Rivian's cellular carrier?

[radiopaul65]

Does anyone know which carrier Rivian is using during the "free" period of cellular connectivity? I'm curious if it's T-Mobile, Verizon, or some other.

Thanks

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[electruck]

ATT

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Is there any manufacturer in the USA who doesn’t use AT&T? Verizon used to be common, but they dropped that line of business several years ago and it seems AT&T is really the only carrier left interested in vehicle services and IoT devices.

 

[RWerksman]

ATT

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?

 

[pc500]

Is there any manufacturer in the USA who doesn’t use AT&T? Verizon used to be common, but they dropped that line of business several years ago and it seems AT&T is really the only carrier left interested in vehicle services and IoT devices.

Verizon doesn't really play ball with bulk/economical data services for applications such as this. They also have very stringent requirements on how their service can be used by third parties (IE: as part of a product you sell). These are less cumbersome with AT&T, and even less with t-mobile. I mean, Rivian could get through them, but some small startup posting a large bond to ensure if they go bankrupt and their Verizon-powered blood pressure monitor stops working, that it doesn't give Verizon a bad name for disconnecting service?

Historical factors also saw lots of this business not favoring Verizon due to proprietary CDMA technology and almost the entire market of IOT solutions being built for the GSM standards of the rest of the world. While this is no longer a factor with LTE today; this past still haunts them.

T-mobile has some weird non-standard frequencies that are tough to support on a bottom barrel cheap cellular modem (IE: their 600 mhz LTE), although this is becoming less of an issue by the day as more and more modems support them. Rivian uses a fairly inexpensive LTE cat 4 modem. Coverage was also somewhat of a factor historically with t-mobile. T-mobile is starting to get very aggressive with IOT though.

AT&T has solid rural coverage on standard frequencies.

For whatever reason, when I tested the hotspot on a unit at the Venice showroom, the speedtest reported my IP as T-mobile (weird). I've been told they use AT&T.

You can see how easy AT&T makes cutting through the BS and getting sim cards:
https://marketplace.att.com/products/att-iot-dataplans-lte-m-us

 

[electruck]

AT&T has solid rural coverage on standard frequencies.

Dunno, when I go visit my family in rural VA and NC, I get no service whatsoever.

 

[NY_Rob]

Dunno, when I go visit my family in rural VA and NC, I get no service whatsoever.

So it must be AT&T then.... ?

 

[s12dxer]

I will say the roof mounted antenna works quite well. My wife has AT&T, and in many rural areas the truck still has a decent signal with the hotspot working along with tune-in or spotify, but her phone has no service.

 

[electruck]

I will say the roof mounted antenna works quite well. My wife has AT&T, and in many rural areas the truck still has a decent signal with the hotspot working along with tune-in or spotify, but her phone has no service.

I'm counting on this to at least get me through some dead spots I experience with my phone in town.

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

Historical factors also saw lots of this business not favoring Verizon due to proprietary CDMA technology and almost the entire market of IOT solutions being built for the GSM standards of the rest of the world. While this is no longer a factor with LTE today; this past still haunts them.

That doesn’t sound right. Verizon used to have a huge bulk vehicle business. GM used Verizon for Onstar for years. They switched to ATT when Verizon decided to drop that market. This was back when LTE wasn’t a “thing” and the best Verizon offered was CDMA/EVDO.

 

[pc500]

That doesn’t sound right. Verizon used to have a huge bulk vehicle business. GM used Verizon for Onstar for years. They switched to ATT when Verizon decided to drop that market. This was back when LTE wasn’t a “thing” and the best Verizon offered was CDMA/EVDO.

That's a factor and certainly there was support, but when operation of data services (not voice) was involved, especially with a product for a global marketplace (OnStar was usa only), they favored the technology that had global acceptance.

Certainly there are exceptions.

After all, in 2017 att had 33 million and Verizon 18 million iot connections.

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