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Car Forum / BMW Cars / April 2005Sprint Bluetooth Phones
Is there any new news regarding Sprint and BMW bluetooth phones. The T608 is nolonger available and neither Sprint or BMW seems to be working to get any of the new phones compatable. Both of them say it is the others fault. The new phones do work with and are fully compatable with the Acuras but not BMW. Does anybody know who makes the BMW bluetooth module? Perhaps they can be pursuaded to work a little closer with the other phone manufacturers to ensure full compatability... I always thought that BMW was a technology leader but in this case they are just following ... and are falling behind. Gary > I always thought that BMW was a technology > leader but in this case they are just following ... and are falling behind. No offense, but you might want to do a little more research. While there are BT phones that don't work with BMWs, many do work. Don't blame BMW for the lack of BT phones that your phone company supports. You can always ask other BMW owners to see if a certain phone works with BMWs. Also, there is bluetooth, and there is bluetooth. The problem with bluetooth is that it's a pile of "features", and whether or not something is "compatible" depends on what features are supported at both ends. Just because a phone supports "bluetooth", this doesn't necessarily mean much. In the case of BMW, a phone needs to support the bluetooth "handsfree profile" in order to pair/work. Note that the bluetooth "handsfree profile" is different from the bluetooth "headset profile". This is important because some bluetooth phones support the "headset profile" and not the "handsfree profile", and so they will not work with BMWs, which require the "handsfree profile". I've heard that the Sony/Ericsson P800/P900 phones don't work with BMWs for this reason. Also, phones need to support the bluetooth "OBEX profile" in order to transfer the phone book to the BMW. Not all phones support this. If a bluetooth phone supports the "handsfree profile", but not the "OBEX profile", then the phone may work for calls, but address book transfers will not work. I've heard that the LG PM-325 is one of these phones. If you look at the phones that do work, Motorola BT phones seem to be most compatible. The biggest exception is probably the Motorola V710, but that appears to be largely due to a certain cell phone company (not Sprint) allegedly "crippling" the BT functionality in the phone. Some V710 owners are now supposedly suing this company. Get the picture, yet? [ Also, just because a phone supports the necessary profiles, this doesn't necessarily mean that the phone will work with BMWs. In some cases, you may need a phone firmware upgrade. In other cases, it's possible that there may be an issue on the BMW side. ] There's a huge pile of BMW bluetooth information out there. Do your own research. Here are two links to get you started: http://www.x5world.com/html.php?file=bmw_bt_phones.htm http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/bluetooth/  SignatureDarryl Okahata darrylo@soco.agilent.com DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not constitute the support, opinion, or policy of Agilent Technologies, or of the little green men that have been following him all day. I agree with everything you said except that everyone keeps passing the buck... and there does not seem to be anyone working to fix this. BMW says that they only have tested some phones and they look to Sprint to fix any incompatabiity issues... Sprint says it is a phone manufacturer issue... The manufacturers say it is either a Sprint or BMW compatability issue. What is frustrating is that the folks at Honda/Acura ARE working with the manufacturers and the cellular companies to get their cars working with BT. Notice that the LG325 and the Palm Treo650 both now work with all of the Honda/Acura and Audi BT implementations. I have talked with the folks at Palm and they state that BMW does not have anyone actively participating in their testing programs... but again Honda/Acura does. Perhaps this is why they came out with the treo update to enable the 650 to work with their cars... Had I known this would still be an issue with BMW I would not have bought the car... Gary > Notice that the LG325 and the Palm Treo650 both now work with all of the > Honda/Acura and Audi BT implementations. I have talked with the folks at Well, that may be, but can you access the phone's phonebook from the Acura? I've heard that the bluetooth OBEX profile needs to be supported in order for this to occur, and the LG325 supposedly doesn't support that. If so, then this implies that you cannot access the phone's phonebook from the Acura, and any phonebook (accessible from the car, not the phone) that you use would have to be manually entered into the car (which means that the phonebook is attached to the car, and not the phone). Of course, you can always dial from the phone using the phone's phonebook, but it's very nice to be able to dial from the car using the phone's phonebook. BTW, both the LG325 and Treo 650 supposedly work with BMWs (software upgrades may be needed, though, IIRC) -- it's just that they have phonebook limitations of one type or another. See the web sites I mentioned for details. Hmmm. Just took at look at Acura's handsfreelink info. It doesn't appear as if you can access the phone's phonebook from the car. If so, then this seems to imply that, if Acura added this feature (to access the phone's phonebook from the car), Acura would have most (all?) of the problems that BMW's bluetooth implementation has. It seems that Acura appears to have fewer problems only because Acura uses fewer bluetooth features. On the other hand, Acura's bluetooth phone implementation seems to come standard with voice recognition, which seems to be a rare (?) option on BMWs, and may no longer be available (guessing from the difficulty of ordering the voice recognition module). SignatureDarryl Okahata darrylo@soco.agilent.com DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not constitute the support, opinion, or policy of Agilent Technologies, or of the little green men that have been following him all day.
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