Air con and mifi

[Jewellbags]

Now 4 years in considering is having a sat dish was the right thing for us - weight , problems with it etc and considering swapping it out for a proper mifi and at the same time getting air con fitted for our 7m coach built . Any recommendations for fitters in the Hampshire area and , if poss, a ball park for these items - also your comments on my logic would be welcome

 

[Vanderek]

Try Caravan Solutions, Romsey....Great service, quality workmanship, and sensible prices.

 

[Langtoftlad]

MiFi old hat... consider Starlink

 

[starquake]

MiFi old hat... consider Starlink

If it didn't cost more for starlink PER month than a years service on mifi I'd agree (£85/mo verus £60 a year for a unlimited sim). And worse, it's not even faster in many locations with 5g.

Starlink has it's place, and it is VERY good if you going very much off the beaten track and want 150-300Mbit there. But if you going to UK campsites 4/5G these days gives better service than my home broadband in many cases with a good setup.

 

[Guigsy]

If it didn't cost more for starlink PER month than a years service on mifi I'd agree (£85/mo verus £60 a year for a unlimited sim). And worse, it's not even faster in many locations with 5g.

Starlink has it's place, and it is VERY good if you going very much off the beaten track and want 150-300Mbit there. But if you going to UK campsites 4/5G these days gives better service than my home broadband in many cases with a good setup.

I've got a Poynting MIMO antenna and a Teltonika 5G router. I've got 2 SIMs in the router and a third as backup. I'm not seeing much 5G in the UK. Birmingham city centre (home) I can get 150mb. But the best I've seen elsewhere is 50mb. Most places are mid 20s. I've managed to work in the New Forest with an 8mb connection. I've spent a fair amount and I'm sustaining quite a lot of mobile contracts monthly. If Starlink gets an official roof mount, I'll probably switch.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[ChrisL]

£85/mo verus £60 a year for a unlimited sim

You was robbed, EE unlimited data, sim only, best speeds available £36 month with 6 months at half price for new customers or if you have an existing EE account 20% off and you can share upto 100Gb a month with your other device.

 

[Gellyneck]

You was robbed, EE unlimited data, sim only, best speeds available £36 month with 6 months at half price for new customers or if you have an existing EE account 20% off and you can share upto 100Gb a month with your other device.

I read it as £60 for a year but maybe misunderstanding.

 

[ChrisL]

I read it as £60 for a year but maybe misunderstanding.

I have that contract, and took advantage of the 20% off for the second sim as my phone is also on EE.

 

[Carpmart]

Yeah but comparing Starlink with 4G/5G phone service is like comparing the preverbal oranges and apples…

If you’re comparing a proper 4G/5G data (not phone) tariff with Starlink, the delta is way smaller fiscally, but still a significant delta in performance with Starlink.

A fitted 4G on a data plan is way more convenient than setting up a Starlink, but that is easily mitigated with a partial instal approach.

IMHO it’s Starlink FTW

 

[Soycd]

Not in Hampshire but Reliance in West Sussex are great. They fitted a Dometic Freshjet 2200 to our PVC. I can't remember the exact price but it was in the region of £2500+. I Thought I had the paperwork but it went with the van when we sold it.

Home

www.reliancecms.uk

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[starquake]

I have that contract, and took advantage of the 20% off for the second sim as my phone is also on EE.

Yeah £60 a year, not a month. £5 a month.

 

[starquake]

Yeah but comparing Starlink with 4G/5G phone service is like comparing the preverbal oranges and apples…

If you’re comparing a proper 4G/5G data (not phone) tariff with Starlink, the delta is way smaller fiscally, but still a significant delta in performance with Starlink.

IMHO it’s Starlink FTW

I am comparing data tariffs - personal ones don't work in a mifi or are speed limited as you point out. £5/mo with Three, £10/mo with EE for pure data tariffs (both unlimited, with a 1T fair use on Three and a 650-700Gb fair use policy on EE (you wont' be disconnected on either if you go over fair use, but WILL get speed limited).. It's not that if you are buying a retail tariff from a shop I conceed, but that IS the going rate for a prepaid 1 year deal, or a business sim data deal. If you don't have your own Ltd company to take advantage, the sims are even sold on those rates prepaid on amazon these days from scancom and "similar" resellers. I have no complaints at people using £20 a month smarty deals, as those are not contracts and like starlink you can turn on/off as needed -> but as I've pointed out on this forum many times, you are way cheaper buying a annual contract if you use over 3 months of such a deal.

