Need internet advice - Yellowstone Refugee

[kmx888]

I work in Yellowstone Park and just lost my position because of the flooding disaster. My company will give me another position at a location that was not affected but...... I need internet for a business I operate online.

The situation in Yellowstone is that there is cell signal in certain limited areas but it is all but worthless. There is plenty of signal but no bandwidth. All of the cell service and internet comes via microwave towers and there is no wire or fiber pulled through in the park.

Are there services I can use that will provide reasonably fast internet by satellite?
I see some but wonder about their quality. The only company that is at all reliable here is Verizon. Even with my internal hotspot the bankwidth is not adequate to do most anything.

[scotttkd]

Check out the Starlink threads on the technology forum here.....its pricey upfront for the hardware but service is for most quite good. You do need a clear view of the northern sky though, so lots of tree cover will be a problem.

[move on]

Look into Iridium. They were the first low earth orbit satellite system and the only one to cover the entire globe. They are targeting industry and maritime but they may have something with down to earth pricing.

[Nwcid]

Starlink is likely going to be the only cost effective option.

There are other satellite internet providers out there, but cost climbs fast.

[Isaac-1]

Starlink, hands down best option, they have a new RV plan that is marketed to seasonal RV users (you can pay by the monthly billing period, which is great for people with fiber internet at home in the non-travel season), best of all the RV plan is available to ship right away so you should get it within a week or two. (cost of the RV plan is I think $10 per month higher than the home plan with roaming enabled, I think $135 per month, plus $600 equipment up front). The downside of Starlink is the dish needs to be placed in a location with clear view of the sky in all directions above about 25 degrees above the horizon, so it is not good for an campground with a lot of trees. The dish ships with a 75 ft cable, though a 150 ft cable is optional for about $100, which lets you move it around a little to get clear line of sight. See this recent youtube video complaining about lack of coverage when surrounded by trees in a campground, note this issue should get better over time as more satellites are launched (another 59 were launched this morning, putting the total count at nearly 2,000 in orbit).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_qgeSt5SBs

[lemodrop9344]

Take a look at the Stalink availability map on their website. Coverage & availability west of the Mississippi is much better than what is available in the east.
Other options to consider are commercial grade cellular modem/routers with band aggregation. I use Peplink products.

[raboud]

Originally Posted by kmx888

I work in Yellowstone Park and just lost my position because of the flooding disaster. My company will give me another position at a location that was not affected but...... I need internet for a business I operate online.

The situation in Yellowstone is that there is cell signal in certain limited areas but it is all but worthless. There is plenty of signal but no bandwidth. All of the cell service and internet comes via microwave towers and there is no wire or fiber pulled through in the park.

Are there services I can use that will provide reasonably fast internet by satellite?
I see some but wonder about their quality. The only company that is at all reliable here is Verizon. Even with my internal hotspot the bankwidth is not adequate to do most anything.

I went to mobilemusthave.com and purchased their Ultimate Road Warrior package with the Parsec Husky 7 antenna. We've been in RV parks where there was no cell phone coverage from any of the providers and with the standard Ultimate Road Warrior package and the included standard dipole antennas I can affirm that we had zero signal. We then attached the router to the Parsec antenna and were able to watch streaming HD TV with no buffering. After that experience we actually had the Parsec antenna mounted on the roof of our class A and absolutely love it.