# Internet, Telephone and TV!!!



## Captain Ron (Feb 14, 2009)

Hello People,

I have been planning on Full Timing for years. I amretired from the US Army and am on a fixed income if not working. I am going to be ready in April for my first volunteer position at a State Park in Kentucky. There are a few amminities that I require to make life more comfortable which are Internet Access, Telephone and TV. I have located and am using Mobile Broad Band supplied by a company called Millenicom. Just check out the site and make your own decision. Telephone access is solved by this handy device called MagicJack. VOIP at an incredible price. Dish Network has a prepaid satellite service which has differant packages at differant prices and they have the channels I need to live. .

I hope this information helps current full timers and future full timers like myself.

Happy Motoring,

Captain Ron


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## LEN (Feb 14, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

Only problem I see is you are using Sprint, which is good for populated areas but the coverage isn't out in the boonies other services have better coverage.

Welcome

LEN


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## DL Rupper (Feb 14, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

Sounds like a sneaky way to place ads to me.


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## Browzin (Feb 14, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

I have Sprint and have found there coverage to comparable to everyone else. 
If you check coverage area maps you will find that there is not a lot of true difference in coverage area as there was a year or two ago.
Alltel maps http://content.alltel.com/business/enhanced/mobilelink_coverage.jsp?state=nat
AT&T maps http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/
Sprint maps http://coverage.sprintpcs.com/IMPACT.jsp
Verizon maps http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/CoverageLocatorContorller?requesttype=NEWREQUEST/


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## DL Rupper (Feb 15, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

Still sounds like Capt Ron is trying to advertise free. :laugh:


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## Captain Ron (Feb 15, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!



> DL Rupper - 2/15/2009  8:47 AM
> 
> Still sounds like Capt Ron is trying to advertise free. :laugh:



No I am not trying to advertise for free. This post was to give some information which I thought some people could use.  After all this forum called "Full Timing, Comments, questions, or suggestions for full-time RVers."

Captain Ron


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## LEN (Feb 15, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

Browzin, better take a look out west, Sprint is down the freeways and around the big cities. Now if this is where your camping great but for the last month I have been in Bouce AZ Quartzsite Az ans Anza Borrego Ca and I have good cell and EVDO and I have neighbors that don't. Also I have played games going down the road with freinds going places that have ATT, Sprint, and Alltel and found that ATT and Vesizon have quite an edge over the others, not in the populated areas but in the desert mountain and unpopulated areas. And the area maps LIE big time on all the nets. JMO

LEN


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## rjf7g (Feb 15, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

I think your camping patterns and geography still play a huge role in what works best for you. My air card is through nTelos -- ever heard of them?  They provide great coverage in the state of Virginia, which is where I do all of my camping at this point.


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## raskal (Feb 16, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

We began using Verizon while we still had our stick house in Botetourt County, Virginia, and have kept it as we've become full-time across the USA.  The wireless card and phone have not failed us yet no matter the road or locations ... Florida north to Maryland, west on the northern route through Minnesota to Montana and down through California then back into Arizona and New Mexico thus far.

TV, well we've been fine with the antenna and HD now ... of course it's nicer when we find cable.


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## DL Rupper (Feb 16, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

Hey Captain Ron, welcome to the forum.  We get a lot of people that try to advertise for free.  Doesn't sound like you are one of them.  My apologies.


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## pezar (Jun 4, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

Verizon recently bought Alltel. Once the two companies are integrated, they will have THE BEST coverage in the US. Alltel mainly served rural areas.


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## onthecoach (Jun 5, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

HI! Question: Don't you need to have a land-line to use Magic Jack??  I've seen it advertised, but since I only use my cell phone, I didn't think it could work for me.  Maybe I need to look into that??


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## Ducky (Jun 6, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

Anything working well in Alaska areas too??


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## otoko0802 (Jun 18, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

onthecoach,
MagicJack works well over any high speed connection to the Internet except perhaps satellite.  I use MJ with my Verizon wireless EVDO connection.


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## onthecoach (Jun 26, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

WOW!!!  that is really cool!!  Good to know, thank you otoko8002!!!


