RV Broadband Usage Survey

I find it hard to believe anyone would be using WiFi today when a Verizon air card is $50 per month and it is usually many times faster and more reliable than just about any WiFi connection.

Ned said:

Hm, maybe there's a new business opportunity

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Believe me, I have been asked, and refused repeatedly. Too many variables with too many providers in the different locations. I know better than to stick my head in the lion's mouth and grin like it's all good...  ;D

seilerbird said:

I find it hard to believe anyone would be using WiFi today when a Verizon air card is $50 per month and it is usually many times faster and more reliable than just about any WiFi connection.

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Copper cable and fiber optic still form the bulk of the infrastructure and will for a while is primarily why. Rural America is not 100% covered by cellular signal yet.

Kim, I understand completely.  I've helped a few campgrounds with WiFi problems and the biggest problem is the use of consumer grade gear instead of commercial.  The worst is trying to make a Linksys repeater work consistently, I've not found one that would.

I wasn't thinking of doing the entire installation but just offering a tuneup service.  Things like setting QOS, blocking high bandwidth protocols, client isolation, etc.  Basic router stuff that many campgrounds don't know about or bother with.  Then showing how to save and restore the router settings for when they screw it up after you leave

skyking4ar2 said:

Copper cable and fiber optic still form the bulk of the infrastructure and will for a while is primarily why. Rural America is not 100% covered by cellular signal yet.

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Fiber optic, I wish.  We have a choice of Hughesnet satellite, Verizon Wireless or 24k baud dialup.  I used to use Hughesnet but they had such a strangle on usage, a plan that would provide me with the data download I needed was waaay out of my budget.  Obviously, 24k baud dialup is totally unacceptable.  So, that leaves me with Verizon Wireless and I don't have good line-of-sight for that.   Right now I have a directional antenna mounted on a 20' pole with a cradle booster for my MiFi.  Mostly it is okay, but I would switch to solid DSL in a heartbeat if and when CenturyLink ever gets it piped down to me.

Now, once on the road, Verizon Wireless is pretty good.  But, I don't use it on the road like I do at home.  On the road I'm out enjoying the world and my Internet connection is used almost entirely for email and trip planning.  A decent WiFi works just fine for my needs, but the MiFi gives me much more freedom.  I almost never stay at CG's with WiFi.

There isn't a wireless data plan that can give me the data capacity that we have with HughesNet.  For a 30 day month, we can download 375MB a day, or 11.250GB plus another ~2GB each night during the 5 FAP free hours, or an additional 60GB/month.  All at 1Mbps speeds and $80/month.  The $80/month cellular plan would only give us 10GB.  Of course, we don't use that much data every month but last month we did download 11GB and upload ~1.5GB.  And uploads are not counted toward our 375MB/day transfer limit.

Ned said:

There isn't a wireless data plan that can give me the data capacity that we have with HughesNet.  For a 30 day month, we can download 375MB a day, or 11.250GB plus another ~2GB each night during the 5 FAP free hours, or an additional 60GB/month.  All at 1Mbps speeds and $80/month.  The $80/month cellular plan would only give us 10GB.  Of course, we don't use that much data every month but last month we did download 11GB and upload ~1.5GB.  And uploads are not counted toward our 375MB/day transfer limit.

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That was not my 5 year experience with Hughesnet.  I maintain 3 computers and a Windows Home Server.  My DW does a lot of on-line research and I do a lot of whatever.  Neither of us are Youtube fans or gamers or anything requiring a lot of bandwidth.  Still, I had to constantly monitor our usage to prevent getting FAP'd (500MB/day) and the service was often deteriorated or interrupted even with my 2 watt radio and .98 meter dish.  1 Mbps was a dream seldom fullfilled (more like 300Kbps).  It may be they have improved their service with the newer KA band satellite, but with the extremely lousy customer service they had, I'm not very interested in going back.  My Verizon Wireless plan is a grandfathered unlimited plan (for now anyway).  I often hit 8-9GB in a month (all while I'm at the wheel and not having to schedule night hours for non-FAP time).  The only thing I miss about Hughesnet is the ability to access my server remotely.

One more thing - when I had Hughesnet, uploads were counted in my daily transfer limit.  Are you sure it is not now?

I get consistent download tests of 1Mbps on testmy.net.  Rarely below 900kbps and often higher.  The simple solution to poor performance is to change satellites, but you need to have your service through a VAR like Motosat to do that.  HughesNet won't do that for you.  I've been in places without cellular service (Death Valley for one), but never without satellite.  We do stay out from under the trees

In 9 years, we've been in FAP once and that was because I was setting up a computer for a friend and didn't pay attention to the Windows Update downloads.  We do lose the connection occasionally in heavy rain, but that's to be expected.  We lose TV at the same time.