£85/mo is more than I pay for my sim, my wifes sim (both unlimited everything), 2 data sims, 1 EE sim all toegether (the total for all of us is £40/mo at present). (2 handsets at £10/mo, 2 data sims at £5/mo (all Three) and one EE unlimtied at £10/mo).

And I have speedtests from UK campsites of > 1Gbit a sec with those sims. Starlink is fast but it's not as fast as good 4g or 5g in "good" conditions but it's more consistent as many rural campsites you won't get those speeds and I do conceed that. Starlink IS better in rural I conceed that, but it honestly in latency, performance doesn't touch good cat18 4g or 5g where performance per device can be 1G. We may even get Starlink, but it'll be on top of 4/5g, and we'll only turn it on when the 4/5g performance dictates we need it as for £85 it pays for another sim!

 

[Carpmart]

I am comparing data tariffs - personal ones don't work in a mifi or are speed limited as you point out. £5/mo with Three, £10/mo with EE for pure data tariffs (both unlimited, with a 1T fair use on Three and a 650-700Gb fair use policy on EE (you wont' be disconnected on either if you go over fair use, but WILL get speed limited).. It's not that if you are buying a retail tariff from a shop I conceed, but that IS the going rate for a prepaid 1 year deal, or a business sim data deal. If you don't have your own Ltd company to take advantage, the sims are even sold on those rates prepaid on amazon these days from scancom and "similar" resellers. I have no complaints at people using £20 a month smarty deals, as those are not contracts and like starlink you can turn on/off as needed -> but as I've pointed out on this forum many times, you are way cheaper buying a annual contract if you use over 3 months of such a deal.

£85/mo is more than I pay for my sim, my wifes sim (both unlimited everything), 2 data sims, 1 EE sim all toegether (the total for all of us is £40/mo at present). (2 handsets at £10/mo, 2 data sims at £5/mo (all Three) and one EE unlimtied at £10/mo).

And I have speedtests from UK campsites of > 1Gbit a sec with those sims. Starlink is fast but it's not as fast as good 4g or 5g in "good" conditions but it's more consistent as many rural campsites you won't get those speeds and I do conceed that. Starlink IS better in rural I conceed that, but it honestly in latency, performance doesn't touch good cat18 4g or 5g where performance per device can be 1G. We may even get Starlink, but it'll be on top of 4/5g, and we'll only turn it on when the 4/5g performance dictates we need it as for £85 it pays for another sim!

Im pleased you’re happy with your approach and indeed it seems like you have got some very competitive deals. However, I’m afraid you will not get non shaped 4G unlimited data for £5 per month. The priority on your misdn will be low.. sure when you’re in non contended cells you will get good service, but as soon as you hit some congestion, you’re service May/will fall away quickly… that may still be good enough and indeed you seem very happy with your approach, so it works for you and I’m not challenging that!

We are all different and I accept that with your UK only use case you may feel it works well, accepting my points above regarding priority of service. My use case is very different. I’m currently in the EU (40 days in) where I will be for a further eight months. A 4G approach just simply will not work.

If you compare a high priority data only tariff where you will always get the best service available in any geographic location, propagation accepted, then you will find the delta between a ‘proper’ data tariff and Starlink is way smaller.

Edit: I’ve just re read your post, which I didn’t do properly the first time… please can you link me to one of the EE sim’s please? It’s worth having as a back up option…. What’s the roaming policy on the EE business data sims?

2nd Edit: I have a ltd company, so a link to the EE business data plan would be appreciated..

 

[Jewellbags]

I gotta iPhone with an unlimited data sim for £16 a month and because the satellite failed been hotspotting streaming tv , films, radio , sat nav for the last few weeks . I’ve also done some remote work

We are camping ? Not sure we need much more

 

[starquake]

If you compare a high priority data only tariff where you will always get the best service available in any geographic location, propagation accepted, then you will find the delta between a ‘proper’ data tariff and Starlink is way smaller.

