Internet pretty much everywhere via T-Mobile

[Vlamgat]

Originally Posted by propchef

We live in NORCAL and T-Mobile is our provider. We’re very happy with them and they have strong signals here.

There are many places along the coast where no provider has usable signals.

As there are many, many places in the US with no cell signal; and in the UK and EU as well. And let's not talk about elsewhere in the world. Satellite access is the only complete system but its either expensive (Inmarsat, Iridium etc) or incomplete and largely competes in the areas with existing cell access.

Once you get away from the main arterial highways/Interstates, the cell system becomes patchy. Particularly if there are changes in elevation which completely blank out cell reception in the valley areas.

[xyzabc]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

When setting up SIM's in various Peplink devices, I've had trouble getting things working with all of the "big three" outfits. It seems to be somewhat random. If everything goes right, "it just works". If not, you could be in for a couple days on the phone with any one of them.There are a variety of intermediate bumps in the road ( swap for a new one and it works .... do that two more times and it now works ....on and on ....)

The hotspot gear really isn't a big deal for any of these guys. They rarely see the stuff. The folks don't work with them enough to know which boxes to check on this and that computer screen.

At the end of the process, I get a conversation like: "What equipment do you have?" .... click click click ... "OK, now I see what happened." .... click ....click ...click ... "It will work in 15 to 30 minutes". Sure enough it does.

Bob

The biggest problem with all 3 carriers you really need to speak with someone who actually knows what to talk about. been thru that with both T-Mobile and Verizon.

[xyzabc]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

When setting up SIM's in various Peplink devices, I've had trouble getting things working with all of the "big three" outfits. It seems to be somewhat random. If everything goes right, "it just works". If not, you could be in for a couple days on the phone with any one of them.There are a variety of intermediate bumps in the road ( swap for a new one and it works .... do that two more times and it now works ....on and on ....)

The hotspot gear really isn't a big deal for any of these guys. They rarely see the stuff. The folks don't work with them enough to know which boxes to check on this and that computer screen.

At the end of the process, I get a conversation like: "What equipment do you have?" .... click click click ... "OK, now I see what happened." .... click ....click ...click ... "It will work in 15 to 30 minutes". Sure enough it does.

Bob

The biggest problem with all 3 carriers you really need to speak with someone who actually knows what you're talking about. been thru that with both T-Mobile and Verizon.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by xyzabc

The biggest problem with all 3 carriers you really need to speak with someone who actually knows what you're talking about. been thru that with both T-Mobile and Verizon.

Hi

AT&T is every bit as bad as the other two ....

They all use a "multi tier" support approach. Normally one phone call for each tier.

The first level folks have a script they read. It probably gets 95% of the issues taken care of within a few minutes. We've all heard the darn thing a hundred times: Can you please power cycle your device. Did that fix the problem? ......

Next layer up may be pretty good on cell phone issues. The still don't see a lot of hotspots or other exotic gear. Getting to the third level takes a while.

Bob

[Island Girl]

We have the WINEGARD T4…it’s set up with DISH ANYWHERE. Thanks for the input. I’ll give it a try. 🤞

[92landyacht]

Just finished a weeklong trip at Lake Lanier GA. The little T-Mobile hotspot performed flawlessly. I was able to stream videos using a Roku 4K Stream Stick and all of my Xfinity channels using my laptop with the Xfinity App installed. My wife was even able to connect her Kindle and upload a new book. No issues with video breakup or lag. Used about 18GB of data. No over the air channels were available.

I will say that I was quite surprised to find a good 4 to 5 bars of 5G service out on a peninsula on the lake. Next big test will be using the hotspot at Road Atlanta on the week of Oct 14th for the Petit Le Mans. Will be interesting to see how capacity changes as the week progresses. Expecting over 150K spectators at the event. My guess is it will bottleneck by Friday or Saturday. I will have my Winegard X2 connected to Dish Network for the week though. Got to be able to reliably stream race coverage when at the motorhome.

[Vlamgat]

Originally Posted by 92landyacht

I will have my Winegard X2 connected to Dish Network for the week though. Got to be able to reliably stream race coverage when at the motorhome.

With the same equipment, I struggled at SVRA Sebring; and SCCA COTA this year. The advent of 4k streaming has multiplied the bandwidth demand way beyond what they can install to replace 4G let alone the defunct 2 and 3G that have been shut down. Eventually perhaps but demand is increasing faster than spectrum availability. It does depend on network. AT&T is more easily saturated than T-Mobile but T-mobile availability is focused on city centers and Interstates.

[92landyacht]

I'll see what happens at the Petit, but Lanier Islands is quite a distance from any large city body or interstate and still had great service. I'm fully expecting some bottlenecking during the race itself, but it will still be interesting to see how it works beforehand. I have the Roku device set for 720P resolution in order to reduce data usage. Many providers, including T-Mobile, tend to throttle video streaming rates to help reduce data bottlenecking. Will be using T-Mobile with their branded Quanta 5G hotspot.

