This is an interesting topic for full-time RVers. Some say, hey “you’re out camping why do you need internet?” the other is “I’m a full-timer and need it for work”. Truthfully it doesn’t matter about this debate, what matters is what your needs are.

I’m planning on being a full/part-timer and this requires me to be able to have access to reliable internet. I’ve been researching this for the past several months and it seems with each new video I find, it sways me in another direction, but overall most say you need redundancy and don’t rely just on your phone as a hotspot.

Why this previous statement matters’ is due to bandwidth and device. Our phones weren’t built to be a full-time hotspots. It’s great as a feature for an emergency, but thinking you can work full time using it, you’ll be sadly disappointed. The second is our phone plans typically don’t come with unlimited data for internet usage. So if you want to be able to do video calls or stream movies, our phones weren’t built for that.

The following information is not presented in any chronological order. Some information led me in one direction and then another. I came back to some videos over and over just to better understand and at a certain point it became clear the system I would settle on; now as of writing this first post, I haven’t purchased anything. I am thinking of getting the system before I get my RV to get used to using it; time will tell.

My first instinct was to look at hotspots and a solution; it made sense. They are built for mobile internet. One of the first hotspots I investigated was the NETGEAR Nighthawk. If you’ve used hotspots before this may be familiar. It requires a single SIM card from a provider ATT, T-mobile, or Verizon.

From what I’ve read these work pretty well. The difference between a true hotspot device vs. your phone is the hotspot was designed for being the gateway for cellular internet, phones are not.

If you are looking at a hotspot such as this, make sure it has two ports on the back to be able to attach a MIMO antenna. This will help boost your signal. If you look at the bottom of this hotspot you can see what looks like two rubber tabs, one on each side. These are the ports for the MIMO antenna to plug into. Mimo stands for multiple in / multiple out; meaning data signal.

Since I was familiar with this device, I figured this could be my solution, but kept thinking “what about redundancy? Would I need to get two hotspots? Would I need to get two or three hotspot devices each having its own SIM card? I guess that could be a solution.

Some of the full-time RVers who had multiple hotspots are the ones that have been on the road for quite a few years. But over the past few years since COVID the options for RVers have dramatically over the past few years.

I actually haven’t purchased any product as of the writing of this post, so I can’t recommend one yet. The information and products I am sharing definitely seemed to be popular among the RVers who posted videos about on-the-road internet.

If you will be a casual RVer not working on the road, or only need to catch up on emails, but still wants to stream movies a single hotspot and data carrier will work for you. If you get into a place the signal is horrible, so what, read a book!

If you’re someone who’ll be working on the road and the internet is a must, then you’ll need redundancy and that’s what the majority of the post will be about.

There are two components to the internet-on-the-road. The device and how the internet is coming to you, which is cellular data or WIFI.

Cell Data Plans

The device doesn’t matter if you don’t have access to the internet and one way that happens is through Cell Data. There are two types of cell data. One for voice and the other for the internet. We all know we can get internet on our phones, but this cell data is different than a purely cellular data plan for internet via a hotspot or cellular modem, oh, and for internet data, bars don’t matter.

There are multiple places you can get internet data plans. You can go to a phone provider, ATT, T-mobile, or Verizon, and purchase a SIM and hotspot. Then if you want redundancy you go to a second carrier and do the same. If you purchase directly through the big 3, you typically will have limited bandwidth. For sure, they can be great for casual users, but for full-timers, not so much. My research also tells me that the cell data plans for the internet always change so it’s hard to talk about where the best plans are.

You will want to try to find an “unlimited” plan so you can not only do your video calls but stream movie videos etc. This is where it gets a little tricky so I will try to paraphrase what I’ve learned. Even if you have purchased an unlimited data plan (internet only) from these carriers, usually what happens is there will be caps and once you go over that cap, they start to throttle you, or “de-prioritize” you, meaning you start to get slower internet. Details are in the small print.

The second place I found to get data plans is a “reseller”. This is a company that purchases data from the big 3 and then packages it up and resells it as their own products. I will post links to the companies I came across later on so you can explore those.

Why I talk about the data and devices as separate decisions you will need to make is because they are. You can purchase a hotspot from say, ATT, but then that device will only work with the ATT SIM so looking for devices that aren’t made only for a single carrier will leave you more flexibility long term. The Netgear does work with ATT and T-mobile and it’s why I initially thought this would be the right solution; you would just need to change out the SIM that will give you the best internet in the location you are in.

