I'm a little techy, so when my grand daughter burned through my 5GB data plan on the first day of the cycle watching music videos, I started looking for alternatives to the normal hot spot. I was using a Verizon Jetpack, but when the cost went to $80/mo for 5 gb of data, I switched over to Consumer Cellulars hot spot as you can raise and lower your data plan easily online, lending itself to saving money whether or not you are using your RV. Their price for 5GB of data is competitive with Verizon. The down side of Consumer Cellular is that once you hit your 5GB limit, they will "throttle" back your service speed to barely usable. So much for my reading the paper in the morning.
There are actually 2 parts to what I have now moved to: first, while checking AT&T for hot spot pricing ($50/mo for 5 GB data + $10/GB overage) I found that they now offer a "Wireless Home Phone & Internet" option. Now this is just another box (about 4 inches square and 1 inch thick) that is intended to replace your wired home phone connection. The beauty of it is that you get multiple ports on the back - 2 standard phone line ports and 1 ethernet port. It will also allow connecting up to 10 devices wireless. So, it is a hotspot that you can plug a phone into plus an ethernet port which opens up the options for hardwired devices such as routers, computers and printers. The cost is $0 for the box with a 2 year contract or $199 for the box with no contract. Data plan is now $40/mo for 25GB data. Becomes a no brainer if you use much data.
Second part: wifi in an RV park - reading Trailer Life magazine, found an article on how to improve wifi for mobile users using equipment from a company called WiFi Ranger (
http://wifiranger.com). Their stuff is a little pricey at $600 for their Elite pack, but in this case you are getting what you pay for. You get an external antenna for better Rx/Tx which ties into their Go2 box which is essentially a router with custom software. The Go2 is what makes it all happen - 5 ethernet ports, one of which is dedicated to their wifi antennae. It also has a USB port for tethering a hotspot. The Go2 brings all the signals together in one box - wifi from the RV park or McDonalds or Java shop: cell signal from hotspot tethered to USB port,or in my case AT&T device using a second ethernet port. Now the software - Go2 is web based and allows you to control, monitor and prioritize all of your signal usage. You can pick the wifi you wish to connect to based on signal strength. You can set limits on your data use. For example tell it to use cell connection until your data use threshold is met, then switch to wifi. Very flexible plus it also provides a private wifi connection running out of your RV. The kit also comes with DC power supply so you can run the whole thing off of your RV 12 volt system for all you boondockers.
This one got a little long, but I am writing this sitting in the Montana parked 1/2 mile from the house with only battery power, no generator and I have the choice of using a cell connection or the wifi from my house. I am seeing 6-8 Mbps down and up speeds from both. Not bad for mobile.
Last thoughts: Consumer Cellular hotspot will not tether, Verizon Jetpack will. Worst part of all this was getting the cable run from the external antenna into the RV. Go2 is a router so you get at least a base level of security using park provided wifi. I now have a standard phone in the RV - good or bad depending on your view.
Oh, and I now have a handle on the grand daughters devices!
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