Verizon looks to bring connected car features to older vehicles with Hum, a $14.99/month service that offers roadside assistance, car diagnostics, more
Verizon's New Service Aims to Connect Older Cars, Keep Them Humming — After a brief delay, Verizon is ready with a service designed …
Context & Ripple Effects
Verizon is pushing beyond the phone bill into the car: weeks after its driver-focused Lyft app partnership, it is launching Hum, an OBD-plug-in service that sells roadside assistance and diagnostics to vehicles built before connectivity was standard. After a brief delay, the $14.99/month product gives the carrier a recurring line item aimed at the huge installed base of unconnected cars.
First-order effects
- Owners of older vehicles gain OnStar-style safety and diagnostics without buying a new car, paying Verizon monthly for hardware-plus-service.
- Verizon opens a subscription revenue stream that monetizes its network in a category — the car — where it previously had no consumer product.
Second-order effects
- AT&T answers within two weeks with the ZTE Mobley hotspot plugged into the same diagnostic port, turning the OBD-II socket into the carriers' beachhead for the aftermarket car.
- Whoever owns that port owns the upsell path — Verizon's own roadmap confirms it, layering geofencing and speed alerts onto Hum months later to deepen the lock-in.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the diagnostic port becomes contested retail real estate between carriers, with feature updates rather than price doing the differentiation.
- The Hum playbook — paid add-on first, broader access later — mirrors Verizon's later move making its $3 spam-protection add-on free to all subscribers, suggesting these services function as churn shields more than profit centers over time.
The trend: Carriers are extending subscription businesses into the aftermarket vehicle, using the diagnostic port to sell connectivity-driven services to cars that never shipped connected.