Internet/data access on boats -- some tips

[Silent Flight]

1 minute ago, Hudds Lad said:

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 😱

Makes sense with higher in winter, hibernation mode.

 

What devices you got in your home?

[Paul C]

3 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

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 😱

How many kids? How many TVs? How many downloads of Windows 11 lol?

[IanD]

53 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 ?

 

 

Don't forget Scancom prices exclude VAT, so add 20%...

[Silent Flight]

10 minutes ago, Paul C said:

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.

Stand corrected Sept 25. Almost too good a deal!

 

This new iPhone has a e sim, but I think that’s just for monitoring data usage. Says it will refresh the 500gb monthly on the 7th.

7 minutes ago, IanD said:

Don't forget Scancom prices exclude VAT, so add 20%...

There’s the catch, could feel that coming!

[Hudds Lad]

4 minutes ago, Owls Den said:

What devices you got in your home?

That would be telling  

Usual mix of TVs, streaming boxes, PCs, laptops, games consoles, phones, tablets, and voice-operated spying devices  

 

5 minutes ago, Paul C said:

How many kids? How many TVs? How many downloads of Windows 11 lol?

Two adults and one almost adult, only the offspring's gaming PC has Win 11 as it sneakily updated itself from 10. Some of the consoles are guilty of game updates in background that you don't notice at the time which can be many GB's in size.

 

Probably not comparable to full time liveaboarding as you'd not have all that stuff drawing power unless you were marina bound.

I was quite shocked how much we chew through though.

[Paul C]

1 minute ago, Hudds Lad said:

That would be telling  

Usual mix of TVs, streaming boxes, PCs, laptops, games consoles, phones, tablets, and voice-operated spying devices  

 

Two adults and one almost adult, only the offspring's gaming PC has Win 11 as it sneakily updated itself from 10. Some of the consoles are guilty of game updates in background that you don't notice at the time which can be many GB's in size.

 

Probably not comparable to full time liveaboarding as you'd not have all that stuff drawing power unless you were marina bound.

I was quite shocked how much we chew through though.

 

Games would explain it!! For example, I have an update of Cyberpunk 2077 awaiting (20GB) and there are many other examples.

[Silent Flight]

1 minute ago, Paul C said:

 

Games would explain it!! For example, I have an update of Cyberpunk 2077 awaiting (20GB) and there are many other examples.

If only it was released as a good game rather than updates to make it good two years later 😉

[Paul C]

1 minute ago, Owls Den said:

If only it was released as a good game rather than updates to make it good two years later 😉

 

I waited about a year before I bought it. Apparently after a year or more of updates and bug fixes, it was like chalk and cheese. Exercises the fans though!

[Hudds Lad]

2 minutes ago, Paul C said:

 

Games would explain it!! For example, I have an update of Cyberpunk 2077 awaiting (20GB) and there are many other examples.

I got all nostalgic for a bit of Halo, and as i'd not played some of the later titles, picked up the Halo Collection a few years back for the Xbox One.

After it had done a few updates of over 60gb each i turfed it off and dug the old Xbox out of the loft instead  

[Rob-M]

1 hour 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 ?

 

 

I've used 42Gb in the last week which hasn't included working on Friday or Monday so would normally be slightly higher.  I use Smarty unlimited so no need to worry about data and only pay for the months I'm boating.

[Richard10002]

36 minutes ago, IanD said:

Don't forget Scancom prices exclude VAT, so add 20%...

So it's £6 a month for 500Gb for 30 months.

 

A very good deal by any measure!

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Richard10002 said:

So it's £6 a month for 500Gb for 30 months.

 

A very good deal by any measure!

So do they run on BT or Three?

[IanD]

1 hour ago, Richard10002 said:

So it's £6 a month for 500Gb for 30 months.

 

A very good deal by any measure!

It is if you're on the boat full-time. If you're not then a monthly SIM like Smarty can be cheaper, you only pay for it when you need it.

[Silent Flight]

https://www.scancom.co.uk/products/rural-broadband-data-sim-three-pre-paid
 

Thoughts on the ‘rural‘ package?

 

Will it actually work better than other data sims?

[IanD]

3 hours ago, Owls Den said:

https://www.scancom.co.uk/products/rural-broadband-data-sim-three-pre-paid
 

Thoughts on the ‘rural‘ package?

 

Will it actually work better than other data sims?

No, it's exactly the same as any other data SIM on the same network (EE, Three...), it's just how they market it.

[IanD]

16 hours ago, IanD said:

It is if you're on the boat full-time. If you're not then a monthly SIM like Smarty can be cheaper, you only pay for it when you need it.

If you prefer EE (best coverage) to Three, then 1pmobile is probably the best bet for on/off use -- it looks you can top up with another chunk of data of any size at any time. Current costs are:

250MB/month £3

1GB/month £5

10GB/month £10

50GB/month £15

200GB/month £20

 

Then when off the boat you can either let the contract lapse, or drop back to the £3/month one if you still want the boat to stay online for monitoring/alarms etc.

