Van WIFI & Mobile Data -- How I Done It --

[6Legger]

For years I worked mobile and travelling with work, but not where my overnight accomodation would have wifi, and tethering had its issues.
I ended up with a Huawei E5577 which had a pair of ts9 ports for antennas, and had plugged in a Connextech 4G Magmount antenna. It had a long enough lead to reach the roof of the cab. It had an internal wifi antenna that when it was in the cab on the dashboard was good enough for my needs.
It was too the point when I moved over to a shared truck, the night driver got to use it too. Back then I had bags of data.
When I moved from tramping to day work I transferred the setup to my own vehicle, and eventually it died. All that use had worn down some internal solders and a tech friend of mine had it for a new life supporting a church system.

So I moved to a static system. I now use a Teltonika RUT240 router in my car, plumed into a 12v power feed and switch. I've a pair of external 4g antennas now, on either side of the car and a basic wifi antenna, but I think that might be updated soon.

I recently loaned that out at an event and they used it to support the tavern's card machines as the local towers were having some work done. I used a 4g directional panel antenna to hook up on a functioning tower about 20 miles away. It meant I had to goto the bar whenever I wanted a decent signal as my own 4g connection was calls only, no data.

If you're going for a permanent system then the 12v RUT240 is good for many reasons including giving you an ethernet port as well. I have used it as backup at home when my ADSL went down.

My father still uses the Huawei modems on his camper van for his travels. He now has one for UK and one for Europe after some, um, complicated configuration changes post brexit. He just swaps the device over and doesn't have to worry about the technical issues

 

[Ayjay]

I've got a little Huawei E5783 4G wifi router that I use only when on road trips in Europe with a pre-paid sim for internet connections on iPad and laptops. I don't recall ever failing to deliver an internet connection at a usable sped anywhere (but I don't use it for large downloads). I'm actually quite happy with 4G as it delivers speeds not dissimilar to those at home (in the region of 70 Mbps) which is fast enough for me but I appreciate that some might not agree. The Huawei does NOT have any external antennae sockets and when travelling I keep it plugged into a USB socket under the front of the pop top.

 

[Ayjay]

Further to the above, I also meant to say that I'm also keeping my eye on prices of similar routers to mine but which are 5G capable. At the moment, 5G would be a relatively expensive luxury but I doubt it will be long before the the prices of the routers start coming down in the same way as the 4G ones did.

 

[Higgidav]

Myself and my wife are off to Europe for 10 weeks soon and trying to decide the pros and cons of getting a mifi unit vs roaming charges.

We are both on EE sim only plans and they have a £10 each monthly add on pass to be able to use our UK plans in Europe. Our data allowances are 12GB each per month.

Based on previous trips we can both easily exceed 12GB monthly.

Ideally I don’t want to be worried about exceeding our allowances and a mifi unit would solve that. I want pay as you go rather than a monthly commitment. Do you just pick up a local sim or get one before travelling?

 

[MyOtherCarIsA]

Do you just pick up a local sim or get one before travelling?

Just pick one up when you get there. They are sold everywhere, all over Europe - you'll be able to get one in a newsagents or a supermarket.

 

[Alied]

Myself and my wife are off to Europe for 10 weeks soon and trying to decide the pros and cons of getting a mifi unit vs roaming charges.

We are both on EE sim only plans and they have a £10 each monthly add on pass to be able to use our UK plans in Europe. Our data allowances are 12GB each per month.

Based on previous trips we can both easily exceed 12GB monthly.

Ideally I don’t want to be worried about exceeding our allowances and a mifi unit would solve that. I want pay as you go rather than a monthly commitment. Do you just pick up a local sim or get one before travelling?

Free mobile the best SIM card for Europe travel and France unlimited data and call SIM card

Free Mobile is said to be the most powerful SIM card in France. The unlimited capacity is very attractive compared to ot

tabiparislax.com

There is a Free shop in Cite de Europe if you go to europe via the channel tunnel.You can easily extend the sim monthly until you no longer need to use it in your account section.