Satellite Internet

The second way to get internet is through satellite. There are a few companies out there and it tends to be pretty expensive. Starlink came on the market a few years ago and recently has put out options for RVers and boaters.

Initially, there was only a home and business option, but with the onslaught of RVers and boaters, they have come out with a service to accommodate “travelers”.

How Starlink satellite internet works is there are lots of small satellites that are shot up into space and hover closer to earth. These satellites keep moving around the earth and as there are more of them up in the sky they create a mesh network.

The equipment on the ground constantly looks for signals to connect to and then through the modem makes the internet available to its users.

What’s cool is the head of the antenna automatically moves to find the satellites.

There are a number of drawbacks to this service at the moment. One is you have to have a pretty open sky. There is an app that helps you see the obstructions so you can place the antenna in the optimum location. This can also be mounted up on a pole to get it further up off the ground to help with making a connection. The other drawback, which I think is the worst is for “remote” users they say your internet is de-prioritized over people with physical addresses. From what I’ve seen, no one uses this as their primary setup. It’s a backup with the hopes the service will get better…I may get this, but not sure at this time. It costs $599 to purchase the equipment and then $130 a month for the service.

Wifi Internet

You may ask, can’t I just use WIFI internet, you know like connecting to a coffee shop or the campground WIFI? You could, but from my research, there are a few things that stand out as limitations.

First, if you are using the internet for work, then security is a must. I know my work computer has VPN and my personal computer and phone have VPN for those times I need to use a WIFI that isn’t mine, you never know who else is on that WIFI trying to grab your data.

Inconvenience, I suspect for most people, going to a coffee shop every day to connect to do a video call would be extremely inconvenient, let alone not private. If you’re way off the grid someplace, then traveling to a place that has free WIFI can be very troublesome, let alone not having it available to watch moves, etc.

Another issue with WIFI is reliability. Most campground WIFI; if they offer it is pretty unreliable. Think about when you may be at an event and everyone is using their phones it makes getting connected impossible; it’s like that at a campground. It can become extremely slow and unreliable.

WIFI internet may be good for those times you need to check your email fast, but to do work and watch movies, nope not so good.

Device

Now that I talked about the service, I’ll discuss devices. I covered quite a bit around a hotspot above and let’s be clear, it’s not complicated. You buy a device, you buy a SIM and put the SIM in the device, and bam, you have internet (ok I’m sure there is more set up to do). And this is probably the easiest option, especially if you aren’t working from the RV, remember “redundancy” if you are.

During my research, I started to hear the term “cellular router”. As I dug into this, it’s basically a modem like we all understand modems to be, but this one gets a cellular signal and then transmits that signal to our computers, etc so we can get on the internet. Unlike traditional modems where a wire comes from the telephone pole, through the wall, and is plugged into your modem and then that modem transmits the signal wirelessly to your devices.

The cell modem is also different from a hotspot in that it can have a better signal, it will have the ability for your device to be wired to it, and some have the ability to have multiple SIMs installed. It will have ports to have either extender antennas called “fins” or can be attached to a rooftop MIMO antenna.

Showing here is a Pepwave modem, but there are other brands and depending on where you get your cell service from, they may have their own modems.

Unlike a hotspot, these higher-end cell modems can use multiple bands of cell connection to make a faster internet for you to use. I just came across this video and he explains it much better than I could. How We Get Rock Solid RV Internet! - The Best Tech Solutions to Work Full Time From the Road

Luckily I don’t need to make a quick decision on what direction to go in otherwise I probably would have just gone with multiple hotspots and hoped for the best. In my head I wanted to make this easy; wanted one less complicated thing to deal with on the road, but for me to be successful on the road making sure I had reliable service was key.

Another lucky thing for me is timing. Since COVID there have been many more full-time RVers to have paved the way to solve this and new services have opened up to make it easier to work from the road.

Finding My Solution

As I watched more videos and read more blogs, I knew for me this wasn’t going to be easy. Some of the information overwhelmed me, so one of the first things I did was to gather all those web pages into a tab group and kept coming back to them periodically to absorb the information. The nice thing about tabs groups is when you find something you add it to the group so as not to lose it; of course, I could have used bookmarks, but ultimately find a process that works for you to keep track of all the information you’ll need for reference during your journey.