Edit: I’ve just re read your post, which I didn’t do properly the first time… please can you link me to one of the EE sim’s please? It’s worth having as a back up option…. What’s the roaming policy on the EE business data sims?

2nd Edit: I have a ltd company, so a link to the EE business data plan would be appreciated..

I would comment I work in IT and well aware of some of the tricks the mobile providers use to rate limit you -> I've tested our data sims and they provide over 1Gbit of throughput when cells allow it (ie, theres no peak rate limit as some customer sims have), which as both know EE are paritcularly fond of, and I'm definitely not a light user, we use 200Gb a month in our motorhome, and ~ 750Gb/mo in the family static van, mostly as the fatherinlaw leaves nowtv permantly streaming anything on sky sports -> he falls asleep to it twice a day!.

Three Business data only sims absolutely get a higher priority than a smarty one, (may also be personal one but a whilse since we've had one of those) and are unlimited and crucially ARE £5/mo direct from the 3 business team (or were when we last negotiated it about a year ago) when you have a contract with > 1 sim on it (we need several for our business and we just bill the staff using them personally as allowed). We actually tested this side by side by swapping the sims in the same dongle with same antenna and the performance difference was notable as you say. It's a proper data tariff. Personally I deal with the 3 business team direct (they are open Monday to Friday only, 9-5 UK time, number on three website!). You may be surprised at just how cheap you can get any deal involving 10+ sims as my friends business is paying well under £5/mo/sim for his (unlimited) data sims! A sim with ul data and ul calls can be under £10/mo.

scancom.co.uk are the provider of many of the EE sims we personally use for our Ltd, as they provide a better approach than contacting EE direct, and have again a higher priority than a user sim with a higher peak share of data from our experience at least (they are genuine pre-paid and montly business contracts only available to Ltd companys).. They do list their current deals on the website, but they work as a broker and are only available in many cases to Ltd companies. I personally for UK use use the prepaid varient up to a date, which they offer and change the expiry on every few months. Our current sim in the motorhome and the other in the static van expire May 2024, and both purchased in Jan 2022 for a total of £200 per sim (no monthly fees), providing unlimtied data for the entire period (for 2.3 years), making it actually well under £10/mo for our current solution. A similar deal is available now https://www.scancom.co.uk/products/...01-2025-unlimited-data?variant=42800969547952 -> but has less valid time on it, as it started Jan this year, they will almost certainally refresh with 12 and 24 month deals next May given their amazon history shows they have sold rather a lot of the deals in 2022 that all expire 2024! Scancom can also provide cheaper deals than 3 business team IF you have a smaller need for sims (ie, under 3) on Three. I don't think the EE sims roam but I don't think they "need to" for us given ours are mostly used in the familys static vans.

Ref roaming on Three you would need to have a chat with them -> but when I last spoke to Three it was a fixed fee per month on the business contract to extend the unlimited data to EU countries -> rather different deal to what they offer to personal contracts so it may be worth a chat. Three seem quite willing to negotiate on such things from my experience at least (we've been a contract business customer of theirs since 2015 though!). We've not used it (yet) but we'll get another price before we go EU next year.

Technically the main trick Three (and EE) seem to use to limit heavy unlimited users is to preference your connection to one of their slower cells on band 20-> this is trivally bypassable with most dongles by limiting the switch to B20, but to be honest with the above contracts we've never needed to do it. Prior to us switching to business contracts we did use personal data contract on the static and they did put our static on a slow cell regularly (usually after about 30Gb a month used), which we bypassed with a cell and frequency fix on the device being used (A mikrotik LTE6 SXT). Given that was hard to explain to the father in law when they reconfigured it in the family static (on his personal deal), we switched them from personal contract onto a contract provided by my business negating need to do that (and billing them). We genuinely need good internet there for when we work so this allows us to work when we go see family and not have to have complaints about the poor internet.

