TomTom Traffic (GPRS) vs. TMC

TJW2007 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 09, 2007 Posts: 15

Anybody know which is best out of these two - or is there no real difference at all!? I've heard that the TomTom data system is much more accurate, but then I've read on other forums that there's no real difference - anybody had experience of both?

Thanks

mikealder · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:50 pm Post subject:

Both methods supply data from the same provider so there is no real difference in terms of content, the RDS-TMC is regional though so you only get traffic information within a certain distance of your present position where as the GPRS connection gives you full country coverage.
GPRS depends upon your mobile phone which will work considerably better in the UK than the RDS-TMC which is very problematic to get working reliably in this country, so much so TomTom appear to have stopped selling the RDS-TMC unit in the UK - Mike

dodge101 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 05, 2007 Posts: 3

Hi,

Does anyone know how much bandwidth the GPRS method uses on an "average journey"? (Perhaps, "how much does your system use" would be a better question.)

It seems I'm faced with a choice of:

Obviously, Traffic would be worth it if it only uses up a few kb per journey, but not so much if it's 5 Mb per journey. (I have to pay Vodafone rates).

dodge101 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 05, 2007 Posts: 3

adam45 · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 30, 2007 Posts: 5

Sorry if this has been mentioned earlier, but I have never seen anyone come clean about this:

TomTom traffic is worse than useless (I've only used the GPRS version, but if the RDS version uses the same data then it will also be worse than useless).

I have been using TomTom traffic for around 6 months now, mainly between Bristol and Central London and I have never known it's traffic information to be correct. Never. Not once.

268 minute delays turn out to be non-existant.
0 delays turn out to be long delays (due to accidents several hours ago).

Honestly, it has never been right.

Why this isn't common knowledge I cannot fathom. There are threads here with 100s of posts about people trying to perfect their aerial positions. What's the point? The information is worthless.

As I understand it, TomTom do NOT subscribe to the live trafficmaster network of actual traffic data. This traffic master data - in my experience - sometimes misses stuff, but when it reports a problem there is always a problem. I cannot imagine where TomTom get their hugely innacurate data from, but it feels random (monkeys and typewriters?)

mikealder · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 3:31 pm Post subject:

Welcome to the forum Adam, TomTom get their information from iTIS Holdings, via GPRS you get full country information via RDS you get regional information, as you travel the device picks up new radio transmitters which are broadcasting information relative to the local area. The regional information will cover around 100 miles North and South of your current position from my experiences with it.

The issue of reception has been a major issue for quite a few of us who have been messing around connecting external aerials in an attempt to improve reception - the new replacement receiver has now made this obsolete - the new issue is/ will be quality of data which is better than it was but there is still room for improvement - if you want to post in This thread your views/ concerns will be picked up by iTIS Holdings at some point as they started the thread - Mike

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