Top RV or Rural Internet Providers

Jason Jebber · August 16

Hey there everybody!

This is my first post so excuse me if my typing is a little shotty. My name is Jason (many of my friends call me Jason Lyric... yeah. Terrible.), I have 3 kids and ONE wife (yes Shelley I know you're looking at this) and we are currently on the road in an older model RV. We are looking to upgrade our RV within the next month, and while looking around we've found that some RV's come with internet built in. We would go for this but the pricing on this internet is a bit too high and we're not sure if it's reliable or something the RV dealers just slap on the RV to make a quick commission.

We have been weighing our options as of late. We were looking at Starlink but found that it was just too expensive, and too difficult to set up let alone if the service actually works or not. Last night, I was scrolling through Tik-Tok and found a company named Easy Choice Wireless (www.easychoicewireless.com). We might end up going with them because it's all of the major carriers, unlimited data and they have a special discount going on right now where it's only $99 dollars to start with a free router. Friends of our friends have told us that they went with Easy Choice and that they don't regret their decision in the slightest.

We have also looked at OTR Mobile and have heard mixed reviews about them from our close friends. We are not using Nomad Internet no matter how much it is suggested, we've heard enough about them. We've also had some friends go with TravelFi and are slightly considering the same.

If you know about Easy Choice or if you have any alternative options for RV internet please comment below! We'd appreciate it and we hope that your travels are filled with love and light in the coming future.

Jason

Chad Heiser · August 26

I know Starlink is on the expensive side, but it is definitely not hard to set up. It is literally plug (in) and play. All you have to do is set the antenna where it can see the sky, plug it into the router and supply power to the router. It does everything else. I have both cellular based internet for my RV and Starlink. The cellular based internet is decent, but it does not work everywhere. I have yet to find a place where my Starlink doesn’t work.

Bill Joyce · August 26

https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/ is where I go to find the best mobile internet information. Providers like Easy Choice can work well and disappear on you if they get in trouble, so be prepared to change providers it that happens. Many go with a Visible (owned by Verizon) phone plan, which is $25/month with an unlimited hotspot, as their main or backup plan.

TXiceman · August 26

The RVs that "have: internet included really don't. They have something like the Winegard Air 360 which is a poor excuse for an off-air antenna. Then you can buy an additional package to get a WiFi extender or booster. You can also add a SIM card to get mobile carrier.

For the best and most reliable internet on the road you need Star Link. Any that are cell-based work in some areas and don't in others. With the cell-based Systems, you can look at T-Mobile 5g Mobile or hot spots from Verizon or AT&T.

Ken

durangodon · August 26

1 hour ago, TXiceman said:

Any that are cell-based work in some areas and don't in others.

Just like Starlink.

Chalkie · August 26

As a Starlink subscriber I think it honest to point out a couple of things for complete transparency.

1. You have to a have a clear view of the (mostly) northern sky. Just like satellite TV it does not work well in tree cover.

2. Thunderstorms or other heavy cloud cover events can limit or kill reception.

Otherwise, Starlink has been an awesome internet provider.

4McQueens · September 25

I'll echo the Starlink comments. I've tested it out on a couple of trips and here's what I've learned.

Well it aint cheap $600 for the antenna and included router (more on that later), and ~$150/mo for the service. Depending on your location and how busy the system is, I was getting at least 10Mbps download and 2Mb upload (about what I get at home with my ATT uverse service) which was enough for the wife to stream a video and for me to be on a work video call with no performance issues. The best I got was 180Mbps and 9mbps upload..... pretty impressive given it's coming from outer freaking space!!!! (ok LEO, but still....cool) Also, I was on full video and the communication was real-time.... latency was not an issue.

You must have an unobstructed view of the "northern" sky as @Chalkie states above. We purchased a 20' aluminum telescopic flag-pole and an adapter to mount the "dish" on top. This helps to get above some smaller trees and also out of the way from getting kicked or run-over. Lots of mounting options out there to suit your needs. One trick we're trying to use is to check the satellite view on google maps before booking a site to see what the foliage looks like. Pull through spots tend to be more open, but it's the best advanced scouting option we've found so far.

Set-up is a piece of cake. Once my RV has power, I unpack the dish, mast, and router. Mount the dish and place it where I think I'll get a decent connection. Then I plug in the router to my 110 and connect the dish (it's a lot like a USB connector and it only goes in one way) and fire up my Starlink app on my phone and watch it do it's thing. From the start of unpacking to the power-up stage is about 5-10 minutes. give in another 5 minutes to dial into the signal (fully automated) and we have internet. The initial set-up took a bit longer with account registration and all, but the folks at SpaceX put a lot of thought into the process, and I think it's very user-friendly.