No issue with video from the X2 Dish system though. Not dependent on cell phone towers at all. Been using it for years and have no problems with SAT as my main media source. Just trying something new to see how it works.

[cfrench58]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

Those "coverage maps" you see on the internet are nice, but often useless for working out the real coverage situation. The problem is not specific to any one carrier. It's mainly because they can't / don't / won't do a map with enough resolution.

We have phones from all three main carriers. Indeed there are places that T Mobile does quite well. There are also a lot of places they come in dead last ( = little or no coverage) relative to the other two big guys.

Bottom line: There are a lot of places that you only can get coverage from one carrier.

Bob

Thought I should share this unbiased FCC web site which allows you to view Mobile and fixed Broadband Connectivity by provider throughout the USA:

https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/locatio...=0&tech=tech4g

It has a pretty robust search capability via drill-down menus.
The data is aggregated from supplier data.

The map is subdivided into local hexagons which show you % coverage in that area. So, for example, whereas Verizon (my provider) shows coverage near Coos Bay OR, one of the area hexagons I picked near the town at random showed only a few percent of that area covered, perhaps a function of terrain.

On a separate note Verizon now has a 4-inch +/- square "Internet Gateway" device that we acquired at no cost from our local independent Verizon bricks and mortar store. The data plan is reasonable. We've been on the road for six weeks from east coast to west coast and to date have only had one stay where signal was not available (due to topography in a ravine). Download rates have varied at more remote RV campgrounds but that appears to be a function of the number of users pinging the local tower; during the week access is blazingly fast, during weekends things slow to a crawl. Not much you can do about that.

The mobile internet resource center https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/getting-started/ has lots of informative content on the topic. One caution about using cell phone: the battery can suffer damage.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by cfrench58

Thought I should share this unbiased FCC web site which allows you to view Mobile and fixed Broadband Connectivity by provider throughout the USA:

https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/locatio...=0&tech=tech4g

It has a pretty robust search capability via drill-down menus.
The data is aggregated from supplier data.

The map is subdivided into local hexagons which show you % coverage in that area. So, for example, whereas Verizon (my provider) shows coverage near Coos Bay OR, one of the area hexagons I picked near the town at random showed only a few percent of that area covered, perhaps a function of terrain.

On a separate note Verizon now has a 4-inch +/- square "Internet Gateway" device that we acquired at no cost from our local independent Verizon bricks and mortar store. The data plan is reasonable. We've been on the road for six weeks from east coast to west coast and to date have only had one stay where signal was not available (due to topography in a ravine). Download rates have varied at more remote RV campgrounds but that appears to be a function of the number of users pinging the local tower; during the week access is blazingly fast, during weekends things slow to a crawl. Not much you can do about that.

The mobile internet resource center https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/getting-started/ has lots of informative content on the topic. One caution about using cell phone: the battery can suffer damage.

Hi

I've used that map as well. Unfortunately, even it isn't quite as accurate as one might wish.

Bob

[Vlamgat]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

I've used that map as well. Unfortunately, even it isn't quite as accurate as one might wish.

Bob

Its also out of date with sample separation being as much as 4 or 5 years. This is important in the context of 5G which has improved band width closer to the towers and reduced it further away. And as CGs or boonies tend to be in low density areas means that practically speaking coverage has been reduced in the last 2 or 3 years.

[foobar]

Originally Posted by Vlamgat

Its also out of date with sample separation being as much as 4 or 5 years. This is important in the context of 5G which has improved band width closer to the towers and reduced it further away. And as CGs or boonies tend to be in low density areas means that practically speaking coverage has been reduced in the last 2 or 3 years.

Yeah. During our 2023 6 week spring trip out west (CO, UT, AZ, NM), we had solid signal strength with AT&T service in many RV park locations, but there were apparently too many users for the limited total bandwidth or channel capacity. We struggled to even download text messages and email. You could forget about streaming video or teleconferencing.

[Ericncsu1204]

Originally Posted by 92landyacht

Yep, it's amazing how far 5G has progressed in such a short time. Most areas now have coverage and 4G/4G LTE is slowly being phased out.

I did a fair amount of research before I decided to go with T-Mobile. Right now they offer the best coverage for where I travel to and they had the best pay as you go prepaid plan. When I need service, I just load up the SIM for the month and away I go. If I'm off for the month I just don't pay anything.

You do have to be fairly conservative on how you use your data, but it is manageable. Don't believe the "Unlimited" plans as they only offer so much high speed data and then revert to 3G or even less for the remainder.

Which prepaid plan do you have? Can you provide a link?