 

[Ayjay]

The problem with most UK mobile broadband providers is that they will sell you a, say, 20, 40 or even unlimited monthly plan but even if they do allow roaming within that plan, they will limit it to 12GB when you're doing it - 12GB seems to be the generally accepted limit with UK providers which has the vague whiff of collusion about it! The last time we were away for an extended period in Europe last year was for just over 4 weeks. My wife and I have 10GB per month allowance on each off our mobiles plus the 12GB GB on the router (using a 16GB pre-paid sim from 3 for £9) and it was just enough between them all. I downloaded a Times every day but nothing else too data hungry and also used Google Maps / Waze all the way down to Croatia and back using data on my phone (but I was actually very surprised at how little data that took!). One thing worth noting is that when I looked into it, 3 charges more to top up the existing data sim with 10GB that it costs to buy a new 16GB one as mentioned above for £9 where you only get to use 12GB. Hope all that's clear enough. I will be looking into 'Free' as mentioned by @Alied for the next time.

 

[Zave]

My set up

 

[6Legger]

Further to the above, I also meant to say that I'm also keeping my eye on prices of similar routers to mine but which are 5G capable. At the moment, 5G would be a relatively expensive luxury but I doubt it will be long before the the prices of the routers start coming down in the same way as the 4G ones did.

Yes, the prices for a 5G system are, ahem, considerable. The RUTX50 is over £600, and so for the time being out of my price range. To be fair, my three sim that's in there is is about £10 for 20GB and I barely max it out these days.

I tried to get my Dad on the RUT system too but he liked the nice easy option. Swapping physical devices seemed much easier for him to manage, and now he's in his 70s and still roaming in his motorhome UK and Europe, I want to keep life as easy as possible for him.

 

[6Legger]

The problem with most UK mobile broadband providers is that they will sell you a, say, 20, 40 or even unlimited monthly plan but even if they do allow roaming within that plan, they will limit it to 12GB when you're doing it - 12GB seems to be the generally accepted limit with UK providers which has the vague whiff of collusion about it! The last time we were away for an extended period in Europe last year was for just over 4 weeks. My wife and I have 10GB per month allowance on each off our mobiles plus the 12GB GB on the router (using a 16GB pre-paid sim from 3 for £9) and it was just enough between them all. I downloaded a Times every day but nothing else too data hungry and also used Google Maps / Waze all the way down to Croatia and back using data on my phone (but I was actually very surprised at how little data that took!). One thing worth noting is that when I looked into it, 3 charges more to top up the existing data sim with 10GB that it costs to buy a new 16GB one as mentioned above for £9 where you only get to use 12GB. Hope all that's clear enough. I will be looking into 'Free' as mentioned by @Alied for the next time.

Last year I upgraded my mobile phone and went with a dual sim model, and the main UK sim (Vodafone) is an E-Sim. Which means if I go travelling I can just pop in another sim into the slot and away we go I do think E-Sim is good for that sort of thing. I am told its easier to do it the other way around but for me, it seemed more suitable at the time.

 

[Mick]

The problem with most UK mobile broadband providers is that they will sell you a, say, 20, 40 or even unlimited monthly plan but even if they do allow roaming within that plan, they will limit it to 12GB when you're doing it - 12GB seems to be the generally accepted limit with UK providers which has the vague whiff of collusion about it! The last time we were away for an extended period in Europe last year was for just over 4 weeks. My wife and I have 10GB per month allowance on each off our mobiles plus the 12GB GB on the router (using a 16GB pre-paid sim from 3 for £9) and it was just enough between them all. I downloaded a Times every day but nothing else too data hungry and also used Google Maps / Waze all the way down to Croatia and back using data on my phone (but I was actually very surprised at how little data that took!). One thing worth noting is that when I looked into it, 3 charges more to top up the existing data sim with 10GB that it costs to buy a new 16GB one as mentioned above for £9 where you only get to use 12GB. Hope all that's clear enough. I will be looking into 'Free' as mentioned by @Alied for the next time.

