Internet while living on the road—and no, it isn’t Starlink (shocker!!)

Someone recently asked us on YouTube what we use for internet while living on the road and that they’re thinking about traveling full-time—so, we wanted to answer this in a blog format because this is honestly probably the most commonly concerning thing about living on the road. I know it was for me!  

I did a lot of research and tried A LOT of things, including hot spot pucks from every provider. But I accidentally stumbled upon the Verizon 5G Gateway device when I was stationary in my RV in Texas. I wasn’t even planning on traveling full-time at that point, nor did I even own a truck. *Side note: my dad would move my RV for me whenever I needed to move it which was like every 3-6 months for awhile? So yeah, I couldn’t even move my house on wheels for 2 years! So, I got this device to pick up 5G service while I was in one spot. It works just like a router except it only plugs into a wall socket instead of the cable cord too.  

Our Verizon Gateway internet box and two of the hot spot pucks (T-Mobile & Verizon) that we've used previously

Originally, the device said it had to be placed in a window and registered to one location. But when we went full-time, we thought why not try it before investing in an expensive Starlink device, and it worked! I was also working a full-time, remote job for our first two years on the road so we hardly wandered off the beaten path. We largely stayed at RV parks and campgrounds—which often have a WiFi network of their own so you can also opt for those! And, if you’re planning to be semi-close to civilization your first year or two, there’s almost always a coffee shop, hotel lobby, or library you could go work at and use their internet.  

Working outside at a nice patio with WiFi; Keke having a bad day at work (lol)

When we don’t have internet service, we’ve used one of our phones hotspots to stream TV at night in the RV. So there’s really a lot of options!  

Towards the end of last year, we started boondocking on public lands a lot more on the west coast. And there were a few times when we didn’t have service on our Verizon box, but we weren’t that far from town so we could just go to a coffee shop to get service. The box works off of cellular towers and since I also have Verizon cell service, I can usually tell if we’ll have service on the box or not before we park. Although, I have noticed that the box seems to be stronger at picking up reception than my phone because sometimes we will have WiFi even if my phone is on SOS.  

I still think Starlink is probably the best option and, if you can afford it, great! But just know that there are other options and they don’t have to be as expensive, if your budget is limited like ours. We pay $25/month for our service since we also have a phone line with them... pretty great compared to $300 device + $150/mo for Starlink. Plus I’ve heard the owner is a jerk... Idk!

Let us know if you have any questions & happy travels! :)