Cell vs WiFi booster

[JH3815]

What is everyone’s opinion on where I should put my money first. A cell booster or a WiFi booster?

[BillJinOR]

6 years ago , when we first hit the road, I first bought a ubiquity wifi booster (build your own David Bott. outside our bubble) and tried to use it. It works great but but quickly afterwards bought a Wilson cell booster. I place the phone or, in my case, the hotspot near ( like inches ) the candy bar inside antenna.
I found I was using cell almost 90% of the time as The ubiquity worked great but the campground wifi or others was almost always a problem.
I still have the ability to boost the wifi but don't even check anymore. a couple ATT/ Verizon hotspots with unlimited data give me better security and speed. In fact truth is I very rarely use the Wilson cell booster anymore.I try it without first. Sometimes using the booster causes problems.I bought a unpowered mimo antenna for the hotspots that works almost of the time . We have Full timed ( and lately stream TV a lot) so internet is important . I'd work on the cellular first.

[Teamfoxy]

A wi-fi booster only allows for greater disance from the source. It will not improve the speed or bandwidth of the signal. So unless you spend most of your time in a campground with good internet you are wasting money.
If you can get any cell phone service when outside your RV, but not inside, the cell booster will help a lot. It will not do anything if there is no signal at all. It will not stop you from being throttled back on a crowded tower.
If you move around, I would go for a cell phone with unlimited data that can serve as a hot spot and go with a booster like the Weboost Drive XRV.
There are usually some limits on the amount of hot spot use, but no more so that a dedicated hot spot. Many phones and smart TVs allow screen sharing so you can stream to your phone and share it to the TV screen to use the phone's unlimited data rather than hot spot data.

[Smitty77]

Originally Posted by JH3815

What is everyone’s opinion on where I should put my money first. A cell booster or a WiFi booster?

Many variables, so it depends!

IF: 1) You travel park to park, with WiFi available, and only want to check emails, banking, route planning. Then a WiFi booster might work; 2) Or, if you like to sprinkle in stops without WiFi available, then the Cellular Data will be needed. And in some locations, having a Cellular Booster could make a difference in being able to acquire a useable signal. 3) And if regardless of Internet Connectivity, if you think you want to stream heaving content for entertainment. Then Cellular Data is the polite way to go. (Park WiFi is improving over the last years, and many parks have enough bandwidth to support from DVD all the way to 4K picture quality. But, the reality is most parks will have limited WiFi bandwidth, and you should not plan on that being your source for heavy streaming.)

So, you need to reflect upon how you think you'll the Internet Connectivity.

Another opinion, is that with the 5G roll outs taking place, the Cellular Data approach and equipment will be changing over the next few years. So investing a large amount of money to get a Cellular Boosters and Antenna's, could be money that will need to be spent sometime again in the future, as 5G matures.

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Think about your planned usage, and if you determine you will in locations without WiFi, or want to Stream to, then invest in a 'bridge' Cellular Booster. The WeBoost Sleek is 4G LTE capable, and not a major expense in the scheme of things. And it is portable, and you could repurpose it to a vehicle in the future. It is not the strongest booster, but we have it as one of the many pieces of equipment in our Communications Arsenal, and it has helped us at times just fine.

And as you think about your planned traveling approach, if you feel you will be more often then not in the larger city or fringe city areas, roof top MIMO Antennas, feeding a Dual (Or Quad) antenna ported Hotspot/MiFi - could provide you the best performance overall at this time.

We have WiFiRanger's GOac, with Rooftop EliteAC Antenna. We have WeBoost OTR Omni Antenna, that can feed out Sleek (And if needed, very seldom seems to be, a Maximum Signal Cellular Booster.). And we have a Mobile Mark MIMO Rooftop Antenna. We have Verizon Samsung S8 phone with Hotspot capability. ATT iPhone 10 with Hotspot capability. ATT Unlimited Data Plan SIM in a Netgear Nighthawk Hotspot. (And a few other assorted pieces of gear for traveling in Canada.) Over the last few years, due to those years travels, I'd guesstimate about 90% of the time we use the Netgear Nighthawk, connected to the Rooftop MobileMark MIMO antenna. It has been our champion download speed king, with a measured 187MB at Cheery Creek State Park in near Aurora, Colorado. That being said, we test for best data speeds every time we change locations. And 10% of that time, Verizon sitting on the dash (Windshield does not have Bronze coating, as the rest of the windows do. So best reception is usually on the dash.), and we'll use that when it is the best data source.

