Question is, What is the best most reliable way to always have internet connection while driving? Plan is my Wife uses zoom a lot for her job and wants to work as we drive around the country with our slide in camper. The current truck is f-350 none sync 3 head unit. Cost is not an issue. If see can work while traveling it pays for it self.

 

Find an unlimited cellular or hotspot plan & tether. I have Firstnet & tether a laptop & two iPads to my iPhone while traveling. Average about 100 - 150 GB’s per month.

 

So we already have unlimited data through Verizon. And she just picked up a 5G iPad with the built in hot spot. Sounds close to what you are doing? Are there times you loose connection? Little new to this hotspot thing. My guess is if we loose cell phone service driving through to mountains will we loose internet as well. Looking for a solution around this if there is one.

 

Your WiFi (hot spot) will only be as good as your cell phone service. If cell phone service is bad so will be the Hot Spots. There really is no way around that unless you get AT&T and Verizon and T-mobile service and use which ever one has coverage where you are at.

 

I don't use one but a mobile wifi hot spot sounds like what you are looking for. At&t, Verizon and others all have some sort of device and plan available. Some reviews say that internet service continued even in places where their cell phone service was weak or non existent.

 

I have tried a few different cell phone service providers and none have anything close to total coverage, many areas around the country where internet just doesn't work at all and many more areas that are spotty at best, so you will never get consistency as you travel down the road.
Now, once you stop somewhere, then you may get a more stable connection, but that varies too.
Your 5G connection will only be good near cities, no good out on the road.

 

That's my understanding with the iPad. I will be the hot spot device while she uses her Mac book. Also just read you can plug something into the OBD-II And it turns the truck into the Wi-Fi antenna. Instead of relying on the small built in antenna's of the smaller devices like iPones/iPads.

 

Why do you care about wi-fi???
You don't get your cell signal by wi-fi.
You can connect to some local internet connection by wi-fi, and I guess the trucks 4G connects to the truck's occupants devices by wi-fi.
Your hot spot connects with other nearby devices by wi-fi, but you don't need any special antenna for that.

Now, they do make cell signal boosters that help some, but they don't do as well as they should for the money.

 

The reason is they can only boost a signal if they have one. So even a weak one can be boosted. The problem is they have a weak signal to the main tower and you can only go as fast as your slowest link.

A lot of folks in RV's travel with hot spots. So I am told. With every company claiming to have the fastest speeds and most coverage you really have to figure out who has the best coverage in the areas you are the most and go with them. I use AT&T my daughter has Verizon we traveled from Seattle to Cleveland a few years ago. Along I80 I had coverage most of the way. She didn't have coverage in certain areas and I lost coverage in other areas along the same roads. AT&T seemed to have more coverage during that trip then Verizon did.

With the 5G coming on line be-careful which company you go with because it is not nation wide yet as one company claims. It is mostly in the big cities now, even that is spotty at times.

You could alway stop at a rest area when she is in a meeting to make sure you don't drop off line.

 

While it’s still not 100% ready, Starlink could be the way to go. Supposedly, by the end of the year all the satellites will be completely deployed and they are also working on mobile versions of the receiving satellite. I know some are already playing around with them and even taking them well out of their geofenced area.

 

Unlimited cell phone plan with hotspot.

 

Right, and he has that. I think he is looking for something more reliable as far as signal strength goes. Cell phone signal strength can vary by phone, even with the same service provider. For example, my wife and I both have AT&T, but there are times when my Samsung will have a signal and her Iphone won't. Or vice versa even though we are in the same exact location. I think that is where a mobile wifi hotspot device(not a cell phone) might in some cases do better. Or the device the OP was looking into that apparently turns the truck into a big antenna.

 

Does anyone use the Ford Connect hot spot on their truck via ATT? I figure for only $20/month we are going to hook it up and see how it does. The bad thing is our cell phones are also ATT... it would be nice if we could choose another service provider for the Ford Connect, this way I could keep our ATT phones and then add Verizon on the Ford Connect... that would give us 2 different options at the same time and would likely increase the chance of having signal more often.

 

I don’t think it pays to use the truck as a hot spot. My cellphone seemed to work fairly well along the main highways when we went from Green Bay to Alaska. But didn’t work as soon as I got away from the main highway Most camp grounds had some sort of WiFi .

im not so sure starlink will work well on the move. I’m saying this because I would often loose the satellite radio signal when driving in heavily wooded areas.

 

I have some electrical equipment in my camper that I would like to keep connected to the internet as often as I can. When I am at home this is not a problem, but when traveling the range on my cell phone to the equipment inside the camper isn't that great... I was wondering how the range is on the truck... I'd imagine it was better than my phone. I see that 3 months are free though, so that should give me time to figure out if I like the Ford Connect hot spot or not.

And yea Starlink is still in beta, however, it's been reported that they are working on a mobile version that is ideal for "aircraft, ships, large trucks and RV's." I know Ray from Love Your RV has been beta testing one and while it still isn't perfect for moving around he seems to get good signal when in his geofenced location. It seems like once they get all the satellites launched then all they have to do is "unlock" the geofenced location so that it can just connect to whichever satellite(s) is best viewed from wherever you happen to be. Last I saw its supposed to be ready by the end of 2021 so we will see. I will not be traveling full time til late 23 so hopefully by then it will be in it's prime!