[Puffling]

On 12/04/2023 at 12:11, IanD said:

If you prefer EE (best coverage) to Three, then 1pmobile is probably the best bet for on/off use -- it looks you can top up with another chunk of data of any size at any time. Current costs are:

250MB/month £3

1GB/month £5

10GB/month £10

50GB/month £15

200GB/month £20

 

Then when off the boat you can either let the contract lapse, or drop back to the £3/month one if you still want the boat to stay online for monitoring/alarms etc.

Yes, I've been using 1p Mobile over a year now with their recurring 10GB top up and found it very reliable.

 

It's essentially the same as a monthly sub for that much data, bit you have to be careful not to exceed the allowance or your tariff switches to £1 per 100MB!

[IanD]

1 hour ago, Puffling said:

Yes, I've been using 1p Mobile over a year now with their recurring 10GB top up and found it very reliable.

 

It's essentially the same as a monthly sub for that much data, bit you have to be careful not to exceed the allowance or your tariff switches to £1 per 100MB!

Do you get any warning before your data runs out?

[Puffling]

I've never sailed that close to the limit! But I rather suspect you have to watch it yourself. The 1p Mobile online dashboard is easy and informative so it's easy to keep tabs on use.

This EE SIM is mostly for phone surfing internet and online banking; I use a 120GB SIM (from Smarty) in the modem for computer and tablet for any streaming or downloads.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Puffling

[Paul C]

30 minutes ago, Puffling said:

I've never sailed that close to the limit! But I rather suspect you have to watch it yourself. The 1p Mobile online dashboard is easy and informative so it's easy to keep tabs on use.

This EE SIM is mostly for phone surfing internet and online banking; I use a 120GB SIM (from Smarty) in the modem for computer and tablet for any streaming or downloads.

 

Is the dashboard accessed through an app or on the web? If the former, its very awkward if the SIM is in a mifi unit.

[Puffling]

56 minutes ago, Paul C said:

 

Is the dashboard accessed through an app or on the web? If the former, its very awkward if the SIM is in a mifi unit.

It's accessible through your browser.

ETA: screenshot

 

Edited April 13, 2023 by Puffling

[IanD]

1 hour ago, Puffling said:

It's accessible through your browser.

ETA: screenshot

 

My point was that getting a warning before you run out is far better than having to check your data use manually and getting charged an arm and a leg if you run over the allowance... 😉

[ditchcrawler]

15 hours ago, IanD said:

My point was that getting a warning before you run out is far better than having to check your data use manually and getting charged an arm and a leg if you run over the allowance... 😉

Looks like there are some interesting offers out there if you can find them.

[IanD]

An independent survey shows that EE is the winner in most categories -- details below. Three wins for 5G download speed and reach where it's available, but EE is better overall, especially where there's no 5G and in regional and rural areas.

https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2023/04/uk/mobile-network-experience

"While in the last report, EE’s haul of awards shrunk, this time the operator is resurgent. Now there are only two awards out of 15 that it does not either win outright or jointly. EE wins four out of five overall experience awards outright and continues to share the Games Experience award with Vodafone. Last time around, Vodafone won the Voice App Experience award but EE has reclaimed it. Our EE users have the best 5G Games Experience and 5G Voice App Experience — a change from the previous report, when EE shared the top spot with O2 in both categories. However, EE now shares the 5G Upload Speed award with 3, having won it outright last time.

3 has the next largest clutch with six awards, including two outright wins — 5G Download Speed and Availability. It is the sole winner of both these two awards since the April 2022 report, when we first added Availability to U.K. mobile network experience reports. However, 3 has gone from being the outright winner of the 5G Reach award to sharing it with all three of its rivals."

Edited April 15, 2023 by IanD

[ditchcrawler]

5 hours ago, IanD said:

An independent survey shows that EE is the winner in most categories -- details below. Three wins for 5G download speed and reach where it's available, but EE is better overall, especially where there's no 5G and in regional and rural areas.

https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2023/04/uk/mobile-network-experience

"While in the last report, EE’s haul of awards shrunk, this time the operator is resurgent. Now there are only two awards out of 15 that it does not either win outright or jointly. EE wins four out of five overall experience awards outright and continues to share the Games Experience award with Vodafone. Last time around, Vodafone won the Voice App Experience award but EE has reclaimed it. Our EE users have the best 5G Games Experience and 5G Voice App Experience — a change from the previous report, when EE shared the top spot with O2 in both categories. However, EE now shares the 5G Upload Speed award with 3, having won it outright last time.

3 has the next largest clutch with six awards, including two outright wins — 5G Download Speed and Availability. It is the sole winner of both these two awards since the April 2022 report, when we first added Availability to U.K. mobile network experience reports. However, 3 has gone from being the outright winner of the 5G Reach award to sharing it with all three of its rivals."

But I don't want games, just good coverage on the cut.