Internet/data access on boats -- some tips

[Silent Flight]

I’ve fitted a 2x2 omni antenna in the end. It’s on a mast that is removable.

 

So now what is best device to I attach the antenna cables to?

[GUMPY]

For 4g I have yet to find a better unit than a Huawei B818-263 and I've tried a few over the years.

Some are locked to Vodafone so it needs choosing with care.

5g coverage is still very patchy outside main population centres .

Edited April 7, 2023 by Loddon

[Silent Flight]

 

I’m actually with Vodafone for my phone. So the Huawei unit could work well for me. Does it take a SIM card or do peeps bridge data from their phone. This is where I get a bit confused.

 

I won’t be using tons of data it’s for leisure not work. Saw your link for the data plans for 2 years seems like a good shout.

[IanD]

1 hour ago, Loddon said:

For 4g I have yet to find a better unit than a Huawei B818-263 and I've tried a few over the years.

Some are locked to Vodafone so it needs choosing with care.

5g coverage is still very patchy outside main population centres .

EE have the best coverage in rural areas, according to surveys.

[GUMPY]

4 hours ago, Owls Den said:

 

I’m actually with Vodafone for my phone. So the Huawei unit could work well for me. Does it take a SIM card or do peeps bridge data from their phone. This is where I get a bit confused.

 

I won’t be using tons of data it’s for leisure not work. Saw your link for the data plans for 2 years seems like a good shout.

I would get an unlocked one as you never know what network you may be on in the future. The 818 takes its own sim, separate from the phone. 

[Rob-M]

I got an 818 from Amazon, said it was a UK model but I think it was from a Finnish ISP, had a bit of fun setting it up until I could get in and change the language to English.  It was unlocked so at least it worked with my Smarty SIM.  I find the internal aerials are great and never bother connection the external aerial.

[GUMPY]

1 hour ago, Rob-M said:

I got an 818 from Amazon, said it was a UK model but I think it was from a Finnish ISP, had a bit of fun setting it up until I could get in and change the language to English.  It was unlocked so at least it worked with my Smarty SIM.  I find the internal aerials are great and never bother connection the external aerial.

What a wheeze.

Set all The computer gear/modems I Sell to some obscure language

Endless hours if fun     

 

 

 

NOT

 

[Silent Flight]

Okay thanks all, will find a 818 unlocked and whack a sim in it. 
 

Im right in thinking this will improve phone signal and provide Wi-Fi in the boat?

 

I’m better at building things than techy stuff 😅

[Rob-M]

It won't improve phone signal but will provide WiFi on your boat.

If your phone provider supports WiFi calling then that will improve phone as you can make calls over WiFi.

[Silent Flight]

Oh! Guess I presumed the 4g 5g part would help with phone signal.

 

Thats a shame, so is there any way of improving phone signal?

 

Guess use internet calls more like WhatsApp and video calls.

 

But I do miss a lot of phone calls because of the boat which is annoying tbh!

[Alway Swilby]

10 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

It won't improve phone signal but will provide WiFi on your boat.

If your phone provider supports WiFi calling then that will improve phone as you can make calls over WiFi.

We have an EE sim in our router and EE block wifi calling over it.

[Alan de Enfield]

49 minutes ago, Owls Den said:

Thats a shame, so is there any way of improving phone signal?

 

There are all sorts of gadgets to amplify the signal for phones and TVs, the problem is that not only do they amplify the signal they also amplify all the static / mush / weird noises so you rarely end up any better off.

 

The easiest way to get a better signal is to get out of the Faraday cage and let your phone see the sky.

[GUMPY]

21 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

There are all sorts of gadgets to amplify the signal for phones and TVs, the problem is that not only do they amplify the signal they also amplify all the static / mush / weird noises so you rarely end up any better off.

Many of the phone 4g boosters are not legal in the UK!

I use wifi calling  in the marina it works on outgoing and incoming calls, not that I get many calls anyway.

[Silent Flight]

Ahhh technology.. What a double edge sword you are.

 

Guess I will doing a lot of WhatsApp calls and video calls then!

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

Smarty have another offer on, 60Gb for £10 and the price locks for a year

[Silent Flight]

Smarty looks good.
 

So does Scancom 500gb for £150 up until December 2025. 

 

500gb of data does seem a bit OTT. 
 

Would a average user even get close to 100gb a month ?

 

 

[IanD]

2 minutes ago, Owls Den said:

Smarty looks good.
 

So does Scancom 500gb for £150 up until December 2025. 

 

500gb of data does seem a bit OTT. 
 

Would a average user even get close to 100gb a month ?

