TomTom Traffic

Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
5,937
Location
Downey, California
TomTom Model(s)
GO 910, ONE V2, GO 920 GO 730 & iPad TT App
Any member use TomTom Traffic?
It's free for the US. I haven't played with it yet.
Anybody have an idea(guess) how a phone company charges?
 
Where are you seeing that Traffic is free for the US? Whether I use my TomTom itself or go through the Home application, it all expects me to pay a subscription free after a short trial period. The Traffic Alert feature of TomTom Home actually states that Traffic isn't available in my country yet. I am guessing that is true also for regular TomTom Traffic, which is why I haven't even felt the least interest in starting the trial period and especially signing up and paying for a subscription to the feature.
 
tomtom supported emailed me.

Dear Pedro,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your GO 910 and the traffic options. We're glad to help.

Actually, traffic is currently available in the United States and is free until the end of 2006. You can access the option by:

-selecting change preferences
-select edit PLUS account
-enter your user name and password (these will be what you created when you created an account at www.TomTom.com)
-follow the directions from there

Make sure that your phone and provider are compatible with your TomTom GO 910 unit and that it has Bluetooth capabilities.

Best Regards,

Tom Tom Support Agent


I'm not sure if this is only with the x10s.
 
It must just be for the X10's even though my GO700 is a very recent purchase. Oh, well. I can only use the Home Traffic feature anyway (if it's ever available in the US), because I don't have a bluetooth phone and not really feeling the need to get one any time soon.

I wonder why the traffic feature for Home isn't available in the US, but the Plus Traffic feature is.
 
Here's another response from tomtom:

Dear Pedro,

Unfortunately, computer Bluetooth capabilities are not compatible with TomTom units. It must be a cell phone Bluetooth option to gain the traffic and weather at this point. However, this may change with the release of the RDS-TMC receiver, which we hope will be released in the 4th quarter of 2006. (please note that the receiver is not yet available in the States)


Looks like there might be a firmwire where you can download traffic info through your home computer instead of wasting time and money through your phone.
 
This is already an advertised feature of TomTom Home (there's a button on the TomTom Home screen, bottom left-hand corner). You are supposed to be able to download traffic info (I don't see a mention of weather) via the home program when you configure a route on your TomTom via the Home interface. However, when I select the traffic option in TomTom Home, it says that it is not available for my country and asks if I want to change countries.

Seems kinda weird to me since the internet is the internet, whether you're in Europe or US. TomTom must not have a US Traffic Report source at this time, but even that doesn't make sense because you can get traffic reports via bluetooth phone connection and TomTom Plus, so why can't you get it through the internet and TomTom Home?

As for RDS traffic reports, that's already available in the USA (through other hardware, headunits, radar detectors, etc., but TomTom apparently hasn't released the hardware for it yet.

Definitely a confusing situation for US customers regarding the traffic features of the TomTom GO line.
 
Chris,
I see the icon your refering to. Its a globe that says login, which I did and it gave me a grocery list of POI (Speed Cameras for the Europe) to download.
When I select Traffic, using home, it just stays highlighted and does nothing.
 
Actually, that's too much lower left hand corner! The Traffic option I'm referring to is in the Option list, scroll all the way to the bottom, and the option is "Traffic Alerts". It's actually not an icon -- sorry about misleading everyone like that! ;)

Then it goes to a screen that is likely on the TomTom.com website, explains the function in one section, and then in the second section it says:

"We?re sorry but Traffic Alerts are not available in your country yet.

To change the country, please log in and update your TomTom account details on www.tomtom.com. Then, for the changes to take effect, log in again."

Hmph. I'm feeling left out. I guess there isn't as much traffic in the USA as there is in Europe, eh? :D
 
Don't know. I've read in other forums that it's very compressed. I'm with Cingular and you have to be on a media plan for it to even work.
 
A Media Plan?
I mention to tomtom support that the majority of customers can't even connect their phone to their GO units because it's not compatible. How are customers suppose to use tomtom's full service if we are only limited with boundaries? I suggested them to use Home to download traffic info instead of a phone.
 
