Wifi 3G 4G 5G Connectivity and European Touring

[Pixcels]

Friends of mine have bought their very first camper van: a 2016 California Ocean.
They are making plans - big plans, for driving through France to Italy and then back through Spain.
They are spending winter poring over routes and maps and generally having a good time without even using petrol.
But, and it's a big but, needs to stay in contact with her business and check in with her colleagues on a daily basis via a Zoom meeting.
As I'm a bit nerdy they asked me how to go about rigging up a rock solid communications system in their mobile home.
Frankly it's well above my pay grade !
Saw lots of whizzy kit that may fit the bill at the last Camper Show but I was only paying passing interest.
Since Covid a lot of people have been working from home and I have heard of folk who have moved their office into their mobile home but how have they overcome the technical challenges ?
Is it solid enough for business ?
Will it work throughout Europe ?
Will it support Zoom meetings of 12 people ?

The only helpful thing I've been able to tell them so far is that one day their comms will go down and they will lose contact: I think it's inevitable if you find yourself parked up in the shade of a mountain range with no signal; then you need a back up plan.

I know there are companies out there who specialise in this sort of kit and I will be contacting them, but in the meantime I would appreciate any real world, hands on recommendations, problems etc.

So anyone have any first hand knowledge of communication kit and the way forward ?

 

[dspuk]

TBH, while you can go overboard, just using phone works fine. I went to France earlier in the year and worked from the van at Eurotunnel and the French site, inc Teams call, zero issues.

We do now have the BlackVue 900x Plus dashcam setup and LTE unit, which gives us a 40GB monthly limit, Europe wide, for 4 quid a month.

This setup now allows us to connect 4 devices to the Dashcam and share the LTE connection. Again, works perfect and we have used to teams and Netflix. Quite a bit more expensive than just a std wifi setup. The LTE unit though is just a black box that's on the top right windscreen, no different to a phone.

Other option is just a mobile hotspot - cheap at about 40 quid at Argos, works the same as a phone and we'd found the higher up the van we put the phone (I perch in the pop top) the better they work. It's effectively just a dumb phone.

For phone we were lucky enough to have an EE contract from before Brexit, so all our data works fine in Europe. Newer contracts don't though. I believe O2 still covers EU as std though.

 

[Ting Tong]

We work and travel extensively and are big data users. The issue now is that most UK mobile phone providers have a data cap and/or a fair roaming policy in the EU.

Whilst you can tether laptops etc to your phone, it’s not really designed for that and they are best getting a mifi device.

Something simple like a Huawei E5577 mifi with a £20 unlimited SIM card on a monthly contract from iDmobile would be perfect. The Huawei allows up to 16 devices to share its wifi connection. At the moment iDmobile don’t have a data cap and their fair roaming merely prevents more than 2 months roaming in any 4. Popit mobile is another but they are 100gb for £25 a month.

 

[Webbah_in_Switzerland]

I work from my van daily and do Zoom calls all day long. I also needed a solid and stable connection and purchased this kit. It's not cheap, but this is a modified router from Germany that adds external antenna's for excellent coverage. I opted for the antenna's directly attached to the router vs installing something on the roof. I've never had any drops at all:

Huawei 5G Router CPE Pro 2 inkl. externer Antennenaschlüsse

FTS Hennig bietet den 5G CPE Pro 2 Router von Huawei exklusiv mit 6 externen Antennenanschlüssen an - für besten 5G Empfang zu Hause & im Büro!

www.fts-hennig.de

 

[Webbah_in_Switzerland]

I work from my van daily and do Zoom calls all day long. I also needed a solid and stable connection and purchased this kit. It's not cheap, but this is a modified router from Germany that adds external antenna's for excellent coverage. I opted for the antenna's directly attached to the router vs installing something on the roof. I've never had any drops at all:

Huawei 5G Router CPE Pro 2 inkl. externer Antennenaschlüsse

FTS Hennig bietet den 5G CPE Pro 2 Router von Huawei exklusiv mit 6 externen Antennenanschlüssen an - für besten 5G Empfang zu Hause & im Büro!

www.fts-hennig.de

Note, you will also need the 12v 2A cable to power this via a 12v socket.

 

[Pixcels]

TBH, while you can go overboard, just using phone works fine. I went to France earlier in the year and worked from the van at Eurotunnel and the French site, inc Teams call, zero issues.

We do now have the BlackVue 900x Plus dashcam setup and LTE unit, which gives us a 40GB monthly limit, Europe wide, for 4 quid a month.

This setup now allows us to connect 4 devices to the Dashcam and share the LTE connection. Again, works perfect and we have used to teams and Netflix. Quite a bit more expensive than just a std wifi setup. The LTE unit though is just a black box that's on the top right windscreen, no different to a phone.

Other option is just a mobile hotspot - cheap at about 40 quid at Argos, works the same as a phone and we'd found the higher up the van we put the phone (I perch in the pop top) the better they work. It's effectively just a dumb phone.