 

 

Depends entirely on what you use the data for. More and more boats now use streaming for TV instead of live TV through an antenna, and this can chew through data very quickly, especially with HD (or even UHD!) channels -- depending how much TV you watch, of course. UHD uses about 8GB an hour, about 3x more than HD -- so 100GB per month is about half an hour per day of UHD, or an hour and a half of HD...

[Alan de Enfield]

26 minutes ago, Owls Den said:

Smarty looks good.
 

So does Scancom 500gb for £150 up until December 2025. 

 

500gb of data does seem a bit OTT. 
 

Would a average user even get close to 100gb a month ?

 

 

 

 

We went 'unlimited' to be able to watch films - No TV signal for a little camper van in the Scottish mountains.

1 film per night = ~120Gb-140Gb per month.

 

So at that rate 500Gb will last around 4 months.

 

Or, we we drop down to a 'medium' quality picture  It'd be about 35Gb per month.

 

 

Netflix’s bandwidth usage depends on what quality setting you choose. There are four Netflix data usage presets:

• Low: This uses 0.3GB per hour per device.
• Medium: The standard definition setting, which uses 0.7GB per hour.
• High: The best video quality, covering both HD (720p and 1080p) and Ultra HD (4K). HD uses up to 3GB per hour, while Ultra HD uses 7GB per hour.

 

Using these figures, an average 90-minute HD film would use approximately 4.5GB of data. Binge-watch a 10-episode TV show in Ultra HD, with one-hour episodes, and that’s a hefty 70GB of data.

Edited April 11, 2023 by Alan de Enfield

[Paul C]

32 minutes ago, Owls Den said:

Smarty looks good.
 

So does Scancom 500gb for £150 up until December 2025. 

 

500gb of data does seem a bit OTT. 
 

Would a average user even get close to 100gb a month ?

 

 

 

500GB to Dec 2025 is 15GB/month, I don't know where you got 100GB/month from?

[Silent Flight]

5 minutes ago, Paul C said:

 

500GB to Dec 2025 is 15GB/month, I don't know where you got 100GB/month from?

Firstly it’s 500gb a month.

 

And secondly the 100gb is a separate deal on same website. 

[Paul C]

1 minute ago, Owls Den said:

Firstly it’s 500gb a month.

 

And secondly the 100gb is a separate deal on same website. 

 

Can you provide a link? I have done an internet search but don't see what you see.

[Silent Flight]

16 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

So at that rate 500Gb will last around 4 months.

I guessed it would be excessive, and I imagine the data doesn’t roll over to the next month.

 

I think 150 -250 gb range would be enough. Sometimes stream sometimes game sometimes read. 

1 minute ago, Paul C said:

 

Can you provide a link? I have done an internet search but don't see what you see.

Sure thing. 
 

https://www.scancom.co.uk/products/three-500gb-per-month-data-sim-exp-08-09-2025-pre-paid-no-contract-no-committment-ref-3107629059?pr_prod_strat=use_description&pr_rec_id=0a0f4bf00&pr_rec_pid=7251034144944&pr_ref_pid=7142631899312&pr_seq=uniform

35 minutes ago, IanD said:

 

Depends entirely on what you use the data for. More and more boats now use streaming for TV instead of live TV through an antenna, and this can chew through data very quickly, especially with HD (or even UHD!) channels -- depending how much TV you watch, of course. UHD uses about 8GB an hour, about 3x more than HD -- so 100GB per month is about half an hour per day of UHD, or an hour and a half of HD...

Yeah I’ve just done away with the tv aerial, won’t ever use it. 

[Paul C]

Aaaah that explains it - that's to Sept 25, not December. Yeah those prepay ones are a good deal. You could think of it as an 'unlimited', but with a cap clearly displayed (since even unlimited ones, aren't truly unlimited and have some cap somewhere deep within the T&Cs).

 

Just beware that the data usage (not that you'd need it) is done only via an app. So its worth checking it would auto-activate, and not need an app and/or a signon on a mobile phone, to activate it. If it did, you'd probably need to play musical SIMs with a phone and use a SIM adapter, since I bet your phone takes a nanoSIM and the router a normal size.

Edited April 11, 2023 by Paul C

[Hudds Lad]

Just now, Owls Den said:

I think 150 -250 gb range would be enough. Sometimes stream sometimes game sometimes read.

just checked our home usage out of interest.

average is 840GB a month, over the last 12 months it peaked in October at 1.2TB and lowest was July at just 518GB 😱

[Alan de Enfield]

7 minutes ago, Owls Den said:

Firstly it’s 500gb a month.

 

And secondly the 100gb is a separate deal on same website. 

 

I also read your post as you had 500Gb between now and December 2025.

 

Maybe adding "per month" would have helped.