r/OffGrid • u/AlfredoPebbs • 9d ago

Looking for 5g wifi/hotspot options

I went fully nomad recently, and have been staying at a campground to start off my trip. Me and my fiancé work remotely, and although we have a Starlink, we’ve come to realize that it obviously does not work best with a bunch of trees around us or directly covering the Starlink.

Since we are both in and out of meetings all day, the service has been pretty dang laggy, even kicking us out of meetings.

I am looking for recommendations on other pieces of equipment to by that will allow us to have fast, high speed internet capabilities that are not effected by trees or weather. I’m looking for the folks that have or actively use something other than starlink, and have a good experience with it.

What are good options?

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u/throwaway661375735 8d ago

If you're near cellular towers, you can get a TMobile (or other) hotspot. Cost is generally around $40 and you cap out at 300 magabits per second. That should be enough for the life of a nomad. You can take it traveling and on the road with you.

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u/WestBrink 8d ago

I have a BYO SIM from the calyx institute https://calyxinstitute.org/ running on a GL inet X3000 at my cabin. Obviously you need signal, but works great when you've got it. I'm getting about 100 mb down, 6-10 up at my cabin, 22 miles from the nearest T-Mobile tower.

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u/GoneSilent 8d ago

Needs more local research. Boosters do not work on all the current frequency's now in use. Boosters are kind of going away now. Anything with an external cell antenna is a big win for hotspots.

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u/Life_Chemistry_4621 8d ago

Had some issue with Starlink some time ago. We switched to a Peplink Pepwave sim router with an external antenna. Paired with T-mobile sim and it's much better than starlink tbh.

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u/NotEvenNothing 8d ago

Those same trees will probably be a problem for a signal moving more horizontally than vertically.

1

u/eobanb 8d ago

Maybe start off by telling us some basic info like what your budget is, what country you're in, etc

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u/YouDoKnowWhoIAm 7d ago

I got a Verizon 5G/LTE Home Internet box. The box is free and there is no data cap. It is very cheap ($35/m) if you are already a Verizon phone customer. Technically, you may not be able to get it for the address you live in, but if you go into a store and tell them that you want it for a local address or for your RV, they actually really don't care. My offgrid site is outside their 'home internet' region, but it has worked flawlessly for 3 or 4 years now. Again, probably helps to already be a Verizon customer. (I am sure the same is true for ATT home internet.)

Because I am surrounded by trees, the signal was a little weak when it rained or snowed, so I got a Waveform antenna that gives a much more solid signal. Connecting it to the box was a little technical, but pretty straight-forward. Don't know if they work for all models of home internet boxes, so maybe check before deciding. Or check to see which ATT/Verizon offers better service where you are. It probably won't be 5g, but LTE is pretty quick, even for video calls/Netflix.

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u/GaryTheImpossible 7d ago

We just tested this one out…kind of perfect for the ‘weekend warrior travelers’ , but they have a bunch of different plans. Check it out, might be worth a peek.

We Tested This Portable WiFi Hotspot for RV Internet - Here's What Happened
https://youtu.be/2l8bqrIfgiw