On: Toyota owners have to pay $8/month to keep using their key fob for remote start

[feanaro]

> Won’t be long before they have 5G chips in and that isn’t your choice anymore. Kindles have done that since 3G

How do these things work? Do they have a contract with a phone service operator in each country in the world for unlimited data, or what?

[ravel-bar-foo → feanaro]

The device company usually has a bulk data contract with a large telecom. It isn't unusual for IoT device companies to end up as minor telecom providers themselves, buying bandwidth in bulk and reselling it to consumers.