I would caveat all this with if the signal is crappy you are limited in throughput. Peak season, rural area, absolutely starlink will be better. However at no point this year has (in UK) the above sims failed to provide a minimum throughput enough to watch TV in 1080p at ANY location we've been which is why we think they are good enough (lowest has been 3Mbit, average 30Mbit!). Even on the busy bank holidays we've been fine when the sites have all been full that we visited. In 3 locations the signal provided has even been good enough to outperform our home FTTC connection which is all we can get here in suffolk! We initially thought this would be a backup until we got starlink, we are now trying to investigate if we could rent starlink for a future EU trip as buying the kit for the limited use it would get in our van would seem a bit fruitless. £85/mo = > £1000 a year and thats a ton of local sim cards.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[starquake]

I've got a Poynting MIMO antenna and a Teltonika 5G router. I've got 2 SIMs in the router and a third as backup. I'm not seeing much 5G in the UK. Birmingham city centre (home) I can get 150mb. But the best I've seen elsewhere is 50mb. Most places are mid 20s. I've managed to work in the New Forest with an 8mb connection. I've spent a fair amount and I'm sustaining quite a lot of mobile contracts monthly. If Starlink gets an official roof mount, I'll probably switch.

We've seen 5g at two CAMC/CACC sites this year. It does exist and it is increasing rapidly as last year I'd only seen 5g in two places outside of London. Most new cell towers now are dual 4/5G at this point, and Three and EE at least are deploying them rather rapidly.

Best site is St Neots CACC though -> you get speed tests of over 1Gig with a good contract there. Can highly reccomend it and not just because the internet is that good, the site is pretty good too.
Intesting one was Gr Yarmouth CAMC -> 4 and 5g signal both, but both capped to 40Mbit (but you could max out both 4 and 5g at that 40Mbit at same time)., and I suspect the uplink from the cell tower to blame as full signal too, and the actual cell tower is opposite the site entrance. Suspect this one was slow as they were likely awaiting a backhaul upgrade which took a lot longer than the cell site upgrade.. and I would place quite a high wager both the towers are running off a 80/20 FTTC connection given the speed tests.

Bear in mind though Starlink sucks power, in our van it would also need a lithium battery upgrade, and wouln't be able to be left on for the cameras etc like the 4g can. I'm not saying we won't get some too, but we'll still keep the roof antenna and router for the camera/alarm system given solar can keep up with the demand of that.

 

[starquake]

Worth calling out the below deal on sale now on amazon that popped up when I logged in thismorning.
Amazon product ASIN B0B88QM3ZK
It's a scancom via amazon deal for 3, but it's 80Gb (per month) for 2 years prepaid (well 22 months remaining) for £65, so what ~3 quid a month for 80Gb every month with the time remaining in UK. Even as a backup sim to backup say an EE or O2 sim this may be worth a look to some moniring the thread. Yes, it's not unlimited as the other deals I've mentioned are but they cost "more" -> and for someone needing less it may suit you well. As I think I've commented before we use both EE and Three as usually one provides a good service near anywhere and for someone doing "light" duty on a sim with only weekends it would probably suit very well.

 

[Guigsy]

I was on a low cost PlusNet SIM as my backup. When they moved everyone over to EE, there was a full range of options for pretty cheap. And EE have great coverage out in the sticks with their band 20 coverage (it's slower, but it's not offered to most of the other resellers on their network, so in areas of poor coverage, often only EE B20 is available). So I swapped my strategy so EE is now my primary work link when working mobile. With a cheap Smarty SIM as backup that I can pay for when I need (or when we're chonking through data and streaming video in leisure time).

Yes, there are 3 issues with Starlink:
-it uses a fair amount of power
-it's mains, so faff with inverters
-the dishy isn't supposed to be used on the move. Setting it up while wild camping isn't good. The roof mount is a hack. Then parking in the shade kills your connection.

The third one is the main thing for me.

 

[EuroTrotters]

I wouldn't have a roof A/C

We have had them and have one on our caravan.

I fitted a Truma Saphir Ducted system, so much better.

 

[BikerGraham]

I would comment I work in IT and well aware of some of the tricks the mobile providers use to rate limit you -> I've tested our data sims and they provide over 1Gbit of throughput when cells allow it (ie, theres no peak rate limit as some customer sims have), which as both know EE are paritcularly fond of, and I'm definitely not a light user, we use 200Gb a month in our motorhome, and ~ 750Gb/mo in the family static van, mostly as the fatherinlaw leaves nowtv permantly streaming anything on sky sports -> he falls asleep to it twice a day!.