[92landyacht]

I used T-Mobile and one of their prepaid data only plans with their BYOD (Bring your own device) option since I already had the hotspot device.

https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/prepaid-internet

I chose the 50GB plan at first, because I had no clue how much data I would use during the week. Turns out I only needed 16GB, but it was an experiment. The plans they offer range from 2 to 50GB for one month's use. There was no requirement to continue past the first month. All data purchased can be used for the 1-month period from the date that the plan was paid on. It's not the cheapest way to go but for my type of intermittent use, it works just fine. There was a $10, one time, SIM card purchase fee but the SIM card can be reused when loaded with additional data. I actually went to the T-Mobile store and conducted my transaction there. Don't let them talk you into more data than you need. I ran into one jerk that tried to convince me that they're not allowed to sell anything less than a 20GB plan. I called him out on it since I had previously purchased a 5GB plan to verify that my hotspot device worked.

[gypsydad]

Originally Posted by 92landyacht

I used T-Mobile and one of their prepaid data only plans with their BYOD (Bring your own device) option since I already had the hotspot device.

https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/prepaid-internet

I chose the 50GB plan at first, because I had no clue how much data I would use during the week. Turns out I only needed 16GB, but it was an experiment. The plans they offer range from 2 to 50GB for one month's use. There was no requirement to continue past the first month. All data purchased can be used for the 1-month period from the date that the plan was paid on. It's not the cheapest way to go but for my type of intermittent use, it works just fine. There was a $10, one time, SIM card purchase fee but the SIM card can be reused when loaded with additional data. I actually went to the T-Mobile store and conducted my transaction there. Don't let them talk you into more data than you need. I ran into one jerk that tried to convince me that they're not allowed to sell anything less than a 20GB plan. I called him out on it since I had previously purchased a 5GB plan to verify that my hotspot device worked.

We use ATT with my Weboost Destination RV and it works great using my phone as hotspot. I have unlimited data plan with the Veteran account ($60/month), but I may see some throttling going on after 5 GB; not sure yet if it is that or multiple "other" users camping near by sharing the bandwidth. How much does the T-mobile plan for just a hotspot like you mention cost per month?

[92landyacht]

10$ (2Gb) to $50 (50Gb) depending on how much 5G data you want. You pay in advance and get the data for a 1-month period.

[jfreeham]

You all know much more about this topic than do I, so all I can offer is my limited ancedotal experience.

We live full-time in our AS (over two years) and my wife works full-time remotely as a university professor. Our connection to the outside world is via Airstream Connect. We haven't been everywhere, but everywhere we've been we've been connected, even in places where online reviews state there is no cell reception. If it happens that we eventually find ourselves at a place where we can't receive a signal, we can move. No problem for us. Also, the cost for data has dropped significantly. I'm assuming that has to do with Starlink competition. We've always anticipated that we will need to add another data plan (Verizon or T-Mobile), but so far that has been unnecessary.

[gypsydad]

Originally Posted by 92landyacht

10$ (2Gb) to $50 (50Gb) depending on how much 5G data you want. You pay in advance and get the data for a 1-month period.

Do you have to purchase a "device" to get this service also, like a Hot Spot>

[jcanavera]

T-Mobile has been marketing 5G wireless home Internet in my area for $50 a month. It is marketed to compete against cable and fiber services. It also works in many of the rural areas that are served by fiber or cable services.

I just helped a friend signup and install their wireless router that is provided by T-Mobile. My friend is getting 350 meg downspeed service in their home that is in a rural area about 30 minutes from my home. The modem/router T-Mobile provided has a phone number assigned to it, just like a hot spot device does. I'm assuming it is using the same T-Mobile network that their cell phone accesses.

I wonder what's to keep those home modem/routers from being used in an RV? From the understanding I got from the sales person in the store, they would probably work. I do know that in the rural areas, they are limiting the number of customers in a geographical area to minimize congestion on the local towers that service those areas. In the metropolitan areas where there are a lot of towers, most folks applying will be granted access immediately.

Personally this beats the pants off a WiFi hotspot from pricing and data usage limits. This home/wireless product has no monthly bandwidth limits although the fine print does indicate network congestion could slow the service down.

Jack

[92landyacht]

Originally Posted by gypsydad

Do you have to purchase a "device" to get this service also, like a Hot Spot>

Yes, a hotspot device is needed, but the one I picked up was a whopping $29 refurbed and I signed up using the BYOD method.

As for the T-Mobile home internet plan, you can only order the service if T-Mobile deems your area supportable by local towers. Technically you don't have to keep it at that site, but that may change soon. With that plan, you're required to have an autopay account.

The way I see it, there are two distinct use cases. If you only use your RV for occasional use and not full time, then a monthly prepaid plan using a hotspot works best. If you are full timing and need internet service throughout the year, then a monthly autopay home internet plan would be best. If you're often in very remote areas or highly congested areas, then a SAT system like Starlink seems to be the best option.