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## rddog8691 (Jun 27, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

I also did some research on Magic Jack and was going to give it a shot but then heard there was a problem when you had an emergency and had to dial 911. still looking for more info on this.


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## utmtman (Jun 27, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

pezar, sadly the FCC would not let Verizon keep alltels assets,  they were force to sell it all to At&t in order to keep up competition.  Capt Ron, Had sprint once and dish once, sprint had 0 coverage in rural areas and dish network does not support rvers.  Direct tv does support rvers and verizon and at&t have got the best rural coverage in the US.


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## C Nash (Jul 1, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

Sitting here now trying Verizon and had to go out side to get it to work at all.  SLOOOOOW.  Taking it back.  Have had dish for several year and have had no trouble taking it whereever we go.  The tech even installed the second receiver in the MH.


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## *scooter* (Jul 1, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

I now how ya feel with the internet and all.  At home, I have HughesNet and I would rate it fair to poor.  Sometimes I spend hours on the phone trying to get the thing back online and work properly.  I recently changed from Dish (TV) to Direct TV.  Still don't have a clue how to use it in the motorhome.  I have a dish on top the MH, but putting the receiver and dish together in the MH and connecting to the tv set is a mystery.  It's a shame too    
Hang in their C Nash.


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## Guest (Jul 1, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

u guys need the internet in motion thingy ,, it provides antennas on the roof of the rv ,, and u still use u'r cell card ,, but it get's out much better


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## WandaLust (Jul 6, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!





> *scooter* - 7/1/2009  7:19 PM  I now how ya feel with the internet and all.  At home, I have HughesNet and I would rate it fair to poor.  Sometimes I spend hours on the phone trying to get the thing back online and work properly.





After several years of aggravation with Hughes, we switched to Wildblue. It's much better service.


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## thetwoofus (Jul 10, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

Wildblue is great, we use it at home. In our TT we use Verizon wireless for the PC and Verizon wireless cell phones. We've been all over the country the past two years and it works great. We'll be full timing it if the market comes back to life and we can sell our home, until then we'll spend our winters out West and in South Texas with our Verizon Internet and cell phones.
We use Direct TV in the TT. We got tired trying to find that crazy satellite so while in Mesa AZ last year we had the HDTV dish installed on top of the RV and now we push a button and the work is finished. Slimline from Direct TV is the way to go.


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## WandaLust (Aug 18, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!





> thetwoofus - 7/10/2009  2:06 PM  Wildblue is great, we use it at home. In our TT we use Verizon wireless for the PC and Verizon wireless cell phones. We've been all over the country the past two years and it works great. We'll be full timing it if the market comes back to life and we can sell our home, until then we'll spend our winters out West and in South Texas with our Verizon Internet and cell phones. We use Direct TV in the TT. We got tired trying to find that crazy satellite so while in Mesa AZ last year we had the HDTV dish installed on top of the RV and now we push a button and the work is finished. Slimline from Direct TV is the way to go.



We have Verizon cell phones. How do we get Verizon wireless Internet for when we travel? At our stick home we can't get Verizon wireless. The tower is too far away. Do we need any special equipment?


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## raskal (Aug 19, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

Don't know how you'd get service at the "stick house" if there is no tower but getting Verizon wireless for on the road is as easy as going to the local dealer and telling them you want it and paying for the attachment for your laptop/computer.

Ours (both phones and wireless) works wonderfully on the road and in every place we've stopped thus far.


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## CharlieS (Sep 10, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!



> 730 - 7/1/2009  9:21 PM
> 
> u guys need the internet in motion thingy ,, it provides antennas on the roof of the rv ,, and u still use u'r cell card ,, but it get's out much better



Do you have a website or something on this?

Thanks 

Charlie


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## LEN (Sep 19, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

Here is one, if you do a search (google) there are lots of hits.

http://www.wardelectronics.com/internet_in_motion_evdo.htm

LEN


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## CharlieS (Sep 19, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

Thanks Len.

My wife works from home and requires internet service. This looks like it could be the answer..


