Mike Wendland shares some of his findings in his ongoing quest to stay connected while traveling.
By Mike Wendland, F426141
July 2015
Data. It’s a new commodity for us, a factor to budget for, a number to know. I’m talking about the data that we access on our smartphones, tablets, and laptops — sent to and received from the Internet via emails, websites, text messages, videos, and music. One question I’m often asked is how much data RVers need as they travel around the country.
After lots of research with the major U.S. wireless providers, here’s the answer: the average customer uses between 1 and 2 gigabytes (GB) of data per month for each device.
The wireless providers have some helpful tools for customers interested in finding out where they fit.
Here’s a good resource from Verizon for customers in the United States: www.verizonwireless.com/datacalculator/
Here’s one from AT&T: www.att.com/att/datacalculator/
Here’s one from Sprint: www.sprint.com/landings/datacalculator/
For those of you in Canada, here’s a data usage calculator from the Bell networks: www.bell.ca/Mobility/Cell_phone_plans/Data_needs/
Generally, if you use your smartphone or tablet only to surf the Web, download a few apps, send some emails, and check in on Facebook, you’re probably going to be closer to the 1 GB monthly range. If you also watch YouTube videos each day and share lots of photos, you might need 2 GB or more. You shouldn’t need more than 4 GB — or unlimited access — unless you are a very heavy user and frequently stream a bunch of Netflix or Hulu movies.
I ran an estimate of what I use while traveling and accessing the Internet via Verizon’s 4G LTE network, and I found my usage was way, way more than the average. I need 18 GB a month, as calculated on the chart below, adjusted to my typical usage each day.
Whoa, boy! The big data hogs are streaming video and music and uploading and downloading photos. I update my Roadtreking.com blog daily, post a lot of photos on it, send my videos to YouTube, and run several social media groups and pages. I also back up all my photos in the “cloud.” So, my usage far exceeds that of most people.
I pay for unlimited data on my Verizon wireless account, almost always accessed via the company’s high-speed 4G LTE network. When I access the Internet by wireless cellular, as I do most of the time, with the unlimited plan, I don’t sweat my average 18 GB data usage.
However, there are times when I am not in cellular range, when I’m deep in the boondocks far from a cell tower, and unable to access the Internet. That means to update the blog, podcast, and YouTube channel, I have to drive somewhere to find a signal. That kind of ruins a nice away-from-it-all boondocking getaway.
So, I decided to investigate satellite Internet. What I learned is that there is no way I could afford 18 GB worth of data by satellite.
I was considering the purchase of something known as an IsatHub iSavi (www.groundcontrol.com/IsatHub.htm), a very cool satellite Internet gizmo sold by an outfit called Ground Control for $1,345. That’s a lot of money, but the ultra-portable device creates a satellite Internet connection and a WiFi network that can be used by smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
A satellite Internet connection is very slow, barely broadband, in fact, at 384 kilobits per second (Kbps) download, 240 Kbps upload. But having even that level of connectivity when I truly am in the middle of nowhere is desirable enough that I was seriously considering buying one of the units. But then I looked at how much data costs.
The minimum monthly plan I could consider is $89 a month. That is for a measly 25 MB — not GB — of data.
Granted, I would not use the IsatHub iSavi all the time. Most of my data would still be handled on the Verizon network. But when I was out of cellular range and using the satellite system, I could gobble up the monthly allocation with just a typical morning’s use.
The minimum plan that I think would work for me would be 100 MB a month, and even that would require me to carefully limit my connections. It would cost $340 a month. Yikes!
To provide for that national average usage of, say, 2 GB a month would cost about $2,600 a month. And remember, I use 18 GB a month, not the average. No way.
So, I guess satellite Internet is out of the question for me.
I know, most of you aren’t interested in satellite Internet. But you are interested in cutting costs for your data usage. And the first step in doing that is knowing how much you need.
So, use those links I provided above. And if this column helps you, then I guess all my research — and my disappointment to find that satellite Internet is not going to work for me — was worth it.