General Motors has announced pricing options for its 4G LTE high-speed connectivity offering that will make your car a Wi-Fi hot spot.
Owners of GM vehicles can pay $5 a day for 4G LTE, which will be available through GM's OnStar service with an AT&T connection, The Wall Street Journal reported.
With the standard option, drivers will get a $5 per day subscription that provides 250 megabytes of data for a 24-hour period, which allows for 13 hours of surfing the Web or streaming 6.5 hours of music.
The automaker may have a difficult marketing battle to persuade customers with smartphones and other connected devices that they need yet another Wi-Fi option.
"It's a bit of a trial and error to see what sticks with consumers," Thilo Koslowski, an analyst at Gartner Group who follows the connected car industry, told WSJ. "Companies will initially face a consumer reaction of 'I already have a data plan with my phone.' That means that the in-vehicle experience has to be better, faster and more robust. If that is not strong enough, prices will have to drop."
GM plans to roll out 4G connectivity for more than 30 models, starting with the 2015 Chevrolet Malibu this summer. 2015 versions of the Chevrolet Corvette, Impala, Malibu and Volt will follow with hot spot options. According to the automaker, the 4G connections will let owners connect seven devices.
GM owners who subscribe to OnStar, which costs $200 to $300 a year, also have the option to purchase 200 megabytes of data for $5 for a month, compared with $10 for a nonsubscriber, CNET reported.
For drivers who really have to stay connected, the largest option is a $150 payment for 10 gigabytes of data for one year. The $150 price is for OnStar subscribers, while nonsubscribers will have to shell out $200.
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