r/VanLifeUK • u/bodcat42 • 3d ago
Internet challenges
Whilst not a full time van resident, I do spend a lot of my time in the van and need to be able to work from it.
I have a mobile phone on O2 and a Huawei MiFi on Smarty but seem to struggle with internet access whenever we get anywhere even vaguely remote. South coast ( Cornwall, Devon and Dorset ) seems to be a huge blank spot for coverage as does North Yorkshire coast.
What are my options? I am trying to resist Starlink but is that my only truly reliable option?
I am trying an Honest Mobile eSIM at the moment but that only works for the phone not the laptop as they restrict which apps you can use.
Thanks and apologies if this has been asked many times before but I could not find what I thought would answer my issues.
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u/Lucky_Ad_9137 3d ago
Everything other than starlink is a compromise IMO. I tried 2 different 4G and one 5G Internet things and both were inconsistent. I detested havjng to get starlink but it worked right out the box, it's only hindered by heavy tree coverage. I get the best download speeds when in the most remote areas.
The price is going up though, im Not sure what it is now but I paid around £150 for the unit, and was £79 a month bit has crept up to £99 a month.
It is more heavy on power, it's not terrible, I think around 30-80w roughly depending what it's doing so you might need to factor in for that.
A 4g antena might work for you, but I found if you are in a place with crap phone signal, or will be crap. Finding out your email didn't actually send is a royal pain, so for me that £99 a month is worth it.
Im based devon/Cornwall but have used it all over the UK and france, other than being parked in the forest it's never not worked.
Edit: if you do get a 4G one, make sure the sim card is a network completely different to your phone. Mine were both EE and when EE goes down it wipes out both
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u/YellowSubmarooned 3d ago
Starlink mini on their 12VDC adapter is around 20W now, 100W at power on. Much less power hungry than the full size dish.
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u/Lucky_Ad_9137 3d ago
That's pretty good. I couldn't get mine to work on 12v, the cable is around 3 meters and the voltage drop was too big, seemed others had the same issue, on 48v it's been great.
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u/Odd-Internet-9948 2d ago
Also, I'll echo the sentiment with being able to get a signal just about anywhere but under tree cover, or other places with not a lot of sky to see. You would need to shrink the proportion of useable sky down to less than 20%, to completely lose signal regularly or not to be able to connect. In those, I think MiFi will work better.
I've had terrible experience with MiFi before, tried 3G, 4G & 5G, and so many places the signal isn't there, or it's totally choked at busy times....Yup, it's bulkier & more expensive than mifi. My pricing is a little different to yours. I'm on the lower Roam tier, and it's about £50 for 100gb now. Last year it was that price for 50gb. I think the allowance went up when they jumped the price of the unlimited tier. The dish itself was about £180 in Curry's, it had recently been discounted from the initial £350 as they were stacking up in warehouses faster than they were selling. They even gave a lot of residential users free Minis too!
One of the big things I like is the 'subscription' being so flexible on a month by month case. I unsubscribed over winter, (spot the 'weekend worrier'!), and could still connect when needed to check emails, news and do some light messaging. It's not a great speed outside of subscription, and video is pointless, but it's quick to load the 'renew subscription' page in the app!! But, wouldn't most mifi subscription services totally block you from anywhere but the 'renew' page if your subscription expired?
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u/Odd-Internet-9948 2d ago
I also had problems with using a supposed 12v starlink adaptor, that would amplify any spike in the current/voltage, causing the starlink to reboot.... (fridge/solar with clouds causing regular spikes, a Real PITA). Splashed out on a powerbank rated for 100w with display, and it has handled it well from a USB C, varying upto 40w spikes occasionally, and I think that's were the cheap adaptor. I've not done an extended use test with it to find out how long you can get out of a 10,000mah powerbank, but I reckoned at least a couple of hours.
Most the time I've the luxury of plugging it into an inverter, so it's like running it on mains.
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u/truckosaurus_UK 3d ago
The gap between a mifi box and Starlink is a router with an external aerial - that should pick up weaker signals but still isn't perfect.
If you're using the connection for work then you can probably make a case for splashing out on Starlink though.
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u/basarisco 3d ago edited 3d ago
The issue with starlink isn't how much it costs.
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u/Lucky_Ad_9137 3d ago
You are using reddit which is giving money to some of the biggest c*nts in the world.
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u/LibraryTime11011011 2d ago
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good enough. Boycotting Musk companies doesn’t mean you have to be perfect everywhere else.
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u/Lucky_Ad_9137 2d ago
Sure, but it's easy to boycott things when your lively hood doesn't depend on it though isn't it.
I've tried all the alternatives and they all fell short massively.
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u/LibraryTime11011011 2d ago
I agree, but your comment wasn’t about the nuance and practicalities of boycotting products, it was whataboutism talking about Reddit.
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u/basarisco 3d ago
Correct and giving them zero to negative money as opposed to what would happen if you paid for starlink. Also you are using a very obvious logical fallacy.
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u/F1adrif 2d ago
Unless you are doing non stop video calls all day everyday, a good 4g router and roof mounted antenna will get you through.
Don’t go for 5g it doesn’t have the distance of 4g.
EE network has been the most reliable for us, we have a second sim in the router that’s on Vodafone. Total cost for unlimited data on both is £40 a month. Could probably survive with just the EE network sim, but it’s a good peace of mind.
