Enabling mobile data for iSmart to work?

[InnocentSmith]

Looks like MG is FINALLY releasing iSmart locally in South America. I mean, the app has been available for several months, but now the local MG website is advertising that iSmart is officially available for the MG4.

MG customer service directly told me I need to either use the SIM card they provide when I bought the car (I was not offered that when I bought it though), or use my own. Data cost is free only for the first month, then I need to pay for a data plan for it to work. This is odd, since I believe there's only an eSIM onboard, correct? Also I know there's already at least a voice connection since I see the signal bars in the UI, and I can use the emergency call feature (yes, I did try it and it called my local police number, which I could not hang up afterwards!)

So now it seems I'm missing only data connection. I tried binding the iSmart app with the car, and says "Service is unavailable" Is there any way I can dig into the service menus to enable data connection? I can make the car connect to my phone's wifi hotspot, but that still will not let iSmart bind to the app either. And I know connection works since I can get weather updates when connected to my phone's Wifi hostpot.

I'm calling several dealers locally, but they seem to be clueless so far as to what the actual procedure is. Either they haven't gotten the training yet, or I have yet to talk to the one person who knows what I'm talking about

I appreciate any advice and suggestions from your experiences in other parts of the world.

 

[Coulomb]

Binding the app to the car is ridiculously complex, it's like a rite of passage. Check videos, ones by Jeremy Pan are pretty good, if you can handle his accent.

 

[InnocentSmith]

Binding the app to the car is ridiculously complex, it's like a rite of passage. Check videos, ones by Jeremy Pan are pretty good, if you can handle his accent.

Binding does not work, while scanning the QR code it says "Service unavailable" That is why I suspect there's something on the car's configuration side that would enable iSmart to work. I'm assuming it might need dealer intervention, but perhaps there's a way I can dig into it myself, as I see some threads in here where some folks were able to get to the native Android menu for example. BTW I did try that, but I did not find any SIM card related or data connection related configs in the underlying Android system setup menus

I have some more info.

The iSmart login details in the car UI only show European country codes. And the app is built for LATAM countries, so when registering I have to use a LATAM country code. Alas, when trying to bind, of course something does not add up.

I downloaded the European market version of iSmart (by unofficial means of course), and created a new account using Spain as country code but my own email address, and then tried to bind the app. Success! The app was able to bind and find the car info, (VIN, model, etc), however... Nothing works in the app. No location, no car status, no actions are possible. All commands just show "Command failed"

So, there is definitely something that needs to be done on the car itself by the dealer, to make it able to be used as a LATAM market car for iSmart, even though they are publiclcy advertising that iSmart is available and fully functional.

Also, I was able to do this by being connected to a neighbours Wifi, there's no car data plan active either from what I can tell, so this is another point that surely needs dealer intervention.

 

[Coulomb]

I suspect that the European iSmart app will try to make contact with the MG servers via a European cellular network. That won't work in South America, I'm guessing .

 

[InnocentSmith]

Seems I found a fellow member here with the same issue TBOX Activation?