The Cingular Media packages give you a set number of text messages and a kb limit on internet usage. The traffic is updated using a GPRS connection and wouldn't work for me until I activated a media package.

I've had no problems connecting my 910 to my Moto V3. The problem with downloading traffic using HOME is that you will not get updates in route.
 
I also have Cingular. I went to their site, because I don't have their media package or bundle as they call it. Their site states you can you their MEdia NEt, pay as you go or get the bundle. It's confusing...
 
It would not work for me with Cingular pay as you go. It would error out during the initial setup for PLUS services. It may have to do with how TomTom is trying to access their server.
 
I have Nextel and although I recently upgraded phones I didn't get one with bluetooth because there wasn't one available under $300 and that's just not worth it for me. Not to mention I've read somewhere that the TomTom cannot connect to Plus via Nextel's (Motorola) hardware or system. It just seemed like a huge headache to me just for traffic. I'll never download maps, POIs, or voices from TomTom (where you're paying not only for mobile service but also paying TomTom for the item you're downloading).

Getting traffic updates via home would be perfect for me because I would just plan my route before I left home, get the traffic info I can expect, etc. Also, there are a LOT better wireless plans (broadband wi-fi) for notebook computers than for phones. It would be much quicker and cheaper to get the traffic info via the internet and then sync it over to the TomTom via Home.
 
Getting traffic updates via home would be perfect. Also, there are a LOT better wireless plans (broadband wi-fi) for notebook computers than for phones. It would be much quicker and cheaper to get the traffic info via the internet and then sync it over to the TomTom via Home.
tomtom, are you listening? :D
 
I have a Motorola E815 with Bluetooth and can link to my TT700 for phone calls, but it deosn't appear to work with any other data services. It's looking for a login and I'm not sure how the phone logs onto the Verizon Wireless network. I did get the data plan when I got the phone, and can get onto the internet with it. I just need that damn login information.
 
I have a Motorola E815 with Bluetooth and can link to my TT700 for phone calls, but it deosn't appear to work with any other data services. It's looking for a login and I'm not sure how the phone logs onto the Verizon Wireless network. I did get the data plan when I got the phone, and can get onto the internet with it. I just need that damn login information.

Try using your userid and password you created for tomtom.com. The traffic worked on my 910 for a month using the factory settings. After it expired, I entered my tomtom.com id and password.
 
I have Nextel and although I recently upgraded phones I didn't get one with bluetooth because there wasn't one available under $300 and that's just not worth it for me. Not to mention I've read somewhere that the TomTom cannot connect to Plus via Nextel's (Motorola) hardware or system. It just seemed like a huge headache to me just for traffic. I'll never download maps, POIs, or voices from TomTom (where you're paying not only for mobile service but also paying TomTom for the item you're downloading).

Getting traffic updates via home would be perfect for me because I would just plan my route before I left home, get the traffic info I can expect, etc. Also, there are a LOT better wireless plans (broadband wi-fi) for notebook computers than for phones. It would be much quicker and cheaper to get the traffic info via the internet and then sync it over to the TomTom via Home.

I have been getting and using TomTom traffic through TomTom home (when connected with the 910) since day one. I update traffic just before leaving on a trip, but since I don't have one of the rare blue tooth devices that handle data with TomTom, I cannot get updates on the road.

I am in the SF bay area, and TomTom traffic updates pick up more situations then the every 10 minute radio traffic reposts have time to cover, so it has been useful to a point (no updates on the road...).

Traffic alerts are apparenly not part of the package in the US - it says so in the Plus services section on the website.

Like everyone else, I am very unhappy with the continued delay in rolling out the receiver in the US. They advertised it as a feature back in March and here we are - kind of like Microsoft "phantomware" which is meant to keep you from buying a competitve product where it really exists.

I have already had two aquaintances choose to buy Garmin units because I have told them of exactly the above situation. They need traffic updates on the road, so they otherwise would have purchased TomTom.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Latest resources

Forum statistics

Threads
28,820
Messages
194,341
Members
67,754
Latest member
CSXLocomotive

Latest Threads

Back
Top