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## raskal (Sep 20, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

CharlieS, I wonder if you need the added expense of buying and installing the Ward Electronics router system?  After installing it you still need pay for the monthly service with their associated "Sprint" service which is nearly the same cost as I'm paying for my "Verizon" broadband card with the same up link/download speeds.

I'm a photographer and have to upload large files to publishers and it works wonderfully on the road thus far!


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## CharlieS (Sep 20, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!



> raskal - 9/20/2009  9:01 AM
> 
> CharlieS, I wonder if you need the added expense of buying and installing the Ward Electronics router system?  After installing it you still need pay for the monthly service with their associated "Sprint" service which is nearly the same cost as I'm paying for my "Verizon" broadband card with the same up link/download speeds.
> 
> I'm a photographer and have to upload large files to publishers and it works wonderfully on the road thus far!



Raskal

We are just getting started, so we are really grasping at straws - trying to set my wife up so she is mobile. She also deals with publishers and uploads large files - documents and photographs.

Have you tried the wifi service some of the RV parks offer? How does your Verison service compare? 

In our limited experience thus far, the wifi service in the RV parks seems to bog down as more people log on. I guess she wouldn't have that problem with Verizion broadband.

Thanks for your input

Charlie


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## raskal (Sep 20, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

WiFi in the parks is a roll of the dice ... from very good to almost nothing depending on time of day and where you might be within the park.  The Verizon card has not failed however so we've never been without service and my image uploads are usually several MB per especially when dealing with agencies in Europe.

I bought into a plan with unlimited time on the WiFi card because of what I do.

You'll do fine on the road.  Even when things don't go exactly as you wish, the work-arounds are usually easier than you might expect ... different mind set!


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## CharlieS (Sep 20, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!



> raskal - 9/20/2009  6:14 PM
> 
> WiFi in the parks is a roll of the dice ... from very good to almost nothing depending on time of day and where you might be within the park.  The Verizon card has not failed however so we've never been without service and my image uploads are usually several MB per especially when dealing with agencies in Europe.
> 
> ...



Good advice...

Thanks

Charlie


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## CharlieS (Nov 27, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

I just purchased a Verizon MiFi card. It creates a hot spot in your RV and you can run up to 5 PCs on it at a time. It's kind of like being in Starbucks - it requires a password so your neighbors can't eat up your bandwidth. It's pretty much like the Verizon or Sprint broadband card - just you can run more computers at the same time. (The more computers on at the same time - the less bandwidth)

It works great here at home. We are going to be on the road next weekend - I'll post a report on how it does.


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## rcclark (Dec 26, 2009)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

The MiFi and EVDO are both great services to provide Internet while you're out on the road.  I live in an area that did not have DSL or Cable available for a number of years and was an early adopter of EVDO, even before Rev A came out.  I also am waiting for the transition of many wireless networks to 4G over the next year or so that will deliver even better throughput on both the upstream and downstream side of the network - nearing DSL speeds.

There are a couple of important limitations to be aware of when using EVDO.  All of the major US based wireless carriers (VZ, T, S) have "unlimited" data plans that limit you to 5 GB of data throughput per month.  For most people who are checking e-mail, uploading a few photos, or doing some light duty surfing on the web, you'll be fine with that 5 GB of data each month.  If, however, you're a power user you could go over your data usage and get a really big bill for the overage.  For example, if you're downloading video podcasts on iTunes you can expect to use 500 MB of your data downloading just 1 show.  Download a couple of podcasts along with your regular data usage and you could find yourself over your limit in a hurry.  Streaming video using Hulu, Boxee, or your SlingBox? Another way to really eat into your data usage.  Uploading a lot of photos, or working from your RV on a regular basis? That might take you past your 5 GB limit.

