Yes. Your SpotOn Fence will need to be cellular enabled in order to send the location of your dog to your smartphone so you can track them.
While creating fences and containing your dog only uses GPS, which is available anywhere on Earth and is free, GPS cannot send messages from your collar to your phone. You need cellular to do that.
If your phone and collar are near each other, they can use Bluetooth so you can manage settings, static correction and load fences. Bluetooth only works at about 50 feet.
For long distance communication, your SpotOn collar needs a cellular subscription. This enables features such as seeing your dog’s location at anytime on the SpotOn App, receiving escape notifications, and tracking your dog to their location should they escape. For this to work, both the SpotOn collar and your phone have to have cellular service.
To enable your SpotOn collar with cellular, you purchase a subscription through us. You can choose either Verizon or AT&T, whichever service works best in your area. Canadian customers must choose AT&T which uses Bell Towers.
This is billed by SpotOn and is not part of your smartphone cellular plan. In addition, it does not matter which carrier you use for your own phone. As long as both your phone and the SpotOn collar are cellular enabled they can communicate with one another. Just like you can call your friend who has Verizon service even though you have T-Mobile.
We offer monthly, annual, and bi-annual subscription. If you opt in to the annual or bi-annual subscriptions, you will receive a 90-day free trial so you can decide if it works for you. Plans start at $5.95 a month.