Mobile Internet

JimboT

Member
I am building out 2020 RAM 3500. in 2021 I am planning a 2 month trip in North America. It will consist of Fishing, Hunting and Touring. I need to keep in touch with work though to be gone that long. I have looked at offerings from Hughes and Thales. Does anyone have an experience or advice?
 

DaveInDenver

Middle Income Semi-Redneck
How frequent do intend to use service, how much data and what are your bandwidth requirements? Does it have to be something always available or can you set a schedule to some extent?
 

ericvs

Active member
I have seen a couple of people use the WeBoost cell signal booster and then just hotspot from phone, but have heard mixed reviews on the WeBoost setup. Interested to follow along on this thread and see what answers you get
Now that I am working remote full time due to covid restrictions, I hope to be able to continue on this path and avoid the trek to and from work from more remote locations.
 
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JimboT

Member
How frequent do intend to use service, how much data and what are your bandwidth requirements? Does it have to be something always available or can you set a schedule to some extent?

On demand. I need enough band width to email in real time and import spreadsheets etc.
 

JimboT

Member
I have seen a couple of people use the WeBoost cell signal booster and then just hotspot from phone, but have heard mixed reviews on the WeBoost setup. Interested to follow along on this thread and see what answers you get
Now that I am working remote full time due to covid restrictions, I hope to be able to continue on this path and avoid the trek to and from work remote from more remote locations.

I know I want a satellite based solution. Expensive but the one time cost gives me my freedom.
 

AbleGuy

Officious Intermeddler
We have used both T Mobile and Verizon portable hotspots for traveling internet access to a pretty good success mostly all over the US and southern parts of Western Canada. These are cheaper than satellite.

Verizon is pricier if I recall. Coverage is generally about the same for both but in the more remote reaches of the west we found the Verizon JetPak to work better than the T Mobile hotspot. There have been some places out west where neither works (no signal) even though in those same areas our cell phones worked!?!
 

plh

Explorer
Grab a couple year old unlocked 4G LTE mobile phone and slide in a Google fi data sim. $10 / gig - pay for what you use, no contract. Use the hotspot feature. If its not a Google fi specific phone it will only use the T-mobile network from what I understand. I have one in one of my 10" tablets for maps in my truck as well as one in an old phone, both work great. I've used the phone as a dedicated hotspot around the globe without issue as long as there is a 4G LTE network.
 
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Rando

Explorer
I am building out 2020 RAM 3500. in 2021 I am planning a 2 month trip in North America. It will consist of Fishing, Hunting and Touring. I need to keep in touch with work though to be gone that long. I have looked at offerings from Hughes and Thales. Does anyone have an experience or advice?

Mobile satellite internet is not what you think it is. The current 'mobile' systems (Iridium, gloabalstar) are expensive and offer very low bandwidth (2400 baud, think dial up from 1990) maybe more with Iridium Certus, but that is not yet available and will likely be $$$. There are also fixed providers (Huhgesnet etc) which some folks try and use mobile, but these require a large dish, are slow to set up and have limited coverage outside the US and typically require a 1 year service contract.

Your best option is the mobile network with a booster and maybe a directional antenna and just plan to be in range how ever often you need to be. At least in the US. you will be surprised how extensive the coverage really is.
 

greg.potter

Adventurer
If you are looking for full function mobile satellite based communication Google "mobile VSAT communication". It's not inexpensive!
Also keep in mind that any of the geosynchronous based satellite communication system come with around 800 millisecond latency on each up/down leg, which can make anything interactive like conversations or video conferencing "awkward". Some database applications that have a lot of interaction between the host database and the client on you computer can be painfully slow also.
 
If you are looking for full function mobile satellite based communication Google "mobile VSAT communication". It's not inexpensive!
Also keep in mind that any of the geosynchronous based satellite communication system come with around 800 millisecond latency on each up/down leg, which can make anything interactive like conversations or video conferencing "awkward". Some database applications that have a lot of interaction between the host database and the client on you computer can be painfully slow also.

Makes me wonder about SpaceX global satellite system. Is it just for enterprise use only?
 

Rando

Explorer
Starlink (SpaceX offering) is not operational yet, and at least initially they are targeting and licensed for fixed ground terminals, which are phased array antennas about 50cm in diameter. They hopefully be an option for mobile operation in the future.
 

greg.potter

Adventurer
The original Starlink marketing information was 1 Gb data rates. I saw some information from early testing that suggested the maximum was more like 600 Mb, which is still pretty impressive. And since the low earth satellite mesh is much lower than the geosynchronous satellites the latency is much less. From memory I think observed latency was 50 or 60 mSec, which isn't much more than many terrestrial systems. Definitely promising.

They are currently beta testing with customer in northern US and Canada, but the full satellite network won't be in place for a year or two yet.
 

DaveInDenver

Middle Income Semi-Redneck
Starlink (SpaceX offering) is not operational yet, and at least initially they are targeting and licensed for fixed ground terminals, which are phased array antennas about 50cm in diameter. They hopefully be an option for mobile operation in the future.
The problem is not new. Starlink is licensed for Ka and Ku bands now and eventually will utilize the V band. So there's plenty of real world use and engineering from which to draw. A typical in-flight aircraft system might support 400Mbps and the antennas are already steerable, electronically and mechanically. They are using VSATs and not BGAN so the requirements for aiming aren't exactly for following a satellite and jumping from beam to beam. None-the-less antennas have been a problem for years. They can be small, like a Hughes 9202 L-band Iridium/Inmarsat type, but the throughput isn't 1Gbps. Those relatively small portable terminals support 128Kbps. It's going to be interesting to watch now with OneWeb having gone bankrupt and their plan wasn't nearly as ambitious. They were a couple of years ahead in hardware but still had fairly sizable antennas. It's a balancing act since the link is duplex, asymmetrical but still you have to have either or both antenna gain or amplifier power for reliablity and high bandwidth. Neither being easy to miniaturize. Your phone only needs to work over a couple of miles while in the lowered orbits Starlink was approved for initial launches it's still 340 miles out to 820 miles at their highest orbit.
 
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Sneaks

Active member
Hughes is a nightmare. Avoid. Not only do they have horrid customer service, it is expensive, and the latency is measured in seconds, not milliseconds. Be prepared to timeout trying to log into sites frequently and forget about using RDP if you are trying to work over sat. BTDT.
 

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