Lately, I have been hearing about many estimators who work from multiple locations. Some work from home, some at project sites and others from wherever they happen to be. The latter applies mostly to small companies that require their estimators, often the owner, to work away from the office. We have several customers who travel to multiple states and, of course, need to get estimates and administrative work done in the evening after a day’s work on the project.

It is typical for most small company owners, including me, to get work done while traveling. Most often, I travel in a recreational vehicle and find myself working in remote places with no internet connection. The following is the road to achieving connectivity through trial and error.

No internet connection

My attempts to work without an internet connection did not last very long. I was able to do a lot of takeoffs, but being out of touch with customers was a problem. Depending on where I was, I needed to drive to a relative’s house or somewhere with Wi-Fi. Campground internet services were, and still are, a mixed bag. Some offer Wi-Fi at a specific location, such as a clubhouse. At some campgrounds, the Wi-Fi was free, while others charged for it. Some RV parks have installed park-wide Wi-Fi, but most of those charged a significant fee for use.

Wi-Fi hotspots

The next method to try was Wi-Fi hotspots based on cellular service. I researched how, watching YouTube videos from vendors and full-time RV travelers. The latter included some high-end solutions such as dedicated hotspot devices from multiple cellular carriers, tall poles with cellular boosters and miscellaneous devices and wiring. 

This requires a lot of 120V power, so systems need to be upgraded with many solar panels, more batteries and large inverters as needed to deliver 120V power from the 12V battery system. This is very expensive, but it makes sense for someone who lives and works full-time on the road. However, that is not me.

I decided to try the Wi-Fi hotspot generated by my cellphone. This requires a cellular plan that offers this feature. While my phone supported Wi-Fi hotspots, I needed to upgrade our cell plan. I had several choices of plans that provided different amounts of data use and went with one that allowed 40 megabytes of data on each of our phones. 

I first tried using hotspots at our home office and it was easy to connect and network between our two laptop computers. However, the internet speed lagged compared to the standard office connection. A phone call to the cellular provider revealed that the hotspot was significantly slower than the data rate the phone was capable of providing.

Next, I tried the cellphone hotspots on the road. If we had a strong cellular signal, the hotspots worked well. They were even good enough to stream movies. 

However, anything less than four bars created problems. My ability to download files was inconsistent, and the network communications were hit or miss. We put up with this for a few trips, but started looking for a new solution.

Starlink Roam

After more research, and waiting for availability, we ordered Starlink Roam. This service is similar to regular Starlink, but it allows you to pick up your antenna and take it anywhere your plan allows. We chose a plan for the continental United States. I have never had an easier time setting up a system, as it is truly plug-and-play. 

We received a box with the antenna, a small stand, a 75-foot antenna cable and a router. The cable was already plugged into the antenna. I downloaded the Starlink app and used the obstruction feature to find a good place to set up the antenna. Then I dropped the antenna into the stand, plugged the cable into the router and plugged the router into a 120V receptacle. The app then took me through the steps to set up my account and activate the system. It took about 10 minutes from unpacking to accessing the internet through the Starlink system.

So far, the internet speed has been good everywhere we have tried it, ranging from 20 to 200 Mbps. The only drawback we have experienced is the requirement for a clear view of the sky. Clouds, rain and wind have not been a problem, but that nice shady spot at a campground is not so great for accessing the internet.

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