The dream: Head down a dirt access road for 20 miles, find an epic campsite, be able to work remotely, and not need to leave for an entire week. The reality: Spend most of your time trying to find a place to stay that will be close to a town so that we can get good cell service to make sure we’re able to work.
“Affordable” mobile internet has come a helluva long way from those little jet-pack wifi devices and relying on your cellphone’s hotspot to try and download an email, to now being able to connect to high speed internet from virtually any place on Earth. After spending the year, and some time before, living and working on the road, we’ve tested various options and they are surprisingly great. In our van, we’ve worked from the corners of the country, on remote beaches, high up in the mountains, and way deep into the desert, far from civilization. Depending on your budget and your vehicle’s ability to power a device, there’s something for everyone.
By no means is this a comprehensive list, and like all technology articles, they are outdated a month later. But I at least wanted to share our experience and the reality of “promised” coverage and speeds.
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| StarLink Standard | StarLink Mini | T-Mobile Home 5G Cellular | Verizon LTE Home Cellular | Citywide Wifi (Xfinity) | Mifi Verizon Mobile Hotspot | Cellphone 4G/5G Hotspot |
StarLink – Standard (Roam Plan)
StarLink uses a dish to connect to satellites in low earth orbit (LEO) to deliver shockingly fast download and upload speeds anywhere in the world, as long as you have a clear, unobstructed view of the sky. To jump the gun, StarLink has completely changed the game. No longer are we reliant upon the proximity of cell towers and civilization. StarLink has worked nearly everywhere. Using the Roam plan, which allows unlimited data and use at more than one location compared to the Residential Plan which is a fixed location, we’ve had speeds consistently over 200mbps and great upload speeds everywhere we’ve been. Only once, in the tiny, mountainous town of Downieville, did we have issues getting a clear view of the sky due to the steep hillsides and trees covering our camping area. Take note for you East Coasters looking to use StarLink in the forests.
With great power comes, well, a high power demand. If your rig doesn’t have the battery capability, StarLink will drain it dry in a a few hours, running at 100W from a household 110V plug. If you have enough solar, you can offset the draw of StarLink and still maybe charge the batteries during the day, but at night, you are at the whim of how much battery capacity you have, or require the use of a generator. Positioning the small dish can be annoying if you’re in a parking lot or a public place trying to be incognito, but most time, we just have it out and about and haven’t had any issues getting a great signal. To add to that, setting up the StarLink can take a 5-10 minutes to position everything, connect to the satellites, and any repositioning of the dish. The downside of permanently mounting it to your vehicles roof is that your signal is then limited to where you can drive your vehicle, which can be tricky if there are only parking under trees.
Pros: The only option when it comes to wanting to work from remote corners of the world, deep in the desert, or in high elevations of the Rocky Mountains.
Cons: Roam plan costs $165/month, any trees in the way will cause issues with connectivity and speeds, and high power draw can drain batteries quickly.
| Download Speed (avg Mbps) | 200 |
| Upload Speed (avg Mbps) | 20 |
| Monthly Cost ($) | $165.00 |
| Extra Start-up Cost ($) | $349.00 |
| Power (Output Wattage) | 75-100W |
| City – Usage | Yes |
| Suburbs – Usage | Yes |
| Rural – Usage | Yes |
| Mountains – Usage | Yes |
| Remote/Wilderness – Usage | Yes |
StarLink – Mini (Roam Plan)
I personally do not have experience with the StarLink Mini since its introduction in 2024. But it seems like StarLink Mini has fixed a lot of the issues that Vanlife, travelers, and RVers had with the full sized Standard StarLink dish and router. The Mini can be powered straight from a 12V battery or vehicle, and uses a 1/3rd of the power of the Standard.
The downside with the smaller packaging of the Mini is the range of the wifi is shorter since it ha less power output. If you only need internet for a solo traveler, 100mbps download shouldn’t be an issue, but multiple connected users can quickly find that speed is insufficient. Last but not least, the only other complaint I’ve read is that the small footprint of the Mini Dish can be of concern during high wind days, so don’t forget to put some weight around the foot of the dish.
Pros: All the positives of the Standard Dish, with less power draw and a smaller footprint.
