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Is a good 4G setup capable of competing with Starlink in rural locations?

As for going the StarLink route, it would depend how remote you're going to be. One of the Govt trial areas is Snowdonia particular for all the issue experienced there. I remember 5 years ago I stayed overnight at a hotel near Cadir Idris and climbed it the next day. The only Internet connectivity was at the hotel. There was no mobile reception in a lot of places and never any data. Might have changed since. This would lead back to Starlink option - depending on what power options you have in you van and running it off grid.
I've struggled more in the Brecons than Snowdonia, but it certainly has some real dead spots there, too.

Power wouldn't be an issue, I have 280aH of lithium, and apparently, the newer dish requires around 30W. Still more than 4G, but it wouldn't be a dealbreaker.

The hassle of setting up the dishy each time, and ensuring it doesn't get nicked are the biggest downsides!
 
Mikrotik yes, ltap, sxt, LHG, chateau etc.

No experience with teltonika although I know the use a version of Openwrt
Oh, awesome! I'm really curious how these would compare to the router you mentioned above alongside a decent external antenna.

Could you please tell me what your thoughts would be for the ltap and sxt for my application, with an ethernet cable fed to a PoE switch inside the van?

My understanding is that the LHG is probably going to be the most ideal on paper, but I really can't see how I'd be able to mount it permanently with the UK's low-hanging branches everywhere! My van's roof gets attacked on every journey.
 
@justgottaclimb
MikroTik LTE Products

LHG is for a Fixed Location, it also has a massive vulnerability of the sim card being inside the antenna:

Unless you are affixing this up high on the side of a building I would not recommend it for a moving vehicle.

The SXT has the same issue, as the LHG, the simcard is in the antenna outside your vehicle.

For a moving vehicle I recommend the LTAP if going MikroTik, you can also use the GPS to track your vehicle, linked guide is for the LTAP Mini, but as it can be powered by DC jack, 802.3af/at PoE-IN or MicroUSB and you can attach the mANT LTE-5o externally to the Van, it would prevent the simcards being removed and when raining or cold and wet, you would not need to be outside to change simcards.

The LTAP mini's big brother the LTAP is a triple sim monster that can be powered by DC jack, Passive PoE-IN or Automotive, though Passive POE may cause you a problem as it's higher power than 802.3af/at or MicroUSB and not the PoE standard.

Decent price for an LTAP here.

The LTAP Mini without modem from a reputable seller like Getic is £63, though you may find it cheaper bidding on eBay, you would then need a suitable modem like the Quectel EP06-E Cat6 or higher.

The GPS Module is currently less than £14 including postage from Getic's eBay shop.

If I compare the ZTE mf286d to the MikroTik Chateau LTE12, they are pretty much equal in performance, although I'm not a fan of ZTE's web user interface.
 
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@justgottaclimb
MikroTik LTE Products

LHG is for a Fixed Location, it also has a massive vulnerability of the sim card being inside the antenna:

Unless you are affixing this up high on the side of a building I would not recommend it for a moving vehicle.

The SXT has the same issue, as the LHG, the simcard is in the antenna outside your vehicle.

For a moving vehicle I recommend the LTAP if going MikroTik, you can also use the GPS to track your vehicle, linked guide is for the LTAP Mini, but as it can be powered by DC jack, 802.3af/at PoE-IN or MicroUSB and you can attach the mANT LTE-5o externally to the Van, it would prevent the simcards being removed and when raining or cold and wet, you would not need to be outside to change simcards.

The LTAP mini's big brother the LTAP is a triple sim monster that can be powered by DC jack, Passive PoE-IN or Automotive, though Passive POE may cause you a problem as it's higher power than 802.3af/at or MicroUSB and not the PoE standard.

Decent price for an LTAP here.

The LTAP Mini without modem from a reputable seller like Getic is £63, though you may find it cheaper bidding on eBay, you would then need a suitable modem like the Quectel EP06-E Cat6 or higher.

