ua549

The title says it all. Will Mbrace work in non-Verizon areas? If not, can the provider be switched to a GSM/LTE network provider? That might be worth it even in the US in areas where Verizon coverage is almost nonexistent.

BeachBunny

Considering Mbrace is actually owned/run by Verizon, nope.

I've not had the chance to tear apart a W213 yet, but on the W212, it's running CDMA. As you're probably aware, CDMA's pretty much dead... Except for Verizon in the USA. Even Canada completely dumped CDMA.

Now, that said, if you can somehow get your car to a non-US dealership and put the local firmware on your car's COMAND system, the car will use your phone's Bluetooth connection for data, no extra subscriptions required.

ua549

If the COMMAND system is flashed with the Canadian firmware, are any features lost? I'm thinking about navigation system functions such as local traffic and weather alerts, points of interest destination downloads. Is there a Canadian app that replaces Mercedes Me that talks directly from phone to car without going through Verizon?

For me the real issues are the willingness of a Canadian dealer to either flash the COMMAND firmware or send it to a Florida dealer for flashing and whether this void the US warranty.

BeachBunny

I wish I had answers for you on that.

I was planning on modifying my W212, but it's been so unreliable that I haven't ever had it in my possession long enough to modify it. I also only have the documentation for the W212, not W213.

ua549

I'll have to question my local dealer's service manager. I doubt if I'll get a straight answer though.

listerone

Don't know about "outside North America" but the one time I really needed it (airbag deployed...don't ask) it worked in the middle of nowhere on a highway about 150 miles north of Montreal.They knew exactly where to send the ambulance (as advertised).

BeachBunny

How long ago was this? Canadian carriers started shutting down CDMA (what Verizon/mBrace use) back in 2014 and have slowly been whittling it away one tower at a time, re-farming the radio spectrum for either HSPA+ or LTE.

I know when I was in southern Ontario late last year there was NO SERVICE for CDMA anywhere I went. ALL of the Canadian carriers have promised that any/all support for CDMA will be completely gone by Jan 1 2017, if it isn't already.

Actually... reading through Verizon literature, it looks like Verizon's dumping CDMA in 2019...well before the "Complimentary 5 year" subscription expires for mBrace. I wonder how Verizon plans on addressing this. ie: will they be replacing the modems in the cars at THEIR expense will the end users be responsible for this? Is it even possible to change out the modem on these cars? I've dropped Verizon an e-mail on this and am curious to see their response, if any.

ua549

Most modems can work with CDMA, GSM and LTE It is a matter of enabling the protocol and frequency to use in firmware. That can be done via a flash update. Browse a few threads over at forums.xda-developers.com. Verizon and/or Mercedes can easily update their firmware to enable GSM and LTE if it is in the chip. Most cellular modem chips today can use any protocol when enabled.

Corey140

The E Class has LTE so I wonder if it would work now.