I moved to Smarty from Voda last year. It’s been brilliant. I’ve been to CZ, Italy, France, germany, Austria and Slovenia with absolutely no issues. £10 a month and 50gb: 12gb abroad with no roaming charges. .If ya want a referral let me know I get a free month.

 

[Ayjay]

@Mick. Thanks but the thing is that neither of us tend to use an awful lot of data when not travelling abroad. We are with BT (EE) and currently pay £12 a month for two sim cards both with unlimited calls and texts and 12GB data each which is usually plenty. When in Europe, we've learnt that over a month, that's not quite enough for the usual browsing, emails and Android Auto navigation etc. hence the use of the extra prepaid sim card in a mobile router. That then gives us a total of 36GB over a month which should be sufficient. I had to put in an Amazon order for a few things earlier this week and added a 5G Three sim card in anticipation of a trip (probably down to Spain) in June which was £8 (actually a 16GB card but, as discussed above, only 12GB whilst roaming). Mind you the mobile router is only 4G capable but as and when the prices for 5G versions come down to current 4G levels, I'll probably upgrade. Depending upon where we end up in Spain, we might decide to venture over to Morocco for a few days and that will require a local sim which I'll have to research. The same will apply when (as currently planned anyway ) we head to Greece later in the year as we're likely to go via Albania which I don't believe is covered by EU roaming plans (but somebody might correct me there).

 

[Higgidav]

@Ayjay with the Three SIM card can you just activate it whenever you want via an app or similar? We are off to Spain in a weeks time and like yourself with EE. I am thinking of having a Three Sim with me just in case I get close to my 12gb EE limit.

 

[Ayjay]

@Higgidav. I think some sim cards have a 'use by date' but can't find one anywhere on the Three packaging. TBH, I can't remember the exact routine for registering the Three sim but I think it was just a case of popping it into a phone, switching it on and getting going with a few instructions (like downloading the APN data). In my case, I then took it out of the phone, put it in the router and it was ready to go - you can use the Three app to keep track of usage. Of course, the down side of using it in your phone is that you will lose your UK number for a while unless you've got a dual sim capability.

 

[Higgidav]

@Ayjay many thanks. I do have a dual sim phone so I’ll give that a go as it will also save me purchasing a local sim.

 

[Ayjay]

@Higgidav. I got this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Mobi...d=1680167009&sprefix=three+sim,aps,156&sr=8-3
Of course, with Amazon you've also got shipping costs if you're not with Prime or buying something else which take the order to over £20. There's no point in buying any larger data allowance as you get cut off at 12GB.

 

[Alied]

@Higgidav. I got this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Mobile-16GB-data-Pay/dp/B09XRDRP14/ref=sr_1_3?crid=19F2STHB1IPQC&keywords=three+sim&qid=1680167009&sprefix=three+sim,aps,156&sr=8-3
Of course, with Amazon you've also got shipping costs if you're not with Prime or buying something else which take the order to over £20. There's no point in buying any larger data allowance as you get cut off at 12GB.

Just recently found out about this provider where you can use all of your allowance whilst roaming in the EU Popit - The No Nonsense Network

 

[Mick]

Just recently found out about this provider where you can use all of your allowance whilst roaming in the EU Popit - The No Nonsense Network

Smarty charge £10 for the 50gb with a 3 day EU add on for all your data at £7. Popit is £18 for 30gb. So it depends how much you will use it. i never use 12gb in a week when i am away despite me watching Netflix/Prime etc.

 

[True Romance]

Smarty £18 pm for unlimited data. Picked up one of those and a 5g mifi dongle. Just need a 5g external antenna now. Welcome any recommendations for antennas.

Thanks.

 

[Ayjay]

@True Romance. What dongle did you get?