PLUS traffic is broken

[gatorguy]

I realize this may be a dumb suggestion. Have you tried resetting your log-in and password for Plus services?

 

[Germerican]

I realize this may be a dumb suggestion. Have you tried resetting your log-in and password for Plus services?

Not a dumb suggestion at all. I haven't tried that yet. I'll give it a shot.

 

[InfojunkE]

I've reinstalled the application, reformated my tomtom and reinstalled everything, and I've reset my log in information a few times, still hasn't fixed my issue,

 

[Germerican]

I've reinstalled the application, reformated my tomtom and reinstalled everything, and I've reset my log in information a few times, still hasn't fixed my issue,

I got excited for a second there, thinking that resetting the log in information might actually help. I guess not. What's strange is that it appears to be affecting only a couple of people.

 

[InfojunkE]

Well hopefully it's not just me and you The tomtom rep said that it has been reported by others but not documented as of yet. Maybe I should just make the leap to the 740, but I'm stubborn

 

[Germerican]

Well hopefully it's not just me and you The tomtom rep said that it has been reported by others but not documented as of yet. Maybe I should just make the leap to the 740, but I'm stubborn

Same here. I hate the fact that the rep I spoke to just tried to blame it on my phone and didn't even listen to what I told him. When he heard that I'm using an unsupported phone the case was closed for him even though I told him about this discussion and the fact that other people are affected and that just drove me up the wall.

Nothing has changed on my end, with the only exception being T-Mobiles move to cut data services for some users but as far as I know that shouldn't affect me.

 

[InfojunkE]

Nothing has changed on my end, with the only exception being T-Mobiles move to cut data services for some users but as far as I know that shouldn't affect me.

*ponder* Interesting thought, I have a theory, I actually use T-Mobile as well, but I pay for unlimited data usage so that shouldn't be the issue, however I am going to try something once, I notice that my Black Berry uses a different APN than what I had set up on my Tomtom (wap.voicestream.com vs something else) I'm going to try switching my APN on my tomtom to the one my blackberry is set up on, and see if anything is different. I'll post my results.

 

[Germerican]

*ponder* Interesting thought, I have a theory, I actually use T-Mobile as well, but I pay for unlimited data usage so that shouldn't be the issue, however I am going to try something once, I notice that my Black Berry uses a different APN than what I had set up on my Tomtom (wap.voicestream.com vs something else) I'm going to try switching my APN on my tomtom to the one my blackberry is set up on, and see if anything is different. I'll post my results.

I have always used wap.voicestream.com. Nothing else has ever worked for me. I have the unlimited blackberry add-on (unlimited e-mail and data). Do you have a t-mobile branded blackberry.

 

[InfojunkE]

Indeed, it's the blackberry 8900

 

[mvl]

I should be getting a Tomtom officially compatible AT&T Razr2 V9 in the mail this afternoon.

At this point Tomtom should have no excuse blaming it on the phone. Another data point, this issue also shows up in Operate My GO, which also eliminates the phone as the culprit.

 

[InfojunkE]

I
At this point Tomtom should have no excuse blaming it on the phone. Another data point, this issue also shows up in Operate My GO, which also eliminates the phone as the culprit.

I didn't even think of that. I know the information shows up properly on the route planner from route.tomtom.com, but you're right now that I think of it it's doing the same thing when I do the "Operate My Go" thing through tomtom home. Darn I was hoping i was onto something there

Oh well, just because I'm a geek and I fix stuff for a living, I'm still going to try my experiment

Thanks for your 2 cents MVL

 

[mikealder]

Can you chaps experiancing issues with the Traffic service try using the weather service which isn't subscription based, if this works and supplies data to your device from the phone then you can discount issues with the phone service provider.

If weather doesn't work along with Traffic then the issue is most probably with the phone service provider, the TomTom servers require full GPRS capability if all your account has access to is the WAP service it won't work, in this instance contact your phone service provider and request that GPRS access is enabled or choose a different service if the one you are using can no longer provide this - WAP simply ain't going to work irrespective of what T-Mobile or anyone else might tell you.

If you can get the weather via the phone then the GPRS connection is working which points to either a server issue at TomTom relating to Traffic or an account activation issue, eitherway this needs to be resolved by TomTom as you have proved the data connection is working - Mike

 

[InfojunkE]

I've been able to download new color scheme's, use weather, and update gas prices all via the same connection, so it doesn't appear to be connection/T-mobile related at all. The thing I found remotely odd is I seem to remember an application (navcore) update being rolled out shortly before they push out a new map, but that doesn't seem to be the case this time. I really think it's on TomTom's side, and the rep I spoke with this morning seems to have backed that up. I wish they wouldn't drag their feet on this though.

 

[Germerican]

I can access the weather, download schemes, etc. as well. I think I might try and give 'em another call tonight.