I came across the Mobile Internet Resource Center early on in my research. This is a couple that has been full-time in an RV for years and started this company to help other RVers figure out how to get connected while on the road. When I first watched one of their videos it really overwhelmed me because their configurations were complex, and nothing to say about the holes they drilled in their RV to get all the wires attached; I wanted something easier, that hotspot was looking pretty good.

God love Google and YouTube recommendations, this is how I found all my information which led me to the cellular internet resellers. I knew companies like this existed in the phone space and am happy they exist in the mobile internet space.

The companies I came across were Internet On The Go, UbiFi, Nomad Internet, TravelData, and UnlimitedVille. Each of these companies is a reseller and usually has plans and modems you can purchase from each of the 3 big carriers. What’s easy about these services is they will send you the modem all ready configured with the SIM and ready to go (now I am sure there is more setup than just plug-in-play, but from my research, these are the easier plans and setup).

I did further research and dug into reviews of the services. They were definitely mixed. Found great reviews and found horrible reviews. I find it hard to determine if a service is good or bad when the largest complaint pool is because of customer service during COVID times. Keep in mind each of these services is a single SIM service and what have I told you before “redundancy is your friend”; ok I realize I haven’t actually said that before, but you know what I mean. If you don’t think you’ll need redundancy, these single-service devices probably would work.

Reviewers

These are a few of the vloggers I came across; not all of them, but ones that really helped inform me in my decision process. Keep asking yourself “what are my needs?”.

I came across this guy who also has a blog Five2Go about RVing; everyone’s doing it…anyway he, to me, had the most straightforward way setup.

He uses hotspots mainly and has had a grandfather ATT unlimited plan. He’s also tested out a service from TravelData and seems to give it pretty decent reviews, it’s only on the t-mobile network though. From what I have learned ATT and Verizon are the ones with the most cell towers.

He’s worth watching. I know he has a lot of information on the blog, but I as of yet haven’t dug into it. When I watched his video, I felt better and less overwhelmed. The worse thing that could happen is I have multiple hotspots and would need to switch between which one that had the best signal for the location I was in at the moment.

I came across this woman who is a full-timer and a vlogger called Creativity RV this video talks about her experience with finding internet on the road and in the past gave Nomad Internet high marks, but since then, she’s parted ways.

This video is a couple of months old and she talks about her experience with Starlink and ATT.

One more guy I’ll talk about and there were definitely more than just these three.

This is a couple who are full-timers. They also have put out videos on their journey and like others have created very helpful RV internet videos; it’s all about making passing income…just saying. Anyway, I did come across several of his videos, and this one I thought was very helpful. His system is quite complex; mine won’t need to be like this, but what he did point me toward is MobileMustHave. This company was created by RVers and though the products seem pricey, I kept coming across them.

If you’re just starting out here is some really good information from MobileMustHave. I suggest going there and reading through the information and watching the video; they’ve done a lot of the leg work so you won’t have to.
read more

This company also has data plans, but they aren’t tied to any one product. They use the Pepwave routers and also have other products for RVers.

Their products are geared towards very industrial usage, but it seems for RVers who want serious connectivity, Pepwave is the router they use. They have packages that can be purchased, not just the modem to help you get set up and I hear they have pretty good support.

As of right now, I’ve decided I will be looking at MobileMustHave to get my gear. I really like the ability of the modems to have multiple SIM cards and though the packages can be pricey, I feel this company will support me in my journey.

I don’t think I’ll need to put an antenna on the roof of my RV, from what I’ve been told because my RV’s shell is fiberglass, it won’t impede the signal as much as aluminum shells and if I do need to attach an external antenna, I have time to plan for that.

This is one of their mobile internet bundles. You can see they include what you’ll need. This bundle is @ $1,400 not including the data plan, but I feel this will serve me for a long time.

What’s cool about the higher-end modems is that if you haven’t multiple data plans, there’s a way to merge them together to create a faster internet; of course, I am paraphrasing, it can be a bit complex to understand, and may require you to purchase an additional service to accomplish this, but these modems are very flexible which is what I like.

So this is where I am as of 11/13/2022. If you are looking to get on the road in an RV and need internet, take your time and figure out your needs. Maybe it is just an inexpensive hotspot at first with refillable data plans, but that’s ok. If your needs change look around, and use the links I provided to do some research. Talk to people in an RV forum to see what they have done. I hear cell boosters aren’t worth the money; so don’t go there first.

And finally, if you really need good reliable service to work from the road it will cost, just accept it. I am expecting I’ll probably spend upwards of $400 a month for service, but to me, that’s worth being able to work from the road in my own mobile home.