For those of us who have already been reading seemingly endless reports and speculation about the proposed merging of operations of two major U.S. cellular providers, it was hard not to see Audi's apparently-only-ill-timed release as that.
Audi gave the official nod to T-Mobile as its official U.S. service provider for its Audi Connect navigation and infotainment system—the day after it was announced that cellular provider AT&T had offered to buy T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion.
The automaker says that it chose T-Mobile for its reliable network, leadership in telematics, and strong record for customer satisfaction. Of course, that latter assurance now...well...needs some new assurance.
Last month, Audi revealed that the Internet connection the A8 gets uses that new LTE data connectivity standard, which allows higher data-transfer speeds of up to 100 Mbits per second—more than six times faster than standard 3G. The speed could in theory be used to stream video to the vehicle.
