Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission.Learn more.
The Essential Phone will work on all four major U.S. carriers, for the most part (Update: AT&T response)
Jul 17, 2025
Update (5/31):AT&T has providedAndroid Authoritywith an official comment on the Essential Phone:
Original post (5/30):Earlier today, Android creator Andy Rubin officially marked his return to the smartphone scene with theEssential Phone, which features a unique take on a big screen and powerful internals. As for whether the phone plays nice with all four major U.S. carriers, Essential promises that it does, but there seem to be some caveats with such a statement.
Starting with Verizon, a company spokesperson said that while the Essential phone will work on the network, no promises were made about the experience one might have to get the phone to work. The spokesperson did not say whether Big Red will carry the Essential phone in any capacity.
T-Mobile issued a more optimistic comment to the outlet, but it sounds as if the carrier will not directly offer the Essential Phone to customers.
Sprint also confirmed the Essential phone will work on its network. Similarly to T-Mobile, however, we will have to wait a bit to hear which of Sprint’s network features the phone will support.
Finally, AT&T has yet to issue a comment on the matter. Because T-Mobile and AT&T live on similar network bands, we can assume the Essential Phone will work on the latter. We’ve reached out to AT&T for comment.
All in all, it appears as if the Essential Phone will be one of those rare devices that will work on all four major U.S. carriers. The question now becomes how much of a network’s features will the Essential Phone support. In other words, features like HD voice and Wi-Fi calling might not work across the board, but we will have to wait and see whether that is truly the case.
Thank you for being part of our community. Read ourComment Policybefore posting.