 

[mikealder]

When you call make sure you explain that the phones data connection and the device are all communicating correctly for the other "over the air" services therefore the issue is firmly down to TomTom or your account, eitherway only TomTom can resolve this issue its nothing to do with the phone service provider - Mike

 

[Germerican]

I didn't get to call tonight before the service center closed but something happened on my way home from work. I did get an accident notification on a side road. The notification on the right sidebar included an icon, something I didn't see before. The delay was shown to be 1 minute. As a matter of fact, when I look at all the traffic notifications in my area through the "browse map" option, all I see is side road incidents. Nothing on the highways.

 

[mvl]

I never lost incidents, and still show incidents on highways. Tomtom always counts an incident as a 1 minute delay. What I lost was highway flow, where it shows the colored roads and length of a delay for the road.

I got my cell phone finally, razr2 v9 paired perfectly. And I'm still getting the same situation as described above.

Looking at PLUS traffic on "Operate my GO", it appears that there's lots of flow info in NYC. It doesn't seem to match routes.tomtom.com, so perhaps it's city specific. What cities are you in?

Routes.tomtom.com continues to show the delays where I'm expecting them to be during rush hour in Boston, so I still trust it. The flow I saw a week ago on routes.tomtom.com doesn't match PLUS in NYC, so perhaps all the PLUS flow in NYC is erroneous too.

 

[mikealder]

In the UK every version of Navcore 7 gave us a one minute delay, only when Navcore 8 was released did this actually work correctly, I wonder if you have the same issues in the USA - Mike

 

[mvl]

I went through the top 10 major metro areas in the US. Here is what I'm finding regarding flow info:

new york, ny - broken, no interstates show flow, some parkway and sidestreet flow showing
los angeles - can't test, too early to for traffic yet
chicago, il - broken, no highways show flow data, some sidestreet flow showing
dallas, tx - broken, no highways show flow data
philadelphia, pa - brokwn, no highways show flow, some sidestreet flow showing
houston, tx - can't test, too early to for traffic yet
miami, fl - broken, no highways show flow data
atlanta, ga - broken, no highways show flow, some sidestreet flow showing
washington, dc - broken, no highways show flow, some sidestreet flow showing
boston, ma - broken, no highways show flow data

Here's what I think is happenning..

First some background, Tomtom has 3 known traffic input feeds:
1) Inrix - provides flow and incident data, flow used to be limited to interstates, but they expanded a month or two ago to main sidestreets. Prior to this bug, this expanded flow never made it into PLUS devices
2) Trafficcast - also provides flow and incident data. Added to Inrix on the 740 LIVE traffic only, and on routes.tomtom.com. Has provided highway and sidestreet flow since the US 740 launch in April, but doesn't catch as many incidents as Inrix. My suspicion is that trafficcast has more coverage than Inrix, but less fleets providing probe info.
3) Customer probes - 740 and tomtomwork devices transmit their speeds back to Tomtom. 740 LIVE traffic users had this info available to them, uncertain whether PLUS had this info

4) Cell phone probes - This fourth probe type is unavailable in the US. It is where a cell phone company tells Tomtom how fast its phone owners are moving down streets (even when not on a call). This is the most detailed and most accurate traffic info available, with coverage on main roads and many sidestreets. It is available as Tomtom HD traffic in Europe. The only public availability of this data in the US is on google maps, but it doesn't offer turn-by-turn.

So I think one of two things happened:
1) In the past, PLUS only had Inrix feeds. I never saw sidestreet info anywhere in Boston, or anywhere else. It's possible that Tomtom upgraded to include Customer Probes, or upgraded to include the expanded sideroad Inrix, but in the process messed it up. They turned on the sideroad flow (as evident in many cities), but shut down the highway flow by accident. Inrix incidents have always shown, and continue to show during this outage.
2) Perhaps Tomtom shut down Inrix in preparation for HD traffic, terminating their flow contract while keeping the incident contract. There was a rant by the Inrix CEO whining about trafficcast and cell phone probes here, which could be justified if they were terminated by a leading traffic vendor like Tomtom. Also Tomtom said it is in discussions for US HD traffic on their last financial call, though providing no further specifics. Google uses Verizon phones for its cell traffic data plus any GPS-enabled phones running Google maps. Since Google uses Teleatlas maps, and Verizon is 45% owned by Vodafone (who runs HD traffic in Europe), it's quite possible that the US Tomtom HD Traffic "discussions" involve Google/Verizon/Tomtom.

So Tomtom could have screwed up (first scenario), or could be launching something new (second scenario).

Bottom line is that us PLUS subscribers haven't gotten what we paid for in over a week.

 

[gatorguy]

I'd be pretty surprised if Inrix would agree to continue supplying incident data to a traffic flow competitor, but perhaps they're desperate? Can't completely rule it out. But if TT was rolling out their NA version of HD traffic, it doesn't explain why some parts of Plus traffic would be shut off while others remain active. Also no indications whatsoever of any current beta testing of a new traffic service from TomTom. I would think it would be an absolute necessity before offering it to the general public. For me it's much more likely that TT has unintentionally broken Plus traffic, or the remote possibility that some contract terms or payment agreement might have been violated and the traffic provider has stopped supplying data until TT is back in compliance.