Regardless of if it is Samsung S8 from Verizon, or Netgear Nighthawk from ATT - we use the WiFiRanger GOac as the device to rebroadcast Internet Data within the coach. (WiFi connected to S8. And Tethered connected to Nighthawk.). This way all of our WiFi feeds within the coach (Laptops, Kindles, Tablets, Roku's, etc.) - do not need to be changed over to whichever device were using to reach out to the Internet. Finally, for the last two years or so, the only time I used a WiFi Data Source in a Park, was to test to see if the EliteAC rooftop antenna was working well, and also to see if any Updates were available. One advantage, that we have used probably three times in the last few years, is that the WiFiRanger GOac, allows me to spread the signal in/out across multiple devices. (Weak ATT connection, and weak Verizon connections, both yielding lower data speeds volumes, can be set up on the Ranger GOac to sort 'Load Balance'. It has allowed us to stream Roku at times, that a single source would not have supported...).

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I share the last part about us, and some of the things we have done, as it is an example of what you may find you need to do over the future, depending upon both how much money you want to spend, and how important Internet Connectivity is to you.

I encourage those who are digging into this for the first time, to access and going as a paid member for Member Content - RVMOBILEINTERNET.com. (I like to keep up on the changing landscape of both equipment and 5G rollout. So keep a year subscription going. But I have friends who signed up for one year, and figured out what they wanted to do, and then let their subscription expire.)

Best of luck, and good reading on RV Boards and other locations too, as your set your course to the Internet!!
Smitty

[Mile Marker 42]

Originally Posted by JH3815

What is everyone’s opinion on where I should put my money first. A cell booster or a WiFi booster?

Had both. Prefer a cell phone booster. Added the antenna to my TV crank up antenna. Works as advertised and has actually given us a good enough signal to get/tether wifi, where if we didn't have the booster, we would have had no service. As sad as it is to say, even though we are in 2021, you can't at all rely on campground wifi.

[TXiceman]

A WiFi booster will get you a stronger WiFi signal, but you are still limited by the parks computer and bandwidth. Band with is like a freeway with a limited number of lanes. In slow traffic times, the cars move faster. As the road get more crowded, the cars will have to slow down and can eventually reach a crawl.

Likewise, a cell booster will get you a better signal into the cell tower. Again, the cell tower is limited by band with and will slow down during peak use.


It is a pick your poison. We have both and use both dependent on the situation.

Ken

[JH3815]

Thanks everyone for the info. Think we are just going to hold off on anything right now and see how everything plays out for a bit then re evaluate what we think we need.

[Mile Marker 42]

Originally Posted by JH3815

Thanks everyone for the info. Think we are just going to hold off on anything right now and see how everything plays out for a bit then re evaluate what we think we need.

For a while, DW and I were on Att and son on verizon. Our thinking was if 1 was weak the other would be strong. Nothing is 100%.

[Persistent]

Smitty has it right.

No single solution is best for multiple situations. If you stay in one place for the winter or full time choose a method that works best there.

Cell booster
Using a cell phone is a good solution for wide areas of the continental US. In some remote areas it is absent altogether. In urban areas, building and other infrastructure block signal. Higher than normal usage cuts service.

A cell booster with an outside antennae can pull in cell signal from a long distance. However, it will not be the fastest solution for areas that have moderate to high signal strength.

The highest gain cell boosters require setup and take down at the site. This is not the best for traveling.

Lower gain systems may require one time installation in the RV. A cell booster can interfere with itself. Proper installation is required.

Cell data can use multiple antennae for multiple simultaneous channels (mimo I think). A cell booster with a high gain antennae is only one channel. Use the booster in remote areas where signal is very weak. Shut it off in adequate signal areas.

Cellular hot spots can use multiple antennae. Many have four internal antennae. However, it may have a connection for one or more external antennae. Four mimo antennae on the roof is highly superior for speed and signal strength. A cell booster can only beat it in very weak signal conditions.

WIFI booster
WIFI was originally designed for use for 50 feet of range. You can see this is a problem in large campgrounds. Latter adaptations include various extensions to WIFI system. More channels have been added. Fewer channels have lower speed and more interference among multiple users. Again you can see many users in an RV park can cause lots of speed interference even if the signal strength is good.

Equipment to serve large numbers of users over wide areas require complex expensive systems and high cost high speed connections to the internet. Of course these things are obstacles for RV park owners profitability.

Clearly performance will vary at different RV parks.

[armullis]

Both might be handy for you. However, a WIfi Signal Booster isn't going to make available bandwith any better than what the campground provides. If the campground Wifi is good, use it. If not, then you default to the cell phone hotspot. A good Cell Phone Signal booster will most always provide a better signal for your cell phone hotspot.