Camper Internet

Internet connectivity in a camper is absolute garbage. I mean completely atrocious. This one question is all over the place in mobile living forums and such, for good reason. There really isn't any GOOD option. And the best option for any given person is entirely subjective. So what works for other people realistically might not work for you.

So, what do you do? You research, and you do some trial and error. I'm going to lay out my own experience in order of thought/attempt and let others learn from that. What I have now isn't great. As a matter of fact, it's still pretty frustrating. Unfortunately, it's the best I've got so far.

Note, my options are a little different because we're keeping the camper in a single location right now. If you're on the move, that could definitely make some of the options I considered completely irrelevant. Still, maybe it helps to hear about what's out there.

The first thing I considered doing was migrating my existing internet connection to my mother's address, and installing an extender out to the edge of her house. Before we moved, we had 400 meg down internet through Spectrum. Excellent service, reasonably priced, it was great. I would just change address, and then install the hardware myself. I could run an ethernet cable out to the corner and put a wireless access point or something for minimal cost.

This idea was dead in the water, simply because my mother didn't want to cancel her own internet service and having more than one service was redundant. I still think that this would have probably been the most ideal for my needs specifically, but I couldn't go through with it for very specific reason. If you're setting up camp semi-permanently within range of a structure that can get standard hard-wired internet access and you're within range of the wireless network, this may be your best bet. Pretty strict criteria, though.

Next, I considered T-Mobile Home Internet. We used it previously at home, and it was genuinely pretty decent. Faster than my previous Spectrum service, and cheaper to boot. There were some weird nuances with CGNAT stuff, but nothing the average user would be bothered by. Eventually, we only got rid of it because Spectrum canvased our neighborhood with faster speeds for the same price.

The hitch was that T-Mobile Home Internet is only avaiable to select geographic locations that they have verified service to. My old house fit that bill, but the address where we keep the camper does not. Our phones get really good service, so I think Home Internet would be fine if we were authorized to use the device. Maybe in the near future, they'll expand that range. Until then, no dice.

Finally, I tried a 4G mobile hotspot through T-Mobile. I wasn't keen on using a hotspot, but several forums and other sources for camper living indicated it as their only viable solution. Since we were actively in the process of moving to the camper, I needed internet access post haste. T-Mobile offered a 5G device, but it seemed to be back ordered and out of stock basically everywhere. I didn't want to order one and have to wait on it, so I figured 4G should be sufficient.

We set up the hotspot and started hooking up our devices. I noticed pretty quickly that the speeds weren't great. They were tolerable for generic internet browsing, but streaming video caused a lot of problems. We dealt with it for a few weeks, but finally I had enough. I called, messaged, and tweeted with T-Mobile customer support. After some excruciating conversations, I got the 5G hotspot ordered, delivered, and configured.

Beyond the speed difference between 4G and 5G, the exclusive plan for the 5G device provided 100 GB of data for the same price as 50 GB of data on the 4G plan. Literally, for the same price, you get faster speeds and a higher data allowance. Absolutely no reason to go with the 4G hotspot if 5G is an option in that case.

Speed on the 5G device is perfectly adequate for our needs. The problem is the data limit. T-Mobile claims to deprioritize data after 100 GB, but in my experience, it flat-out cuts off. Every device that tried to connect to the hotspot claimed to have no internet connection. Since we were streaming high definition video most evenings, and participating in zoom calls for work, we burned through 100 GB in a matter of days. Most of the month, we had to use our phone hotspots for work needs and stream local video from a flash drive plugged into the TV.

Realizing just how little 100 GB is, we've been much better about rationing data now. We stream local content most of the time, and I'm working on turning my emulation Raspberry Pi into a Kodi device and backup Plex server. It won't have all the material present on my main Plex server, but streaming within the same network does not consume data. As long as we have a few staples, that should drastically reduce our data footprint.

In summary, internet access options for campers are pretty terrible. Depending on your needs and situation, some options may be more or less viable. In any case, be prepared to cut back on your data usage. Very few mobile options have unlimited data allowances, and the penalty for going over can be rough. If you're tech savvy, though, there are options to minimize how much data you need or use. Follow this blog, and I'll try to hook you up with what I do to make the most of it.