(Update February 2022: Instructions below only work on Bullseye or newer Raspberry Pi OS (old backports workaround has been removed)
(Update October 2023: With the rlease of Bookworm, NetworkManager is now the default way of configuring networking on Raspberry Pi.
1.) Install NetworkManager (Not needed for Bullseye and later)
sudo apt install network-manager
2.) Configure NetworkManager for any wifi connections
(use menu system to specify wifi network SSID and password)
sudo nmtui
3.) Install ModemManager (may already be installed from step 1)
sudo apt install modemmanager
4.) Create a NetworkManager connection for the modem
(Verizon static IP example)
sudo nmcli con add type gsm ifname '*' con-name 'verizonstatic' apn 'we01.vzwstatic' connection.autoconnect yes
(Verizon dynamic IP example)
sudo nmcli con add type gsm ifname '*' con-name 'verizon' apn 'vzwinternet' connection.autoconnect yes
5.) Disable dhcpcd.service
sudo systemctl disable dhcpcd
6.) Disable networking.service
sudo systemctl disable networking
- Enable NetworkManager
sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager
Reboot and see if wwan0 autoconnects
Use 'nmcli con status' to check connections