Yes, I'm sure uploads are not counted in FAP.  This has been tested and proven and discussed on the Datastormusers forum and probably DSLReports as well.

Here's the most recent tests from May when we were in Texas:

Mon May 09 2011 @ 1:07:40 pm    Up 193 kB    168 Kbps (21 kB/s)    Direcway.com   
Mon May 09 2011 @ 1:07:26 pm    Dn 1 MB    1.16 Mbps (145 kB/s)    Direcway.com   
Mon May 09 2011 @ 8:04:38 am    Up 193 kB    169 Kbps (21 kB/s)    Direcway.com   
Mon May 09 2011 @ 8:04:24 am    Dn 1 MB    1.21 Mbps (151 kB/s)    Direcway.com   
Mon May 09 2011 @ 7:59:51 am    Up 193 kB    164 Kbps (21 kB/s)    Direcway.com   
Mon May 09 2011 @ 7:59:26 am    Dn 3 MB    1.33 Mbps (167 kB/s)    Direcway.com   

I looked at the survey.  It doesn't really apply to what I do.

Most of my casual email and web interactions (weather, news) originate from the phone when I'm on the road (and usually when in my stick house too) and go out via 3G.  If I'm at a campground where there's no 3G coverage I drive to somewhere that has it when I need it (usually not more than a few miles), or do without.

If I'm working I need a consistent connection and reasonable bandwidth for the VPN to work reliably.  Again usually this means 3G.  If I have to work from the trailer I check to be sure there will be 3G coverage at the campground ahead of time.

Ned said:

I get consistent download tests of 1Mbps on testmy.net.  Rarely below 900kbps and often higher.  The simple solution to poor performance is to change satellites, but you need to have your service through a VAR like Motosat to do that.  HughesNet won't do that for you.  I've been in places without cellular service (Death Valley for one), but never without satellite.  We do stay out from under the trees  

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Do you have Ku or Ka band?

KU band, the Hughesnet KA band equipment is not capable of mobile operation as it's spot beamed.

Boy, they sure are doing better than when I was with them.  I had a low level business plan which used the HN7000S modem with a 2 watt radio and .98 meter dish and it was still trash, cost me $90/mo.  I dropped them for Alltel wireless 2-3 years ago.  Maybe the wireless competition is making them pay a little more attention.  The priority at the time was toward their new Ka band satellite and we were somewhat orphaned, especially by the foreign customer service idiots.

The KA band is only for fixed users and uses the 9000 modem.  Mobile users must be on KU band and use the DW7000 or HN7000S modems.  You were a Hughesnet direct customer so didn't have the US based support and satellite changing flexibility of a VAR customer.  It costs an additional $10/month when you're subscribed through a VAR but the value is worth many times that.  We've been on the same satellite (127W) since 2006 and have had what I consider excellent performance.  The occasional glitch is no worse that I see reported by the cellular data users and guess who they come to for internet when their cellular signal is unavailable?

I have 50 responses at this point and one question and one comment. First I see Hughes listed by only 3 responders. I recognize the small sample size issue but still found it surprising as not all that long ago forums were heavy on use of Hughes. Second, I have several surveys where a number is required by the question e.g. how many e-mails a day and the answer comes in the form of a date e.g. 1/2/2011. Can't figure out why. Any thoughts?

Perhaps a browser autofill form function stuck that in there.  Or they get 1 or 2 or 2011 a day

blueblood said:

I have 50 responses at this point and one question and one comment. First I see Hughes listed by only 3 responders. I recognize the small sample size issue but still found it surprising as not all that long ago forums were heavy on use of Hughes. Second, I have several surveys where a number is required by the question e.g. how many e-mails a day and the answer comes in the form of a date e.g. 1/2/2011. Can't figure out why. Any thoughts?

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The 1/2/2011 is probably due to how you have the cell formatting defined in MS-XL for that cell.  The respondent probably wanted to indicate 1 or 2 per day, by typing 1/2 and XL filled in the field as a date 1/2/2011.  Just my guess.

Good guess, Lou.  It's Google Docs, not Excel, but the same principle holds.

Ned said:

Good guess, Lou.  It's Google Docs, not Excel, but the same principle holds.

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I've never used Google docs before.  Those boys have their hands in everything these days

Lou, does that mean you learned something today?

Just Lou said:

The 1/2/2011 is probably due to how you have the cell formatting defined in MS-XL for that cell.  The respondent probably wanted to indicate 1 or 2 per day, by typing 1/2 and XL filled in the field as a date 1/2/2011.  Just my guess.

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You win the cigar. If one uses the 1/2 for 1-2 you get a date fill in.