my X5 traveling the West this Summer, and that's the area where GSM has poor coverage, compared to CDMA (Montana, Idaho, Nevada, etc.)

From the maps I've gotten, it appears GSM is better than CDMA in a few, select areas (such as Northern Wisconsin/UP), about the same from the Missouri river East, and quite lacking in areas like South Dakota. Although in those areas of poor coverage, they do seem to concentrate on the Interstates.

Makes me glad I've got a Verizon phone as a backup...