The GPS Module is currently less than £14 including postage from Getic's eBay shop.

If I compare the ZTE mf286d to the MikroTik Chateau LTE12, they are pretty much equal in performance, although I'm not a fan of ZTE's web user interface.
Thank you so much for taking the time to provide another fantastic response, along with the useful links. It really is greatly appreciated.

If I got the LHG, I would set it up upon arrival by attaching it to a pole on the roof, but admittedly, if I can get close to its performance without the hassle, it'd be much more ideal!

Interface aside (as you've probably noticed, I'm not too clued up on the technical aspects!) what benefits would I have with the LTAP (£200 used, £255 new) over the mf286d (£70) besides GPS for my use case?

If I were to go with the LTAP/LTAP mini, am I right in thinking that I could just hard-wire them to my existing 12v lithium leisure battery?

Sorry for the questions! So many variables and options out there!
 
Interface aside (as you've probably noticed, I'm not too clued up on the technical aspects!) what benefits would I have with the LTAP (£200 used, £255 new) over the mf286d (£70) besides GPS for my use case?
The mf286d would win, the advantage of the LTAP is multiple simcards preinstalled, instant failover, modem upgradable.

The LTAP is CAT4 or CAT6 with a preinstalled modem, the mf286d is CAT12.

If I were to go with the LTAP/LTAP mini, am I right in thinking that I could just hard-wire them to my existing 12v lithium leisure battery?
Yes, they are designed for automotive installation.
 
According to the UK government, stable internet is 95% chance of getting a download speed of at least 2Mbit/s.

To that end a dual SIM router with at minimum cat6 modem would be the cheapest option.

Would it be any good, the biggest waste of upload bandwidth is DNS requests, if you had a local DNS server running pihole or Adguard home to remove the constant advertising you will have a better service.
Mmm interest in this... So if one setup DNS server using if mikrtrok / dd-wrt if they could do it aka cache , it will drastically reduce upload data usage = save total mobile data usage ?
 
old thread but my contribution as a camper and frequenter of out of the way locations:
If you are genuinely in a zero coverage on any network then starlink maybe your only option, question I'd ask is how many times / places is that really going to be the case?

If you can get some coverage on at least one network, then a good 4x4 omni antenna on the roof of your van , is the neatest solution, such as a poynting MIMO 3-17, a lot of people mounting these permanently now and I'm about to. To a good router with 4 SMA ports just inside on short cables. how expensive is up to you, what Cat are you aiming for... expensive bit is inside regardless.
If you only need it when stopped, then a solution with suckers / clamps fixing a pole onto the side of the unit works too, cables in through a suitable floor duct hole, and allows you to use a wider range of cheaper antennae. A directional antenna is worth having too , if you know where the mast is of course, but that not feasible to roof mount, in practice thats only a "when stopped clamp to the side / on a pole" solution. I keep a poynting x-pol directional 2x2 for this purpose.

I have hardwired several different consumer grade 3G/4G/5G routers to a van's lithium 12V system. They do not need to be automotive spec - all you need is that they are built with a 12v power input.

sim's are the harder part. I go with three (via Smarty) as their 1 month high-data contracts are a no-brainer. For EE and Voda, RWGmobile.wales have well priced large PAYG data bundles although I haven't actually started using them yet as I was using plusnet but they discontinued.

roaming sims are always more expensive per bit as you know. Its worth keeping a PAYG data roaming sim in your phone - I am now using BNESIM, then that'll help tell you who's got signal where you are.

In an ideal world you could do this with E-sim downloads into the routers so you could pull down whatever local network sim you needed when you needed. But there aren't any consumer e-sim routers yet that I am aware of from my looking (only m2m).
I thought e-sim.me was going to be the answer to this , I managed to use it for european roaming this summer, pulled a french e-sim into the esim.me sim card on my phone then moved it into my router, but the sim card has since stopped talking to the phone so can't update it.. the reliability isn't there yet.
 
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