How to get TMC Traffic ?

[Apache]

Does anyone know how to turn on or add the TMC traffic option to a built in TomTom system ?
My moho is a Fiat Ducati based Autotrail 2016 model year . I assume the facility is there as a message flashes on the screen when you turn it on which says “TMC unavailable “ suggesting that it could be made available if money were to change hands .
Or is there a TMC receiver available and how would you connect it to the system ?

 

[HandyAndy]

DELETE...
Ignore me... built in system.. I can't read doh!

 

[HandyAndy]

what happens when you connect it to your phone... which you can allow it to use as a hotspot? this should give it internet access. I know my old model (not built in) can get traffic through the phone connection

 

[Richard n Ann]

I had a Tom Tom years ago that had a long wire aerial with a small box of electronics in it. It was an optional extra I bought. It picked up free traffic info that was broadcast along with classic FM. TMC rings a bell but probably obsolete now.

 

[ChrisL]

If it's built in, does it have a TMC or RDS option on the radio? If so try turning that on and see if it passes the messages to the TOM TOM.

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[Deneb]

TMC is not available in the UK on the built in Nav system on the factory radio. That's why you get the message, but there's nothing you can do to enable it. The nav software is a pared down as cheap as they could get it agreement between Fiat/Peugeot/Citroen and Tom Tom.

 

[Reallyretired]

My very old tomtom had tmc traffic. It needed an external antenna, just a bit of wire really, which picked up the tmc data from classic fm in the uk and other stations in Europe. It was free so probably now discontinued.

 

[coroner]

Tmc system is still live have it on my garmin camper 660 the aerial is pzrt of the 12 v power lead

 

[Deneb]

Tmc system is still live have it on my garmin camper 660 the aerial is pzrt of the 12 v power lead

It is, but that's because Garmin licensed provision of the service from one of the two commercial UK TMC service providers.

In most of Europe, TMC is a free to air public broadcast service. In the UK, radio and navigation equipment manufacturers have to pay a commercial provider (Teletrak or Trafficmaster) for the service. Garmin and Tom Tom both do that on many of their standalone satnavs, as do many car radio manufacturers. Sevel bought the radionav in the Ducato from Continental and made an agreement with Tom Tom to provide a basic version of their navigation software specifically designed for the unit. The unit has the functionality to receive TMC built in, but reception of the UK's non free to air implementation was not licensed, so you get the "Traffic reception not available message" in this country.
The Uconnect manual has a disclaimer to that effect in the instructions for TMC, although I think it's basically worded along the lines of "only in countries where available".
To the best of my knowledge there is no way around that with the Uconnect radio.

 

[Guigsy]

I helped deploy TMC in the UK nearly 20 years ago. It works on the back of an FM radio signal. It's got a pretty poor level of detail (I ended up coding the location nodes for a large chunk of the country). If it's still running, I'm kind of surprised because it's pretty clunky. There's only a handful of incident description types, so you can't really say how long delays are or how bad the surrounding roads are. If you've got a choice, I'd get traffic info via mobile data?

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[mitzimad]

I had a Tom Tom years ago that had a long wire aerial with a small box of electronics in it. It was an optional extra I bought. It picked up free traffic info that was broadcast along with classic FM. TMC rings a bell but probably obsolete now.

that probably explains why when you can get nothing else on your radio classic is always there

 

[Guigsy]

Wrong thread!!!