Hi Everyone,
First, I’m new to this forum, and I wanted to say “hello” to everyone.
I have been reading quite a bit about cellular modems, and watching lots of videos. I have over 3 decades of technology experience, and one of my favorite hobbies is astrophysics through astrophotography.
Still, given the amount of technical background I have, I found that the topic of cell technology, at least the basics, it was pretty confusing at the beginning, and I’m sure I still have a long way to go. My main is not the technology itself, but the language. As I came through articles where folks use mobile router, cellular modem, cellular router, mobile modem, cellular router, etc…quite interchangeable, so I was trying to figure out “Are we talking about the same thing or something different?” I think I have settle down in the terminology of “cellular router”.
The other aspect when I got introduce to it, I thought “Are folks pulling the SIM card from their phones and putting it inside a cellular router?” I guess the answer is “no”, folks are signing up for additional data plans with data-only SIM cards, right?
I don’t live in an RV full-time -yet? who knows…-, but I have a 20 year old Eurovan Camper which I would love to travel more with, and to take down to Mexico, and one of our (my wife and I) dreams is to get it to South America. Also, my company was 80% remote, and now, we made the decision to go 100% remote due to the pandemic, so no more office buildings which has started to open up the question for me, could I take a week and live inside my camper while I do all of my remote work? Most of it is Google Hangouts (video-calls), which if the connection is not good, I can switch off the video and be on audio only. I know video-calls work best with good download and upload connectivity, hence, why I looked into cellular modems.
Because, I’m not 100% living on the road, I was looking to sign up for data plans to increase my monthly expenditure, but I totally get why folks living all the time in an RV, and running their business from remote locations, they have to sign up for several data plans, and have backup options.
I currently have 2 phones, one with Cricket (ATT) and one with Google FI. I believe I can get a data SIM card from Google FI for free with my current plan and use it with a cellular modem. I’m also interested to leverage the Verizon network, and I was looking at Visible.
Here is a list of questions:
- (Answered) I assume the SIM cards have to be data-only, right?
- Question remove and moved to a separate post.
- (Answered) I read in this forum that peplink will support Google FI, right?
- (Answered) Would I be able to drive south and use my peplink with Google FI in other countries?
- (Answered) Given my setup, I’m not looking for a very expensive device, but I would like a device that can support at least a couple of SIM-cards, and it’s able to leverage a WIFI signal too. Any recommendations based on the above requirements? I was looking at the Pepwave MAX BR1 MK2, and it looks like it could fit the bill, but is that overkill or not enough for my requirements?
- (Answered) Given that I don’t live in an RV all year around, would a Google FI data-only SIM card -which is already included with my Google FI active plan-, and Visible data-only SIM part -if there’s such a thing- be a good option getting lost in the wilderness?
- Question remove and move to separate post
- (Answered) For activating the data-only SIM cards, can I do it directly through the PepLink device or do I a separate phone or table to active it?
- (Answered) Is the MAX Transit CAT18 version suitable for Global roaming? It seems to cover the LTE bands for Global Roaming (1/3/4/7/17/38/40?)
- (Answered) I looked at the resource center for the above modem, and it says it covers bands like “B26(B5/B18/B19)”, does it mean that B26 is inclusive of B5, B18 and B19?
I’m sure I will have more questions, and I don’t want to abuse the forum, but I would love to leverage your experience and guidance, and see if you have any recommendations and/or validation if I have missed any major considerations.
Thanks for your help,
Miquel