Campground Owners - Please Read

[CJ7ole]

We winter in a nice campground that has upgraded the wifi to pretty decent compared to five years ago. Still not good enough for me, so I have the park's free cable TV provider set me up with a 50 mbps connection for about $30 per month. Now I can stream Netflix to my heart's desire. Got my own cable modem and router. One call to Spectrum and I am good to go.

[RKins]

Originally Posted by NealC

Interesting...it seems from threads on this site AT&T stopped offering the unlimited plan for $20/mo. Can't confirm this but it sounds like it was too good to be true and it was abused, or simply used as I use it, normal work operations. iOS 11 was a 2 GB download, do that on multiple devices, and apple TV's, you get through bandwidth fast. No one is streaming movies, people are simply keeping up to date with today's technology. This is what it takes.

They still offer the connected car rate - someone didn't know where to look for it and started that rumor.

[NealC]

Originally Posted by RKins

They still offer the connected car rate - someone didn't know where to look for it and started that rumor.

Great news! I dove in to get it as soon as I heard about it as I didn't think it would last forever, too good to be true. I'm glad AT&T continues the offer. It is a killer deal!

[R Bradley]

We have camped in quite a few places from South Carolina to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Key West -- and many in between. I have NEVER said yes or no to a campground based on internet. I need it for my business and I just hope my hot spot will work. If not, I'll drive to a place it does and finish the project. Yes, it would be nice to have sometimes. But then again, I'm not saying yes or no based on that. When it comes to RVing, there are more important things to consider than wifi.

[Dan McMartin]

Originally Posted by NealC

Great news! I dove in to get it as soon as I heard about it as I didn't think it would last forever, too good to be true. I'm glad AT&T continues the offer. It is a killer deal!

We won't be on the road until December but we bought a Mobley in July. As you said, too good a deal to pass up. Not the best hot spot out there but for 20 bucks a month, you can't beat it.

I suspect most folks have no idea you can use them without plugging them into the care with an adapter so your average user doesn't use all that much data. And why would they? Most folks can get blazingly fast internet for $30 or $40 a month at home so I doubt too many folks are using them as their primary internet connection. A Mobley might be cheap but so is home internet and real router.

[RichR]

to me, it depend on how long I am staying. A couple of days not much, a few weeks then it is an issue. I can and do monitor my home alarm and cameras when away as well as other business uses and hot spots do not work for me. Last stay was for two months and having good wifi was necessary.

[hohenwald48]

Originally Posted by NealC

Great news! I dove in to get it as soon as I heard about it as I didn't think it would last forever, too good to be true. I'm glad AT&T continues the offer. It is a killer deal!

I heard a story. Don't have any idea if it's true.

AT&T is building out their data capacity with the ultimate plan to move all their Direct TV customers from satellite to broadband internet. In the mean time they have a lot of excess data capacity in various locations. Mobley is a way to make a few bucks off that excess capacity while they complete the build out and transition process.

Just an unsubstantiated story I heard.

[nothermark]

It sounds reasonable as they bought a setup that has their satellites aging out. The question is whether there will be satellite Direct TV in the future. Here is an article that says no:

https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/n...atellites.html

We are either going to get great phone and data service or the folks in the boonies are going to lose television by 2020.

[hohenwald48]

Originally Posted by nothermark

It sounds reasonable as they bought a setup that has their satellites aging out. The question is whether there will be satellite Direct TV in the future. Here is an article that says no:

https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/n...atellites.html

We are either going to get great phone and data service or the folks in the boonies are going to lose television by 2020.

I suspect satellite TV of all brands will eventually disappear. Lot's of problems with that one way communication technology. Not sure what technology will provide internet and TV services to the boonies but imagine something will be put in place. Cell would cover all but the most remote locations in the US.

[Dan McMartin]

Originally Posted by hohenwald48

I suspect satellite TV of all brands will eventually disappear. Lot's of problems with that one way communication technology. Not sure what technology will provide internet and TV services to the boonies but imagine something will be put in place. Cell would cover all but the most remote locations in the US.

Once they've covered the landscape with cell coverage of a certain level, have enough bandwidth to serve all their customers and the data speed is sufficient to stream 1080p reliably, they can switch over. Even if the speeds get faster, it doesn't matter. They can serve up 1080p at a minimum and when things get better, that's just a bonus.

I'd imagine you could build a lot of towers and serve up a lot of bandwidth for what launching satellites costs. ATT may be considering sinking money into towers instead of satellites since they can serve both phone and tv customers with towers.

[powderman]

Here is what SpaceX has visioned
https://arstechnica.com/information-...gigabit-speed/

This solves the problem of not having internet where you're camping. This is before Apple, Amazon, or Google get in the game, and they will.

[NealC]

Cellular has to go away in favor of satellite someday! I hope to see it...and afford it.

[Smitty77]

I'm of the opinion that streaming useable bandwidth is on me, while traveling. I have multiple tools in the Communications Arsenal to try and maximize my success of always having useable DL speeds.

Even in RV Parks with relatively robust WiFi, I prefer to be self sufficient. Security reasons being one, and I figure why not use my own - and it might help speed things up for those around me...

Another opinion, is I do not want taxes going to roll out WiFi in City/County/State/National Park Campgrounds. Having a wifi at an Info Center, is fine, if possible.

Just my thoughts on this, and I believe it's OK for others to not agree with my thinking!

Best to all,
Smitty

[NealC]

I’m at a KOA in Springfield MO. AT&T sucks. Verizon 1 bar but so so speed. Google FI (sprint here) no good. Campground has good WiFi just not secured. 10 MB download. Until Netflix time I guess. Good on them for knowing cell sucks here and providing the needed service.