5G Upgrade from a Winegard 4G Antenna/Gateway?

[cooper.atx]

My 2022 trailer came with the Winegard AIR 360+ antenna and I installed the Winegard 4G gateway (before the 5g gateway was available). Now that 5G is more prevalent and way better than 4G, I'm looking for best (in terms of ease of upgrade/install, performance, and cost effectiveness) options to upgrade. The new Winegard 5G gateway is ridiculously priced at 1000$, so prefer to get detached from Winegard solutions if possible. I know there are less expensive options out there as I'm sure there are also others maybe in the same boat since a lot of trailers are sold prepped for Winegard solutions. I'm carrier agnostic too. What's worked for you?
Thanks in advance!

 

[cooper.atx]

or maybe money better spent would be to just get a 4G signal booster?

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I guess it boils down to how much access/use you expect to have to 5G network services. Much of what 5G offers vs 4G is of use benefit primarily in metropolitan environments, e.g. short range radio frequencies, more devices, reduced latency, etc. Those 5G things probably don't apply in locations where most RV parks are located.

The main workload, LTE transmission to & from phones & modems, is handled pretty much the same on the receiving end whether the receiving device is 4G or 5G. The tower end is probably already 5G anyway and users with 4G devices automatically reap some of the network improvement benefits as a result. It's "a rising tide lifts all boats" kind of thing. I'm not saying there would be no benefit to upgrading to a 5G gateway, but it's probably a lot less than what you might think.

The best choice depends on where you travel and what sort of problems you experience with the cell service. If you camp in a mountain valley where there is no cell service or the signals bounces all over the place, having a 5G Gateway isn't gonna work any better. Ditto if your campsite is far from the nearest tower (weak signal strength). But if on the outskirts of a city, maybe you get a noticeable bump up.

 

[RedForeman]

There are similar/better 5G compatible products to the Winegard you have, but all tend to approach the same price point, or more. Location, and what you need internet for, will dictate whether that's too much. You didn't mention it, but that Winegard 5G gateway is not compatible with the AIR 360+ antenna and you'd also need the 5G roof unit to go with it for an extra $300. Likewise with others such as Pepwave, if you're talking about a similar setup, ie roof mounted antenna array.

I've been all over the eastern US* in a semi truck. I use a Verizon 5G hotspot. When not close to a city or interstate, it's almost always falling back to 4G anyway. I can only think of 2-3 places it's been unusable, or at least barely adequate. 99% of the time it's fine. The trailer I am close to buying will also have the same Winegard "pre-wire" you have. My immediate plan is to just use that as-is for OTA TV, and get another Verizon hotspot for internet. I don't do anything remotely important or costly enough to rationalize a $1000+ hardware install to get 5G.

* I nearly never go west of I-35. I'm aware that areas of cellular internet darkness are much more widespread in the left side of the country. If I needed it bad enough and went to those places, I guess I'd suck it up and buy a Starlink setup and sign up. Which, incidentally can be patched into your Winegard 4G gateway via the RJ-45 port, if that use case applied to you.

 

[cooper.atx]

There are similar/better 5G compatible products to the Winegard you have, but all tend to approach the same price point, or more. Location, and what you need internet for, will dictate whether that's too much. You didn't mention it, but that Winegard 5G gateway is not compatible with the AIR 360+ antenna and you'd also need the 5G roof unit to go with it for an extra $300. Likewise with others such as Pepwave, if you're talking about a similar setup, ie roof mounted antenna array.

I've been all over the eastern US* in a semi truck. I use a Verizon 5G hotspot. When not close to a city or interstate, it's almost always falling back to 4G anyway. I can only think of 2-3 places it's been unusable, or at least barely adequate. 99% of the time it's fine. The trailer I am close to buying will also have the same Winegard "pre-wire" you have. My immediate plan is to just use that as-is for OTA TV, and get another Verizon hotspot for internet. I don't do anything remotely important or costly enough to rationalize a $1000+ hardware install to get 5G.

* I nearly never go west of I-35. I'm aware that areas of cellular internet darkness are much more widespread in the left side of the country. If I needed it bad enough and went to those places, I guess I'd suck it up and buy a Starlink setup and sign up. Which, incidentally can be patched into your Winegard 4G gateway via the RJ-45 port, if that use case applied to you.

Thanks for the reply and insight! Yeah, I was aware of the need for the new Winegard antenna as well, but the gateway is the real blocker to that equation. The more I'm researching and based on the input here, I'm starting to understand the pro's to a 5G setup on the RV is not really worth the cost. The 4G Winegard setup has been good enough for most of the parks I've been to. For my current setup I'm using a Google FI (TMobile) data only SIM card in my gateway which has been very reliable and very cost effective - as in no added cost to my existing cell data plan. Maybe a Verizon hotspot and a cell booster (HiBoost) will suffice as an improved solution and a fall back. Thanks again.