Cons: Roam plan still costs $165/month, any trees in the way will cause issues with connectivity and speeds, and download speeds consistent with other hotspot devices.
| Download Speed (avg Mbps) | 100 |
| Upload Speed (avg Mbps) | 10 |
| Monthly Cost ($) | $165.00 |
| Extra Start-up Cost ($) | $499.00 |
| Power (Output Wattage) | 25-40W |
| City – Usage | Yes |
| Suburbs – Usage | Yes |
| Rural – Usage | Yes |
| Mountains – Usage | Yes |
| Remote/Wilderness – Usage | Yes |
T-Mobile Home Internet
When looking at cost, setup efficiency, and reliability in most places, the T-Mobile Home Internet has been a fantastic sweet spot! Sure, it’s about as useless as a slip-and-slide in the ocean when it comes to remote connectivity, but the T-Mobile service will have you covered in almost every semi-populated corner of the country. With a relatively low power draw, high download and upload speeds, and a device able to be setup inside the vehicle, it’s hard to beat the T-Mobile Home Internet when traveling. I’m sure they don’t recommend traveling with the device, but it runs off cellular internet, so as long as there’s T-Mobile Coverage, this device will work there. This device is perfect for internet even while you’re driving, so there’s no down time when you stop and need to work for a few hours.
With as many benefits of this device, I can complain about it equally as much. Too often our lives were governed by the T-Mobile Coverage Map. We would plan a route or destination based on this map stating they have solid 5G or LTE coverage in the area, only to find out the opposite when we got there. Even the screen on the device would indicate “Excellent Connection” and we’d get internet. The 100+ mbps download speeds we’d come to expect were reduced to 5-20mbps, or worse. Sure it was the rare occurrence, but a pain in the ass we dealt with for a long time before getting StarLink. And as I mentioned before, this is reliant upon the cellular network, so any remote area, be it rural, desert, coastal, or mountainous,
Pros: Amazing speeds with 5G, low power draw on your system, decent coverage in close to remote regions, and low costs.
Cons: No remote or distant wilderness coverage.
| Download Speed (avg Mbps) | 150 |
| Upload Speed (avg Mbps) | 25 |
| Monthly Cost ($) | $50.00 |
| Extra Start-up Cost ($) | $35.00 |
| Power (Output Wattage) | 15-36W |
| City – Usage | Yes |
| Suburbs – Usage | Yes |
| Rural – Usage | Tentative |
| Mountains – Usage | Tentative |
| Remote/Wilderness – Usage | No |
Citywide Wifi (Xfinity)
When I started down this path, I honestly thought this might be a hidden gem and would solve our internet needs. All we would have to do is camp out where we found a site, then come into town to work from free, high-speed, hotspot internet. The reality is, the Xfinity citywide wifi hotspot, which uses customer’s routers to broadcast an additional Wifi signal for other people to use if you’re nearby. As it turns out, this is great for when you need to load a menu at a restaurant or watch a YouTube video when you’re waiting for your friend to show up at the bar.
What it is not great for, is doing anything meaningful. Depending on your luck, some times you can get high speed internet, but most people have experienced a very throttled internet at 2-5mbps download speed and even worse upload speed. Additionally, Xfinity will charge you if you exceed your allotted data to be downloaded from any given hotspot. So, in reality, this was not going to be a realistic option to use for us to work full time, remotely from. But, I guess, technically, it’s better than nothing if you’re in a pinch and your cellphone hotspot doesn’t work.
Pros: It’s free if you’re already a customer, great coverage in densely populated areas, especially in the Northeast, and doesn’t draw on your vehicle’s batteries.
Cons: Speed can be horribly slow, data gets throttled, and not available outside cities.
| Download Speed (avg Mbps) | 20 |
| Upload Speed (avg Mbps) | 2 |
| Monthly Cost ($) | Free (for paying customers) |
| Extra Start-up Cost ($) | N/A |
| Power (Output Wattage) | 0W |
| City – Usage | Yes |
| Suburbs – Usage | Tentative |
| Rural – Usage | No |
| Mountains – Usage | No |
| Remote/Wilderness – Usage | No |
Verizon LTE Home Cellular
This is where it all began for us. After transitioning from a horrible satellite internet (ViaSat) for our Cabin, the Verizon LTE Home Cellular came to the rescue. Shockingly great speeds, in comparison to the 25mpbs download we were getting with ViaSat. Fast forward a couple of years and we found ourselves on a trip down to the desert. With the combination of a small 30Ah portable Jackery, we realized we could plug in the small, portable, Verizon box and get strong internet anywhere we had Verizon LTE Service. Which, in this case, was the desert outside of St. George, Utah. This went on to the be foundation of our vanlife adventures in the beginning, taking us even out to the California coastline.