Three Business data only sims absolutely get a higher priority than a smarty one, (may also be personal one but a whilse since we've had one of those) and are unlimited and crucially ARE £5/mo direct from the 3 business team (or were when we last negotiated it about a year ago) when you have a contract with > 1 sim on it (we need several for our business and we just bill the staff using them personally as allowed). We actually tested this side by side by swapping the sims in the same dongle with same antenna and the performance difference was notable as you say. It's a proper data tariff. Personally I deal with the 3 business team direct (they are open Monday to Friday only, 9-5 UK time, number on three website!). You may be surprised at just how cheap you can get any deal involving 10+ sims as my friends business is paying well under £5/mo/sim for his (unlimited) data sims! A sim with ul data and ul calls can be under £10/mo.

scancom.co.uk are the provider of many of the EE sims we personally use for our Ltd, as they provide a better approach than contacting EE direct, and have again a higher priority than a user sim with a higher peak share of data from our experience at least (they are genuine pre-paid and montly business contracts only available to Ltd companys).. They do list their current deals on the website, but they work as a broker and are only available in many cases to Ltd companies. I personally for UK use use the prepaid varient up to a date, which they offer and change the expiry on every few months. Our current sim in the motorhome and the other in the static van expire May 2024, and both purchased in Jan 2022 for a total of £200 per sim (no monthly fees), providing unlimtied data for the entire period (for 2.3 years), making it actually well under £10/mo for our current solution. A similar deal is available now https://www.scancom.co.uk/products/...01-2025-unlimited-data?variant=42800969547952 -> but has less valid time on it, as it started Jan this year, they will almost certainally refresh with 12 and 24 month deals next May given their amazon history shows they have sold rather a lot of the deals in 2022 that all expire 2024! Scancom can also provide cheaper deals than 3 business team IF you have a smaller need for sims (ie, under 3) on Three. I don't think the EE sims roam but I don't think they "need to" for us given ours are mostly used in the familys static vans.

Ref roaming on Three you would need to have a chat with them -> but when I last spoke to Three it was a fixed fee per month on the business contract to extend the unlimited data to EU countries -> rather different deal to what they offer to personal contracts so it may be worth a chat. Three seem quite willing to negotiate on such things from my experience at least (we've been a contract business customer of theirs since 2015 though!). We've not used it (yet) but we'll get another price before we go EU next year.

Technically the main trick Three (and EE) seem to use to limit heavy unlimited users is to preference your connection to one of their slower cells on band 20-> this is trivally bypassable with most dongles by limiting the switch to B20, but to be honest with the above contracts we've never needed to do it. Prior to us switching to business contracts we did use personal data contract on the static and they did put our static on a slow cell regularly (usually after about 30Gb a month used), which we bypassed with a cell and frequency fix on the device being used (A mikrotik LTE6 SXT). Given that was hard to explain to the father in law when they reconfigured it in the family static (on his personal deal), we switched them from personal contract onto a contract provided by my business negating need to do that (and billing them). We genuinely need good internet there for when we work so this allows us to work when we go see family and not have to have complaints about the poor internet.

I would caveat all this with if the signal is crappy you are limited in throughput. Peak season, rural area, absolutely starlink will be better. However at no point this year has (in UK) the above sims failed to provide a minimum throughput enough to watch TV in 1080p at ANY location we've been which is why we think they are good enough (lowest has been 3Mbit, average 30Mbit!). Even on the busy bank holidays we've been fine when the sites have all been full that we visited. In 3 locations the signal provided has even been good enough to outperform our home FTTC connection which is all we can get here in suffolk! We initially thought this would be a backup until we got starlink, we are now trying to investigate if we could rent starlink for a future EU trip as buying the kit for the limited use it would get in our van would seem a bit fruitless. £85/mo = > £1000 a year and thats a ton of local sim cards.

just looked up the link and then on the site went and found unlimited on EE with roaming for £10 per month

is that really correct ? how so cheap ?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[starquake]

It really is the case, I've been using them for > 1.5 years now without their service breaking. As have many if you check the reviews on amazon and elsewhere. The EE deals with roaming are still limited aiui - read the terms and ring them if questions but the deals are very reasonably for roaming with 25Gb fair use aiui.