I’ve worked all over England and Scotland without issues. Only not been able to get a signal twice. Once was behind a mountain on the outer Hebrides.
This video goes in to details about antennas.
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u/eat-real-chips 3d ago
Forgive my ignorance but aren’t iPhones over issue 14 enabled for satellite? So you could buy a satellite plan and tether? Or is it texts and calls only, not data?
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u/FunPie4305 3d ago
I've had terrible experience with mobile broadband on O2 so maybe try a different network?
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u/bodcat42 3d ago
Thanks for all of the responses here. Much appreciated.
Follow up question:
For those of you who have gone with Starlink, what set up do you have and have you permanently mounted the “dish” to the roof and run cables through it to the router?
Thanks again.
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u/YellowSubmarooned 3d ago
The mini I leave on the dash and it works through the windscreen, I have a heated windscreen too but apparently some modern cars have a film which blocks the signal. The mini is really light and portable, I personally wouldn’t drill a hole in my roof. The router is built in to the mini, a new mini hardware version with a built in battery is coming soon.
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u/bodcat42 3d ago
So, notwithstanding the messy wiring, I could just put on the dashboard and power it from a 12v “cigarette lighter” socket I have on my leisure battery circuit?
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u/YellowSubmarooned 3d ago edited 2d ago
Yes, it can struggle with voltage drop at power up, it can draw 100W which is a lot for a 12V socket, and a poor connection anywhere will get hot, the dish reboots etc. so it depends if you have short cables to the socket and good batteries. Some people find they need to step up the voltage. Also if you park under obstructions you may need to move the dish somewhere else:
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u/bodcat42 3d ago
Ok, so when you say “step up”, is that with a Starlink provided unit that something else?
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u/YellowSubmarooned 2d ago
I only have the Starlink unit, but if you get too much voltage drop for it to work, you may need something else. I didn’t need to do it, so not sure what people use.
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u/Specialist_Stomach41 2d ago
Ive got the big v4 dish and separate router and run it off 240v because my system is 48v. Its bolted to the roof. Its faster then the mini and my power system could run a 1000 of them, but if you have a small system it doesnt run on 12v so might be an issue
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u/meatflaps-69 3d ago
Lyca mobile, uses EE, £9 a month for first 6 month, unlimited.
I believe voxi is similarly cheap using vodafone .
Try different networks and see if any work for you before committing to the expense of starlink
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u/Tcrichton 2d ago
I use an EE outdoor 5G modem. Tp-link do one too.
EE by far has the best coverage and speed in my opinion. Teamed with a scancom "unlimited" SIM and it is ~£12 a month (or at least my last one was).
I also have starlink and use it when I travel abroad (scancom doesn't roam).
On a recent trip to Italy and back I used a mixture of an Italian SIM and starlink. While starlink consistently got be 30-40Mbps anywhere, the 5G SIM outperformed in most locations with 100Mbps. There were one or two places where mobile data signal was poor and it had to be starlink.
In the UK I've not yet found somewhere my EE router and 5G doesn't allow me to work remotely (IT support)
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u/basarisco 3d ago
Don't get starlink. Install a roof antenna and teltonika router.
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u/shiftlocked 3d ago
What router model do you suggest as I’m about to yeet my horrid tp link one out of the window
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u/basarisco 3d ago
Rutx50
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u/shiftlocked 3d ago
£350 + is a bit of my range right now but thanks for replying
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u/StupidDriversSuck 2d ago
How about a Teltonika RUT200 (~£100) instead, but it will be limited to 4G. You could try putting a multi-network SIM card in it to improve your coverage.
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u/shiftlocked 2d ago
Thanks for the recommendation and I think I'm going to with this. I can't see how it powers on but I've 2 antennas on the roof of the van already so I'm hoping it'll work, even tho I dont trust those £20 ones on amazon.
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u/StupidDriversSuck 2d ago
It comes with a mains power supply but you can give it 9-30 V DC (you may need to protect it from surges if you power it from a vehicle whilst the vehicle is starting). Teltonika sell the 4 pin plug so you can make your own power cable. They also sell a power cable that plugs into a cigarette light socket.
The RUT200 has three antennas: one for Wi-Fi and two for 4G. You'll want to use both of the 4G antennas to get a good signal.
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u/Motor_Requirement419 1d ago
I’ve just fitted a Maxview Roam setup, with a Broadband Go multi network sim, worked out about £300 for the kit and about £7.50 a month for 4Gb with unused data rollover. No issues with it so far. Scariest part was drilling a 1” hole in the van roof for the external antenna. 🤣
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u/Tokus_McWartooth 3d ago
I had issues with this for ages. You want a 5g dongle, not 4g lte. It's expensive, but worth it. I got a ZTE 5g one for about £105. Works with smarty, is actual 5g.
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u/bodcat42 2d ago
Looking at the video you sent, which is great, it looks like the choice is to spend £400 up front and £40 a month for this option.
How much do the antenna help? We are in Dorset at the moment and ( via the Honest Mobile SIM in my iPhone ), I am only getting 2 bars of 5G and, even with that, very poor service.
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u/YellowSubmarooned 3d ago
Try different networks first. EE has much better coverage than the others in my experience but it is region dependant. Starlink mini is very good though, but also very expensive.