Internet

I need internet access. Not want. Need.

That's not a statement of entitlement. I'm not looking to watch more YouTube or stream more Disney+. I need internet access to work. I'm a programmer, and being a programmer in 2021 requires internet access. My livelihood depends on it.

From the research I had done prior to departure, I knew that internet wouldn't be a slam dunk, but I also didn't appreciate just how hard it would be.

Get comfortable. This is going to be long. And if you are only here to follow our travels, you can probably skip this post. But if you are here because you are thinking about doing what we're doing, this may be useful. I'm going to explain how we got to where we are. If you don't care about that noise, just skip to the summary.

I'll kill some of the suspense immediately: the only viable option for broadband on the road is cellular. Yes, there are satellite plans. That may be good if you are dying in the wilderness and need to fire off a message with your coordinates, but it's way too slow for business use. Yes, some campgrounds have Wi-Fi. One site actually told us not to use it because it's terrible. That tells you all you need to know about campground Wi-Fi.

Starlink may solve my problems, but it's not available for moving vehicles as of this writing (though it's coming).

So cellular it is.

No problem, right? Every major provider offers unlimited data plans. Just sign up for one from each carrier, and I'm good wherever I go! If only it were that simple.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before I worry about a plan, I need some hardware.

Prior to departure, I bought a cellular modem/router. It's no slouch. It's a high end model that is typically installed in mass transit systems (think buses and trains) to help passengers get online. It connects to one or more cellular networks and turns that into a Wi-Fi signal. It can work while in motion, and it's ruggedized for installation into moving vehicles that vibrate. In other words, it's perfect for an RV!

I even got an external antenna for it, which required drilling a hole through my brand new roof to feed the wires inside (thanks Marc!). I'm all in.

I paid a lot of money for this setup, and I was super excited about it. My internet problems were solved! It would be just like the old stationary house days of yore. Me working, the kids playing Minecraft, Julie doing whatever it is she does on her phone all day, the family streaming movies at night... internet bliss.

Wrong. This setup has one severe flaw that I would quickly discover. More on that in a minute.

First, back to data plans.

You know those unlimited plans that you see everywhere? The plan that you yourself probably have? The plan that you are probably using right now to read this on your phone? Read the small print. It's only for phones.

Just use my phone as a hotspot? Nope. Read the small print again. "Unlimited" really means "more or less unlimited, as long as you are using the data on your phone, not for tethered devices." Every unlimited plan has a tethering data cap, and it's usually quite small. After you hit the cap, they drop you to 2G speeds, which might as well be offline in 2021.

Want to take the SIM from a phone and slap it into a modem? Good thinking, but the network will suspend your account instantly. Trust me.

The carriers aren't dumb. They know that an unlimited plan in a modem means I could put a whole campground online quickly. Same with tethering. Anything that allows me to turn a cellular data connection into a Wi-Fi connection means I can turn a single data plan into a community internet connection.

What it boils down to is that they don't want you using their plans as a home internet connection. Unfortunately, that's pretty much exactly what I need.

But there are data only plans, you say. They can't prevent you from using those plans on non-phone devices, you say. That's the whole point of such plans, you say. You are such a smarty-pants, and you are correct! Unfortunately, those plans are all terrible (see previous paragraph for explanation of bad business model).

T-Mobile has a 100 GB plan for $50 a month. That doesn't sound bad. Have you ever checked the data consumption of a Zoom call? Multiply that by multiple Zoom calls a day plus a movie once a week for the kids, and 100 GB no longer seems so big.

Oh... and make that had. T-Mobile had a 100 GB plan for $50. Have I mentioned that offering lots of data to non-phone devices is bad for business? They nixed that plan after 4 months. Good thing I grabbed it while it was available!

The next best plan on the major carriers is Verizon's 30 GB plan for $90 a month. Then AT&T has some woeful amount of data for some ridiculous price. I don't even know the numbers because they were so terrible it wasn't worth memorizing.

[Note: By the time you read this, even if it's right after I post it, the numbers will probably all be different. Things change that fast in the data plan world.]

But it's all good. I've got my 100 GB of T-Mobile data and my fancy modem. I'll make it work. We'll just watch less movies, and shoot, this is a good excuse to decline some Zoom calls.

Which brings me back to the major shortcoming in my modem that I didn't fully appreciate when I bought it. This modem has a notable lack of magic. Apparently it needs a good signal to function. It's 2021. Where is my flying car, and where is my magic modem that can create a signal where one doesn't exist?

No problem, though. Because this:

We'll be in the eastern half of the country for the foreseeable future. As long as we avoid the peaks of the Appalachian Mountains and that weird spot in southeastern Kansas, we'll be fine.

It's a lie. Not all of it, of course. And perhaps "lie" is too strong of a word. Let's use "strong embellishment of the truth." Can a certain area get a weak signal every so often? Color it pink! And don't get smug, you non T-Mobile folks. Your carrier has its own version of this picture in a different color, and it's also a strong embellishment of the truth.

