Does anyone have the hands free cell phone option on their Gen 3? Wondering how good of a unit this is and does the truck have a second antenna for it?

 

Wanted to get it 4 my rig but no luck,you need to have a "bluetooth" equipped phone and verizon does not offer this capability.As I understand it, your phone can be placed anywhere in the truck and this "bluetooth" sends signals to the hands free option,in the rear view mirror I think,with no need for an external antenna.

 

I'm going to contact my provider, Cingular Wireless. They offer Bluetooth technology phones, but I'm not sure this is compatible with the GMS systems they are putting in across the country. I just upgraded to a new GMS phone and plan two months ago. IF, the truck does not have an external antenna and IF a bluetooth phone is compatible with GMS, I may have to make another addition to my truck, assuming it hasn't gone D1 this morning.

Lots of IF's involved here.

 

Cingular does offer a Bluetooth capable phone which is GMS. Can't seem to find my salesman this morning, probably hiding in hopes my truck will go D1 soon so I'll quit changing stuff around!

 

Hey Guys, one of the things that your phone company is not telling you is that GSM phones (not GMS) are a global standard. If you buy a phone without activation, all you have to do take the "smart card" out of your phone and plug it into the new Bluetooth phone. I did the card swap with a phone I bought overseas (its cheaper there, be careful though, there are some differences I will not go into). The smart card has all of the information about your number and service settings.

The free phone I put in the trash and my overseas phone worked great. All standard calling features work immediately. When you turn on the phone for the first time it will send the model number to the phone company and that sets the options.

If you are remotely technical and want to use the internet browsing on the phone, then you have to call in to the phone company. They will walk you through the setting to connect to the internet.

I too was thinking of this feature on my new truck order. Tell me how you like it!

 

FWIW,

Bluetooth is a standard. Any bluetooth phone will work with the handsfree option. Not just GSM phones. Bluetooth does seem somewhat rare in phones, with most being GSM phones.

There is no extra antenna for the phone. All the cell/radio stuff is still in the phone. Only the audio is sent over bluetooth. So this won't improve your cellular reception.

You can swap the GSM SIM/smartcard from phone to phone. But it is possible for a vendor to lock the phone they sell you to their service.

Also GSM coverage isn't as good as CDMA (Verizon) or Cingular/AT&T's older TDMA setups.

It's a neat option. I wish there were more bluetooth phones. FWIW, you can add this on after the fact not only from Mopar, but also from other vendors. Motorola for example makes a universal bluetooth hands free kit.

 

GSM, I stand corrected!

Two things have transpired since my last post. First of all, the option is currently not available. Next thing, my truck went D1 status this morning so it's locked in and a moot point on my order.

 

You can alway get a bluetooth enabled phone and a bluetooth headset. Several friends have this and it works great.

MikeyB