For phone we were lucky enough to have an EE contract from before Brexit, so all our data works fine in Europe. Newer contracts don't though. I believe O2 still covers EU as std though.

TBH, while you can go overboard, just using phone works fine. I went to France earlier in the year and worked from the van at Eurotunnel and the French site, inc Teams call, zero issues.

We do now have the BlackVue 900x Plus dashcam setup and LTE unit, which gives us a 40GB monthly limit, Europe wide, for 4 quid a month.

This setup now allows us to connect 4 devices to the Dashcam and share the LTE connection. Again, works perfect and we have used to teams and Netflix. Quite a bit more expensive than just a std wifi setup. The LTE unit though is just a black box that's on the top right windscreen, no different to a phone.

Other option is just a mobile hotspot - cheap at about 40 quid at Argos, works the same as a phone and we'd found the higher up the van we put the phone (I perch in the pop top) the better they work. It's effectively just a dumb phone.

For phone we were lucky enough to have an EE contract from before Brexit, so all our data works fine in Europe. Newer contracts don't though. I believe O2 still covers EU as std though.

 

[Pixcels]

Thanks - very interesting stuff
I don't think my friends will be needing a dash cam though, ... maybe, I'll run it past them.

 

[Pixcels]

We work and travel extensively and are big data users. The issue now is that most UK mobile phone providers have a data cap and/or a fair roaming policy in the EU.

Whilst you can tether laptops etc to your phone, it’s not really designed for that and they are best getting a mifi device.

Something simple like a Huawei E5577 mifi with a £20 unlimited SIM card on a monthly contract from iDmobile would be perfect. The Huawei allows up to 16 devices to share its wifi connection. At the moment iDmobile don’t have a data cap and their fair roaming merely prevents more than 2 months roaming in any 4. Popit mobile is another but they are 100gb for £25 a month.

Yes, the question of SIM card for a MIFI seems pretty important for cost and effective coverage.
5G is obviously the fastest system we have at the moment but if you have a 5G SIM will it operate in places where there is no 5G signal ie is it backward compatible to 4G LTE and 3G ?
Because my friends will have a schedule of Zoom meeting to fulfil it will be imperative, for them, to guarantee a solid connection.
So far I have recommended an external antenna for the MiFI (Suction mounted would be best)
A SIM card that is set up for data throughout Europe, including Italy.
And the very best MIFI router they can afford

 

[Pixcels]

Note, you will also need the 12v 2A cable to power this via a 12v socket.

That certainly is an expensive bit of kit but seems very professional
I notice that there are some of these units available on Ebay () for about 300 GBP
If it is a 5G unit how does it perform when there is only 4G or 3G signal available ?
I assume it is backward compatible but I may be wrong.

 

[Pixcels]

Anyone have experience of the Netgear MIFI systems vs Huawei ?

Netgear:https://www.netgear.com/uk/home/mobile-wifi/hotspots/mr5200/?utm_source=Google Shopping&utm_campaign=Netgear PLA Feed&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=3350&cid=uk-nh-m5-shopping-cpc&utm_source=shopping&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=uk-nh-m5-shopping-cpc&gclid=Cj0KCQiA1ZGcBhCoARIsAGQ0kkpOz91Oqq3EdZoOyU-huON_4fZIqOfGDiYEHRBQdeuFzf0gamJcw0MaAtHzEALw_wcB

 

[Webbah_in_Switzerland]

That certainly is an expensive bit of kit but seems very professional
I notice that there are some of these units available on Ebay () for about 300 GBP
If it is a 5G unit how does it perform when there is only 4G or 3G signal available ?
I assume it is backward compatible but I may be wrong.

It works on all bands without issue. It has 4 LTE antennas and 2 5G antennas. It’s 6x6 MIMO as well which is rare.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Webbah_in_Switzerland]

Anyone have experience of the Netgear MIFI systems vs Huawei ?

Netgear:https://www.netgear.com/uk/home/mobile-wifi/hotspots/mr5200/?utm_source=Google Shopping&utm_campaign=Netgear PLA Feed&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=3350&cid=uk-nh-m5-shopping-cpc&utm_source=shopping&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=uk-nh-m5-shopping-cpc&gclid=Cj0KCQiA1ZGcBhCoARIsAGQ0kkpOz91Oqq3EdZoOyU-huON_4fZIqOfGDiYEHRBQdeuFzf0gamJcw0MaAtHzEALw_wcB

I started with this unit and returned it. Why? The 2 external antenna ports, if used, will drop it down to 4G speeds. It only can use 5G without external antennas as it has 4x4 mimo internal antennas.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Webbah_in_Switzerland]

Some of the additional benefits I've enjoyed having a fixed router in my van:

- I installed an Apple homepod mini for music and movies. It also acts as a homekit hub
- Installed an Eve Room so I can monitor the temps and air quality anywhere. Useful if water tanks are full in winter so I can kick on the standing heater
- Installed Garmin dashcams with wifi and can monitor the cameras anywhere on demand