For the geeks out there, from what I've researched, all of the "brains" of the system are housed in the antenna. The "router" is basically just a wifi hub and power supply for the dish. If you have a wifi router that can inject POE (power over ethernet) you can get the ethernet adapter from Starlink and use whatever wifi system you want so long as it can take an ethernet uplink. Since I'm planning to work from the road, we're looking at eventually connecting it to a winegard system and pairing it with a 4g hotspot option just in case we get stuck at a site with no visibility so we have some back-up options for connectivity. That being said, if I have an option, Starlink is my go to. Stable and reliable and fast.

ok, and did I mention..... Internet from outer space! I feel like Mark Watney would have totally wanted one of these.

Edited September 25 by 4McQueens

rynosback · September 25

Coverage is all about location to towers. The best option is Starlink. Most of the time the best option in the most expensive.

Lou Schneider · September 25

Starlink needing to see the "northern" sky is false. Their satellites can be anywhere overhead. Dishy orients itself to the north so it's uplink (which is less directional than the receive side) doesn't interfere with geosynchronous satellites over the equator.

Chalkie · September 25

57 minutes ago, Lou Schneider said:

Starlink needing to see the "northern" sky is false. Their satellites can be anywhere overhead. Dishy orients itself to the north so it's uplink (which is less directional than the receive side) doesn't interfere with geosynchronous satellites over the equator.

Let's break this down. Starlink needing to see the "northern" sky is false. We'll circle back to this.

Their satellites can be anywhere overhead. - True.

Dishy orients itself to the north so it's uplink (which is less directional than the receive side) doesn't interfere with geosynchronous satellites over the equator. - Also true.

Now, back to the original sentence - partially true. It is true that it does not need to see the northern sky. In fact, I have been told that the farther north you are located the less northerly the dish orients. I cannot personally verify that. If your clear view at your location is any other direction but northerly you are going to be out of luck. Therefore, for the reason stated in sentence three you really do have to have a clear view of the northern sky since that is the direction the dish orients itself.

Darryl&Rita · September 25

31 minutes ago, Chalkie said:

Therefore, for the reason stated in sentence three you really do have to have a clear view of the northern sky since that is the direction the dish orients itself.

Our summer location is just north of 55th parallel. Starlink dishes look south, here. At the most, they will approach 20* off level, but still pointed south.

Chalkie · September 25

4 hours ago, Darryl&Rita said:

Our summer location is just north of 55th parallel. Starlink dishes look south, here. At the most, they will approach 20* off level, but still pointed south.

Thanks for the confirmation of what I had heard from other places. For most of the lower 48 I have been told it will need the northern exposure.

GeorgiaHybrid · September 27

On 9/25/2023 at 11:19 AM, Chalkie said:

Let's break this down. Starlink needing to see the "northern" sky is false. We'll circle back to this.

Their satellites can be anywhere overhead. - True.

Dishy orients itself to the north so it's uplink (which is less directional than the receive side) doesn't interfere with geosynchronous satellites over the equator. - Also true.

Now, back to the original sentence - partially true. It is true that it does not need to see the northern sky. In fact, I have been told that the farther north you are located the less northerly the dish orients. I cannot personally verify that. If your clear view at your location is any other direction but northerly you are going to be out of luck. Therefore, for the reason stated in sentence three you really do have to have a clear view of the northern sky since that is the direction the dish orients itself.

I can confirm that in Alaska, it will depend on where you are as to where the dish will align. Seward, Homer and other Kenai areas seemed to orient to the south while around Anchorage, Palmer, Talkeetna, Fairbanks and sites in those areas tended to orient to the north.

Even those generalized directions were not absolute. There were times we were aimed NW, SW and SE.

Payroll Person · September 27

On the coasts, dishy points towards the ocean. Slightly inland, we are 60 miles in, it points NW (or NE for the right coasters). It is about spreading the load and leaving more birds for the inlanders.

RollinAt40 · October 13

We've had Starlink through 10 states and it always works, but sometimes the speed is throttled with the RV plan. The latency is alot lower than with cell tower Internet and I've seen the speed is between 20/Mbs and 175/Mbs. Another upside is that the upload speed is faster, so putting my Youtube videos up takes less time.

We've had terrible cell phone service with Mintmobile, but when the Starlink is up we can do wifi calling and text. I'm looking at other plans right now, but we have a full year of Mint paid for already.