Another limitation of EVDO is latency.  While my home DSL connection "pings" a remote server in just 16ms, over EVDO that hang time jumps up to 143ms.  Why is this important? Some connections are particularly sensitive to latency.  VPN connections, for example, might not hold up over EVDO.  VOIP is another application that often does not do well on EVDO due to latency issues.  I was successful using a soft client VOIP application over EVDO several times, but connecting a hard wire phone like a Cisco VOIP phone or a VOIP ATA adapter is something I was never able to do because of the latency.  Voice quality using VoIP over EVDO can be poor with lots of jitter, picket fencing, and dropped packets.  To make VoIP work over EVDO you really need to know your soft client software, the codecs you are using and how to adjust them.  With satellite based Internet services, latency is even worse, running upwards of 250ms.  Running VoIP or VPN services is nearly impossible using satellite based Internet.  One other note, it's likely a violation of the terms of service to use VoIP over EVDO, since the mobile data companies would also like you to purchase mobile phone service as well.  With all of the attention on net neutrality with the recent FCC NPRM on the subject, I doubt any of the carriers are blocking UDP packets on specific ports related to VoIP but it would not surprise me if that changed after attention shifted away from the net neutrality debate.

Unfortunately, I do not believe there is a perfect solution for mobile Internet on the road.  We use two different EVDO cards from two different carriers, a Cradlepoint EVDO router with load balancing, dueling iPhones, and we still seek out Wireless Internet on the road in order to use bandwidth intense applications or stream video content.  I have also used satellite Internet extensively, and while it will work some places EVDO will not, I do not recommend it unless you have a specific application you're planning for like disaster response or a long term stay in a very remote area.

Robert
*camping blog*


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## dvfreelancer (Jan 15, 2010)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

This is an interesting thread for me as most of my business is online.  But I can do things that make it easier to get good use from even an unreliable campground connection.  I can write scripts that compress and upload my files to my servers at times few other people are using the internet connection.  From there I can send them all over on my server bandwidth.  I know how to keep a coffee shop or now McDonald's from tracking what I'm doing with their wi-fi, or the library or any number of other free connections.  

It's still going to be an adjustment.  I'm just not prepared to sign a 2 year commitment for wireless broadband in the state it's in.  I'd be more likely to rent space in one of those shared office places.  They almost always come with decent broadband.  Please do keep posting about your wireless broadband experiences.


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## CharlieS (Jan 16, 2010)

Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!

We are living in our RV full time for the winter and my wife telecommutes. We just finished our first month using our new MiFi card and we did go over our 5 GB limit. I caused that by downloading some large software packages (in excess of 2 GB) which I will not have reason to do again. I believe under normal usage the 5 GB will be more than sufficient for our needs.

All in all, we are very happy with it.

If you do go over your limit, they charge you 5 cents per Megabite.


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## tattooturn (Jul 9, 2019)

Get https://AttHotSpot.com/ its 4g LTE Unlimited Hotspot Data for $60 a month. Super-fast 60+ mbps no slowing, no throttling, no caps, no contracts, all you can use with nationwide coverage. Its never failed me and if i need to i can not pay the bill for a month if im in the boons and just pay the next month when i need it. coverage is super good even in dead spots on hwy 41 in NM still get service when the phones don't.


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## Tom Cooper (Sep 10, 2019)

LEN said:


> Re: Internet, Telephone and TV!!!
> 
> Only problem I see is you are using Sprint, which is good for populated areas but the coverage isn't out in the boonies other services have better coverage.
> 
> ...



Just ran into this problem. I could not think that the coverage of this company is so small (I think)


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## JudithJohnson (Sep 24, 2019)

Thank you!


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## RhysShort (Sep 30, 2019)

I'm using internet mostly to play games such as that one https://rocketpayz.com/no-deposit-casino-paypal/ and to read books. I like Kipling.


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## rzleach4545 (Oct 2, 2019)

Been looking into togo.. Anybody here have it?


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## Shipahoy (Oct 5, 2022)

What do you guys know about Star Link?  I know several people who have gotten it recently and think it's great...  And i heard Musk is sending up a fleet of additional satellites...


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## davidosmani (Dec 19, 2022)

Verizon recently bought Alltel. Once the two companies are integrated, Nox Vidmate VLC they will have THE BEST coverage in the US. Alltel mainly served rural areas.


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