New Internet Friend

I finally folded the internet dish down for the last time.  It was a sad moment because it had really served me well for the past 7 years.  To the folks at Winegard, who built the product and provided all the great support, I thank you for being so fantastic over the years.  It provided us with internet access in places where you wouldn't have thought you could get it, both in the US and Canada.  The speed  (1Mbit down 200kbits up) was adaquate and it did the job we needed it to.  The $80 per month was easily justified.

We have been looking for a good (cellular based) solution to replace the dish for a while now.  Cost was only one of the problems we had to deal with but getting access in both the US and Canada was even bigger.  We could get a Rogers or Telus solution in Canada or a Verizon solution in the US but when you cross the border you can go broke paying for the roaming charges.

There are some amazingly low cost solutions "Clear" in the US has an unlimited plan for $30 per month as does Wind mobile in Canada.  The problem is coverage - if you drive out of the city you have no internet access.  This would not be great for a motorhome environment.

The only providers with great coverage have "data caps."  Unlimited internet access really doesn't exist in the cellular world for motorhomers.

Having looked at it for a couple of years now we finally came up with a solution that works for us.

In the US.

We signed up with Verizon; purchased a Novatel MiFi 4G LTE device and got a 2 year plan.   The MiFi
device cost $100 but they gave us a $50 Visa card.  The 2 year contract is $50US for 5GB per month.  The plan is to use the Verizon for the 6 months while we are in the US and suspend the contract when we get back into Canada.  This really will extend the 2 year contract to 4 years but that's OK for us.  There is a little glitch here you can suspend the contract online but for only 90 days at time.  So,  mark your calendar!

In Canada.


In Canada, it was much easier.  We tried Rogers but were unable to get a contract that we could suspend while we were south.  After looking at the coverage map and the contract we finally went with Telus, purchased a Haumei MiFi 4G from them for $149.  There is no contract but we signed up for a $60 for 6GB per month.  If we go over its $20 per GB.  It is a simple phone call when we go south to stop the billing.

Both Verizon and Telus will bill directly and automatically to your credit card every month and you can have them email you a copy of your bill.  The problem for us is going to be managing the gigabyte (GB) cap.