But i'm using it on a VERY congested cell (Haven static site where phone lines to site get 2Mbit) and getting 40-100Mbit on EE at times when others on site claim that there is no EE service, meaning it's prioritised over them. Same with the Three sims, we use in the motorhome as well as the static (we set that one up just for tablets and iphones and not tv as we were going over the EE usage limit (small print on unlimited is it's actually 650Gb), so put a second mifi in for the tablets. It didn't stop at 650Gb just went "slow". To explain members of family live in the static van for ~ 10 months a year near enough as it's a nice place they have retired in, but you just can't get acceptable internet there without 4/5g. As mentioned we have 2 of the deals that work out at £10 a mo on EE via them, & 4 sims on Three business at moment not via them, 2 phones, 2 data, and pay a very reasonably £50 a mo for the lot. I know some people I work with paying that for "one" device.

Personally I find the fact that others not aware of the excellent deals on offer or not mention them to be a bit disinginuous -> data these days is a commodity item, and people selling at 20-30 quid a month (like EE direct on personal contracts) are plainly ripping people off. Smarty with it's non-contract makes perfect sense if you only use a mh 2-3 months a year, but if you use 4, you clearly better off on a contract.

Ref; how they work they are basically just taking up large amounts of business contracts and reselling them in some cases, in others its basically pooling a large large amount of data across thousands of sims. You'll note some deals only available if you a charity, ltd company or business. AIUI scancom are one of EE's largest business non-direct sales channels. I don't work for them btw, just a very happy customer -> and we certainally will be renewing our EE sims next May when they are due. They are 100% the cheapest way to get a > 200Gb EE data plan these days based on my experience at least.

 

[BikerGraham]

It really is the case, I've been using them for > 1.5 years now without their service breaking. As have many if you check the reviews on amazon and elsewhere. The EE deals with roaming are still limited aiui - read the terms and ring them if questions but the deals are very reasonably for roaming with 25Gb fair use aiui.

But i'm using it on a VERY congested cell (Haven static site where phone lines to site get 2Mbit) and getting 40-100Mbit on EE at times when others on site claim that there is no EE service, meaning it's prioritised over them. Same with the Three sims, we use in the motorhome as well as the static (we set that one up just for tablets and iphones and not tv as we were going over the EE usage limit (small print on unlimited is it's actually 650Gb), so put a second mifi in for the tablets. It didn't stop at 650Gb just went "slow". To explain members of family live in the static van for ~ 10 months a year near enough as it's a nice place they have retired in, but you just can't get acceptable internet there without 4/5g. As mentioned we have 2 of the deals that work out at £10 a mo on EE via them, & 4 sims on Three business at moment not via them, 2 phones, 2 data, and pay a very reasonably £50 a mo for the lot. I know some people I work with paying that for "one" device.

Personally I find the fact that others not aware of the excellent deals on offer or not mention them to be a bit disinginuous -> data these days is a commodity item, and people selling at 20-30 quid a month (like EE direct on personal contracts) are plainly ripping people off. Smarty with it's non-contract makes perfect sense if you only use a mh 2-3 months a year, but if you use 4, you clearly better off on a contract.

Ref; how they work they are basically just taking up large amounts of business contracts and reselling them in some cases, in others its basically pooling a large large amount of data across thousands of sims. You'll note some deals only available if you a charity, ltd company or business. AIUI scancom are one of EE's largest business non-direct sales channels. I don't work for them btw, just a very happy customer -> and we certainally will be renewing our EE sims next May when they are due. They are 100% the cheapest way to get a > 200Gb EE data plan these days based on my experience at least.

thanks

I have two unlimited vodafone for work phones and a separate for the home router mainly for the tv streaming. Also normally have a spare for when away with work in a spare mifi but on a separate provider just in case poor signal. But all of them are well over the £10 month deal on here.

This will save the business a few quid.