1. A method of directly sending data from a central facility to a vehicle, comprising the steps of: (a) transmitting a vehicle identifier to a status server from a central facility located apart from the status server; (b) obtaining at the central facility one or more vehicle status variables corresponding to the transmitted identity of the vehicle from the status server, wherein the vehicle status variables indicate whether a radio access technology (RAT) of a vehicle telematics unit has changed from one RAT to another, different RAT and (c) initiating a direct transmission of packet data from the central facility to the vehicle based on the content of the obtained vehicle status variables.