We've spent the last month in Georgia and Florida, and according to this map, as long as we aren't in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp (let me check the itinerary... nope, we haven't been), we're covered! Then why have I been commuting to Columbus, GA to get Wi-Fi? Or Tampa, FL. Or New Smyrna Beach, FL. Why have I spent more days working out of parks and my van than I have out of my RV with my super expensive fancy modem?

This has been frustrating. Can you tell?

But you don't care about my problems, which are admittedly as first-world as problems get. You are curious how I've solved them.

I still have the same fancy modem with external antenna. As long as I have a signal, the thing is fantastic. I couldn't be happier with it. And it is also able to post our location via GPS every 30 seconds, which I'm eventually going to use to build a realtime tracker. Because you know you care where we are right now. [ [Update: done]

I have the 100 GB T-Mobile data plan, and while I'd prefer something closer to 200 GB, I can make it work. We just need to be judicious about our non-work media consumption. But that's fine; we need to be outside more than inside anyway.

What I had to figure out was what to do when we don't have a good T-Mobile signal, which seems to be more often than not. I needed to get a backup plan with another carrier.

I spent an hour in a Verizon store last week, and the guy helping me made a bunch of phone calls to colleagues on my behalf. He was trying so hard, and it seemed so promising. After a round of phone calls, he informed me that he could offer 100 GB for $710 a month. That's not a typo. I chose to pass.

I then decided to try Cricket Wireless, which runs on AT&T. There was some anecdotal evidence that folks with my modem had luck with them. Their plan wasn't great, but it was good enough as a T-Mobile backup. And let's be honest; I was kind of desperate. Like I said at the top: I need internet.

I now need to pause and mention that even the data plans come with restrictions. You quite often have to use "approved" devices. In other words, you need to buy a hotspot (or jetpack, for those of you on the red network) from the carrier.

When I told the Cricket guy my plans, he said the network would suspend my account immediately when it saw I was using an "unapproved" modem. He suggested I call support and explain what's going on, and they should approve me. I could do that. I'm not doing anything untoward. I'm paying for a certain amount of data, so it shouldn't matter that I'm using my own device.

I fired up Cricket on my fancy modem, and... they suspended me. Points to the guy for an accurate prediction! I called support, and after 60 seconds with a guy named Nelfie (who couldn't tell me where he was from "for security reasons," but let's just say it wasn't Florida), I was in business. It worked! I was over the moon. I went to bed a happy man.

The next morning, I was suspended again. Another call to support revealed that they could keep approving me, but it wasn't permanent. I'd keep getting suspended every few hours. As much as I liked Nelfie, I wasn't interested in talking to him multiple times a day. I was also a little miffed that he didn't inform me his "fix" was temporary. I think our relationship needs a break.

So I relented and got a Cricket approved hotspot. Fortunately my modem can pull cellular signals as well as external Wi-Fi signals (called "Wi-Fi as WAN" for you geeks), so it was usable. I lose some functionality doing it this way, and I have one more device than I'd prefer to have, but I just have to live with that for now. On the positive side, I have a portable device I can take should I need to leave the RV to go find a signal; my modem is permanently mounted, so if there is no signal at the RV, it's not usable.

I'm also going to look into a Visible plan (which runs on Verizon). They don't even offer data plans, but once again, there is anecdotal evidence online that it will work in my modem. If I can pull that off, I'll have coverage on all three major carriers. I'll keep T-Mobile and Visible SIM cards in the modem, and I'll leave Cricket's in the hotspot so I can take it with me should the need arise. Not that I have much of a choice on that unless I want to rekindle things with Nelfie.

Then it's just a matter of waiting on Elon to get more satellites up in the sky!

[Side note: It was dumb luck because it wasn't on the schedule when we booked the site, but we were able to see a SpaceX rocket full of satellites launch this past week while staying near Cape Canaveral. That was my internet savior, flying up into space. There is no video evidence to corroborate, but I may have shed a tear.]

In summary:

• Cellular internet is the only viable option as of this writing.
• You need some kind of cellular modem. You can use a hotspot/jetpack for this, but if internet is critically important to you (if you need it for work, for example), don't do that. Instead, spend the money on a good cellular modem with an external antenna. And get one that holds multiple SIMs. you don't want to be swapping SIMs constantly. In fact, you'll want to permanently mount the modem out of the way which will make SIM-swapping very difficult.
• Try to do some due diligence on coverage at sites before you book them. Sites like Campendium have helped us, but it's all user-reported data, and it's not always accurate.
• Get data plans from multiple carriers. Any plan I list here will be out of date by the time you are reading this, but just do the best you can. As of now, there are no great plans, and that's putting it kindly. I wouldn't even classify existing plans as reasonable. Hopefully competition from the likes of Starlink will change the game.
• If you can, wait for Starlink.