I've had a hotspot from Calyx Institute for van living before and it worked great. It's been a while but I remember their price was great with a payment once per year.
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2024
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Okay turns out that's just a hotspot, and nothing more. It's like paying $750 to sit outside a Starbucks for a year mooching off their Wi-Fi, except I can carry that Starbucks around with me everywhere I go which is great but
It's not an ISP that includes a phone number for calls and texting. I wanted to port my phone number over to a new provider but after I went through and bought the thing they tell me they can't port my phone number, they're not an ISP like that, It's just a hotspot, And I'm on my own when it comes to having a phone number and which carrier provides service for it. Now you've got me fucking paying for a hotspot while still paying for my original separate phone plan. That's not what I wanted.
Starlink dishes need an open unobstructed view of the sky to communicate with the satellites. You'd need the dish to be outside and then be in range of the wifi from the dish's router (or other routers or mesh system you set up).
IMHO Starlink is best when living or boondocking in remote area without other options and with enough open sky view to get a decent connection. I have a Starlink dish on my van to get internet access when 5G coverage is not available.
The new Starlink Mini dish might be of interest - a small dish, power-able by 12-48V DC or USB-C PD. In the US it is $600, then $30 a month but only 50GB per month before extra charges.
FMCA TechConnect+ has some plans including an unlimited but speed capped AT&T plan for around $60 a month.
I have Visible (Verizon MVNO) for $25/month. I put the SIM in an LTE router I got off amazon (open box) for $42.