Our Mobile Internet Setup for Boat & RV – 2025 Update (Abundant without Starlink!)

We have been doing mobile internet for nearly two decades now. Back when 3G was just emerging and satellite internet was a pain in the rear to use.

While technology has rapidly advanced over the years making internet on the go substantially faster and easier – it still takes some finesse to keep abundantly connected in a variety of locations.

We thought it time to refresh our mobile internet setup content, so we just released a new video going over our current setup:

This video goes along with our frequently updated Internet Setup post at:

Technomadia’s Mobile Internet Setup

You can dive into all the juicy details there, including deeper explanations for our choices, alternatives we’d consider and links to all of the options we use.

Here’s a snapshot of the highlights:

• Cellular: We still rely primarily on cellular data for our connectivity. It’s fast, it’s power efficient and we have some great data plans.
  • The core of our setup is a Peplink MAX BR2 Pro 5G (provided by Peplink & MobileMustHave.com) dual 5G router with the newly released X65 modem chipset.
  • Our primary data plan is MobileMustHave.com’s RoamLink plan – which roams onto AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile with a single eSIM. We also have an unlimited T-Mobile data plan via Calyx Institute (just $41/mo!) and some legacy AT&T and Verizon plans that are no longer available. We have a smattering of other plans we keep in rotation for back-up or in phones/tablets, but we have significantly trimmed out our abundance of data plans in the past couple of years.
  • For maximum signal strength, we rely on external MIMO antennas. Cellular boosters really just aren’t overly useful for cellular data anymore.
• Wi-Fi: We often find marina Wi-Fi can be quite usable, as many have invested in the infrastructure – so we use our Peplink HD1 Dome’s (which also provides another cellular input) Wi-Fi antennas to bring that in as another source of data when feasible.
• Starlink: While we keep a Starlink Mini in our arsenal, it’s usually not active. We only enable it when all the other options aren’t enough. Now that they offer a $10 for 10GB data plan, activating it as needed usually gives us enough data to get through a critical work task. We’ve honestly only needed to activate Starlink a handful of times in the past two years.
  • The reasons we don’t optimize for Starlink is because generally cellular upload speeds are faster (which are super important to what we do), cellular uses less power and isn’t as subject to drop outs from obstructions & weather.

Our van and boat each have their own cellular antenna installations, and then we just move the router and Starlink dish between them as we switch seasons. We leave behind another router for the vehicle being left in storage for remote monitoring.