Internet while on the road

[rsdata]

But I have to ask, did you try a different phone?

In four years I have increased my winter camping in FL from 10 days, to 3 weeks to 9+ weeks the last two years. Prior to this past winter I had an iPhone 4. Using that phone basically gave me the same problems as I have with this iPhone 5S.

My daughter had ATT on my plan up to 2 years ago with an iPhone 4. She visited us 2 winters ago, near Naples at Collier-Seminole SP campground and had Verizon bars when I had none on ATT. She pleasure boats regularly on Lake Cumberland on the KY/TN border and has bars most everywhere on that 110 mile long impoundment, where I have none.

If I am near any freeway I have good service 90% of the time. If I am closse to or in any city I have good service... but in suburban or rural areas there are many dead spots with ATT.

You guys out west have different cell service challenges then we do here in the east, where population densities are much different. I do not doubt the ATT is better for you in your region and should I ever travel there and be without using Verizon... I promise I will remember this conversation! THX for the info.

[Reb Kitt]

We bought a Strait Talk 4G WIFI from Wally World. It uses the ATT network and you just buy the data you need when you need it. Great prices for the data too. When you don't need it you don't pay after the 30 days expires. Just reactivate when you need it again even if it is several months between activations.

[meganjoe]

Originally Posted by Reb Kitt

We bought a Strait Talk 4G WIFI from Wally World. It uses the ATT network and you just buy the data you need when you need it. Great prices for the data too. When you don't need it you don't pay after the 30 days expires. Just reactivate when you need it again even if it is several months between activations.

Is there something similar for Verizon??

[plshilo]

We use a Verizon Jetpack 4G lte and it Works Great at home and in the 5er most anywhere.....

[obxfanatic]

Thanks for all of the suggestions and advice. How much data does everyone use in one month? Do you think 5 Gigs would be enough for doing mostly work such as email and Word/Excel? I occasionally download large files (50-60 meg) but that's about it. I'm excited to try working while on the road. It is something I have always wanted to try.

[plshilo]

Originally Posted by obxfanatic

Thanks for all of the suggestions and advice. How much data does everyone use in one month? Do you think 5 Gigs would be enough for doing mostly work such as email and Word/Excel? I occasionally download large files (50-60 meg) but that's about it. I'm excited to try working while on the road. It is something I have always wanted to try.

we have 15 gig, for three devices (2 phones & one MIFI) and don't go over our plan....

[Kaadk]

Originally Posted by obxfanatic

Thanks for all of the suggestions and advice. How much data does everyone use in one month? Do you think 5 Gigs would be enough for doing mostly work such as email and Word/Excel? I occasionally download large files (50-60 meg) but that's about it. I'm excited to try working while on the road. It is something I have always wanted to try.

Right now I'm at a client site where I have no access to wifi, and have to rely on my cellular hotspot for all non-client related work (such as conferences, remote desktop connections, email, web surfing, etc...) Last month was the first time I broke 1 GB.

As far as camping, I've just used the hotspot in a pinch. It works for most work related work as long as you have at least 3G coverage.

Alternatively, you can use a trick I leveraged when I was on my old carrier and didn't have hotspot functionality. In those times, when I needed to do work, especially conference calls via our web phone, I would track down the closest starbucks. Usually their connections are decent, and as long as you're leveraging a good secure VPN connection there's not as much concern over security. Enough that I wouldn't be doing any open banking with their connection, but secure enough that I wasn't hesitant to connect in the first place. And Starbucks type places are known used to having people there working, so you don't seem as out of place taking a call as say a McDonald's or a gas station or the like.

Local libraries often also offer wifi, but Starbuck's seem easier to find.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by obxfanatic

Thanks for all of the suggestions and advice. How much data does everyone use in one month? Do you think 5 Gigs would be enough for doing mostly work such as email and Word/Excel? I occasionally download large files (50-60 meg) but that's about it. I'm excited to try working while on the road. It is something I have always wanted to try.

It's wildly variable. I had a project where I was going through a gigabyte *a day* on work days. But, we also had some horrendous database queries that were transferring like 17mb between the DB and web server (which was my local workstation as I worked on stuff).

I have a 15gb plan right now and really wish I had a 30gb plan for going full time in the camper.