| > What makes a separate cellular modem better than an internal cellular modem? The US 3G shutdown required some rather expensive and unexpected upgrades. Vendors signed long-term contracts with 3G providers, and then "someone" was on the hook, to replace something, when the 3G vendors terminated their contracts prematurely. The deeper the modem was integrated into a product, the harder it was to change. The shallower the modem was integrated, the easier it was to change. For example: One of my cars just lost its internet connectivity, and the automaker never offered any way to fix it. (I didn't care, I only used Android Auto in that car.) My employer (IOT) sent out free chips to our customers. They had to arrange someone to go do a site visit and swap a chip while on a phone call with us. We're small and early enough that it wasn't a big deal. My solar panel vendor wanted me to $pend big buck$ on a new smart meter and refused to honor their warranty. I told them to run a cable to the ethernet port in my meter. |
The only feature I need to control remotely in my car is preheating during winter—I wonder how they could achieve that without using cellular connectivity as paying a subscription for such a service would make it less attractive to me.