The major benefits to this option, to me, are the low power draw and low costs. This device barely draws any power, making your battery bank last forever. Additionally, it only takes a minute or two for the device to connect to the internet, which is very helpful when needing to connect quickly with little setup time. On the flip side, LTE is only so powerful and you are limited to the coverage areas that Verizon provides. Which, outside of wilderness and far off places, is a lot of incredible coverage.
Pros: Costs are really low, at $35 if you’re a Customer. For low bandwidth needs, can support 2 people working at the same time. Startup time is very quick (1-2min). Power draw is extremely low.
Cons: Download speed is relatively low. Downsides for remote connectivity are same for all cellular provided internet.
| Download Speed (avg Mbps) | 45 |
| Upload Speed (avg Mbps) | 4 |
| Monthly Cost ($) | $50.00 ($35 if Cell Customer) |
| Extra Start-up Cost ($) | $0.00 |
| Power (Output Wattage) | 5-20W |
| City – Usage | Yes |
| Suburbs – Usage | Yes |
| Rural – Usage | Tentative |
| Mountains – Usage | Tentative |
| Remote/Wilderness – Usage | No |
Mifi Verizon Mobile Hotspot
I do not have have experience with this product yet, but it was the standard for all folks that wanted to work remotely before any of these other options were available. This is, essentially, a permanent cellphone hotspot. You are required to buy a separate data plan for this device and will be priced at different tiers of data caps from 10gb per month, up to 150gb per month. I’m sure other providers might even offer an unlimited plan, but at the end of the day, you’ll be paying another cellphone plan. Speeds are shockingly good for a small wifi device like this and better yet, the power draw is negligible because these little devices are battery powered! With battery capacity lasting up to 12hrs of usage, you can charge the device when you’re driving or have surplus solar.
Downsides to these devices, from reviews on the internet, talk about the inconsistency of the download speeds, throttling of internet, and the limited remote connectivity of the cellular network.
Pros: Portable, battery powered, high speed internet. Low power draw to charge.
Cons: Cellular connectivity in remote regions and lack of consistency of download speeds.
| Download Speed (avg Mbps) | 150 |
| Upload Speed (avg Mbps) | 50 |
| Monthly Cost ($) | $60.00 |
| Extra Start-up Cost ($) | $129.00 |
| Power (Output Wattage) | 36W |
| City – Usage | Yes |
| Suburbs – Usage | Yes |
| Rural – Usage | Tentative |
| Mountains – Usage | Tentative |
| Remote/Wilderness – Usage | No |
Cellphone 4G/5G Hotspot
No inside scoop here, everyone has had a different experience with their own cellphone’s hotspot. Whether you’re trying to send an email prior to your flight or signing in real quick to “check” something when you’re away from the office, the hotspot is here to help. But we’ve all seen how effective, and also, ineffective your cellphone’s hotspot can be. Most data plans cap the amount of data you can download, and your speeds are never going to reach what you can get from an internet service provider or directly to you phone.
Pros: No additional equipment needed, hotspot built into cellphone, great download speeds in a pinch, no excess power draw on your system.
Cons: Unrealistic to use for day-to-day use. Connectivity in remote regions limited.
| Download Speed (avg Mbps) | 49(LTE)/114(5G) |
| Upload Speed (avg Mbps) | 2(LTE)/20(5G) |
| Monthly Cost ($) | Depends on Cell Plan |
| Extra Start-up Cost ($) | N/A |
| Power (Output Wattage) | 5-25W |
| City – Usage | Yes |
| Suburbs – Usage | Yes |
| Rural – Usage | Yes |
| Mountains – Usage | Tentative |
| Remote/Wilderness – Usage | No |
Summary and Conclusion
If you are looking to be off-the grid, far off in distant places, StarLink is really your only option. If you’re looking to stay close to cities and towns (within reason), you have a ton more options. For small battery setups, the Verizon LTE Home Internet or the MiFi device would work perfectly. If you have a bit more battery capacity to power a device, need high download speeds, and surprisingly great cellular 5G coverage, I cannot recommend the T-Mobile Home Internet. And obviously, in a pinch, your cellphone’s hotspot will always save the day as a backup. In full transparency, we use both the T-Mobile Home Internet and StarLink because we don’t have an ISP at our home in Utah and it helps to have a backup, which benefits us when we are traveling in the Van.
Hi there, my name is Zachary Kenney and I’m an adventure filmmaker & photographer. My passion is to tell stories that will hopefully motivate you to go live a more adventurous life. Whether that is to experience the view from the summit of a mountain, or wandering through a new town on a road trip. Currently based out of Park City, UT.
