Upgrading your Ather 450 to 4G LTE. All your questions answered
Hey folks,
We’ve got official communication from Vodafone India that they’re pulling the plug on 3G services in Chennai and Bengaluru by 27 August. Vodafone was supposed to sunset 3G coverage much later, but this has taken us by surprise. This announcement means that Ather 450s with Vodafone SIMs will default to 2G networks. We made a transition in our line to equip newly produced vehicles with a BSNL SIM, for a range of other reasons. These vehicles won’t be affected as BSNL will continue to operate 3G. (Which SIM does your vehicle have? Read below.)
The good news is we’re working on a 4G upgrade module that can be fit in existing Ather 450s on the road. Since it is a hardware upgrade, we expect it to take about 4-5 months including the time for development, testing, deployment on your Ather 450.
In this transition phase, the only option is to fallback to 2G networks, due to which some smart features might not be seamless.
Navigation experience will be slower
Onboard navigation is dependent on good connectivity speeds, and hence would be impacted due the temporary change to 2G services. Loading of the Maps screen, along with search-based functions would be slower. However, pushing location from your Ather App will work as expected. We’ve recently rolled out the ability to share a location to the App, from any other app on your phone, which should make the experience better.
We are working on improving some features so they work better with 2G services through an OTA update before the phase-out occurs. We’ll be releasing this OTA update (ver 4.2.2) shortly for all Ather 450s on road, with improvements under the hood to make the experience under 2G better.
Ride statistics and sync will work as expected
We’ve been testing the reliability of data sync and ride statistics on the App with 2G networks over the past few weeks, and there won’t be any impact on your experience here. You’ll continue to see real time charging status, get ride statistics after every ride, and remotely track the location of your scooter.
Your scooter will still get OTA updates
Any OTA updates rolled out during this time would take longer to download, but we expect that the experience would not be impacted as the OTA is downloaded automatically when it’s made available. Updates will get installed when your scooter is plugged in for the night. If an OTA is taking too long, you can reach out to our customer service team, so it can be installed manually.
Upgrade to a 4G module
We’ll be making a 4G module available as an upgrade for owners. Our team is exploring the most cost effective way to get you this upgrade. We will announce more details in due course. With the upgrade, your Ather 450 will have 4G LTE connectivity at par with the upcoming Ather 450X. With the upgrade, 4G LTE will ensure much faster connectivity speeds, significantly improved experience and reliability in all urban areas.
Update: While we’re working quickly on finding the best solution, our team is still exploring if swapping to BSNL SIMs temporarily is feasible and we’ll get back to you on this shortly.
Ather One Connect
We understand it’s not fair to pay for a sub-par experience during the transition phase and hence if you’ve already subscribed to an Ather One plan, you’ll get credits worth a portion of Connect plan’s value, prorated based on the number of days your vehicle would be using 2G during your plan. Also, whenever your Ather One renewal comes up next, you’ll get an upfront discount worth a portion of the Connect plan’s value, prorated based on the estimated number of days your vehicle would be using 2G until we make the 4G upgrade available to you. We are currently operationalizing this. We will share the exact discount amount and other details on this thread itself within 1 week.
For customers under lease, we’ll discuss with Autovert and get back to you when we have a solution.
Which SIM does my Ather 450 have?
- As a general rule, if the last 4 digits of your vehicle identification number (VIN) is less than or equal to 4182, your vehicle has been equipped with a Vodafone SIM and if that’s greater than or equal to 4183, your vehicle has been equipped with a BSNL SIM.
- Vehicles delivered from 15 August onwards, regardless of VIN, have been equipped with a BSNL SIM.