Mobile Internet?

[smbisig]

Ok, so i know a lot of you out there have some sort of a mobile internet connection because we all see your blog postings through out your expedition.

My question is what are you all using as far as equipment and service? How reliable? How remote can you go?

I know you have the cell phone option, but up here in the north west, the mountains don't amplify cell signals:mad:

I have performed some minor google searches for satellite internet, but everything i have found requires so much equipment that i would need to pull a trailer just to have the internet.

My Goal:
- Compact System
- Performance good enough to upload blogs, emails, and 640 x 480 Photos
- Good range through out the lower 48 and Alaska (a planned trip for the future)

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks.:beer:

[flywgn]

Our system, Motosat Datastorm, is not compact, and a major drawback is that it is mounted on our ATRV visible in the photo below in the stowed position. It's mounted on the top-forward deck. (I'll look through my photo files and see if I have one with the dish deployed.)

Like any satellite RX/TX it needs an unobstructed view of the sky...at least in the direction of the satellite and spot beam it uses.

It's part of the Hughes system. Good support. We subscribe to the high-speed upload version which is satisfactory.

In fact, here at our house in Idaho we use the Hughes HN7000S modem and Hughes.net satellite dish.

I've found the Motosat to be good, but I don't know if it fits the parameters you have.

Allen R

[Grim Reaper]

I work for Cingular in the network. We are deploying UMTS in most major cites. It truly is DSL speed. It is quite impressive. UMTS has the ability to handle a voice call and Data at the same time. Its becoming the standard in Europe so a lot of support and product will be available.

Now here is a little trick that might save you a few bucks. If you have a UMTS phone with Blue Tooth and your laptop has Blue Tooth you may be able to use the phone as a Modem with just the unlimited Data feature for the phone not the full Data package for computer use (saving about $30 a month). It's worth a try it works on GSM that way. :wavey:

The down side..still being deployed and it sounds like it will not be available yet where you are based. Hit the local store or call customer service see if they know when it will be available.

[etbadger]

We use a Starband based system with a 1m dish and a surveyor's tripod. The equipment is not small, but managable. The dish is about 3'x2'(fits in a roof box), the tripod is standard size (stowed on bumper/MC carrier), and the electronics are carried inside.

We chose this over the prior mentioned MotoSat system because of cost, ability to put the dish where the vehicle isn't (we carry 50' of cable to get a good shot to the sky), and ability to easily up-size the dish for far-north or south travel. We give up operational simplicity, but the bandwidth/latency is similar once setup. I believe monthly costs are about the same as well.

It takes me about 15 min from parking to having the dish pointed and online by now. It was a bit longer till I had all my tricks down.

So far the standard size dish has worked as far north as Jasper, Alberta. It does start to get a bit sketchy that far north, and a larger dish is available that will just bolt right in place of our current one. It works fine from coast to coast and down to the Mexico border from our experience so far.

When in the east/mid-west we just stuck to cell data coverage most of the time as it was everywhere (no bumps in the way). Only used the dish once when in VT "mountains".

Plenty of pic's of it setup on our web-site.

-Erik

[Robthebrit]

All the sat phone do internet as well, their coverage is pretty much the same as their respective phone coverage. Most places that rent sat phone also rent sat data equipment and the rates for a couple of weeks are reasonable. I would just rent a few. get to see the equipment and use it.

I was thinking if I could rent decent internet equipment then I wouldn't need a sat phone, you could IM or email home if you had trouble.

Rob

[smbisig]

Thanks everyone for the information:victory:

[flywgn]

I should have mentioned that our system (Datastorm) will work with a portable dish/horn as well, but I chose the automated seek/point/spot system for no better reason than I like the idea of a self-propelled, GPS-driven automatic dish. It's not w/o its faults, however.

I also should have mentioned that we have an Magellan Inmarsat sat/phone that has some limited data-transfer capabilities and I've used it for e-mails when the Datastorm is not with us or is blocked by terrain, etc.

Allen R

[dhackney]

We purchased, but have not tested or deployed yet, a BGAN system for high bandwidth internet access in remote areas.

This is an Inmarsat system using new sattelites. Broadband Global Access Network (BGAN) provides DSL speeds and is active over about 2/3rds of the planet. They've got a geosynchronous bird up over Africa/Europe and one over the Americas. The Pacific and far SE Asia & Oceana are not currently covered.

We chose a NERA Pro 1010 because the IP67 antenna can be seperated from the terminal, allowing us to mount the antenna outside and stay inside for access. The Nera terminal and antenna unit is smaller than my laptop. Truly impressive compact design for the capability. You trade off some absolute throughput for the NERA's compactness. The NERA Pro supports 384/240 kbps (up and downstream). The NERA Pro does not support ISDN. It does have built in Bluetooth, USB and Ethernet connectivity.

Hughes also makes a BGAN terminal and they have a vehicle rooftop antenna available. The Hughes terminal supports higher data data rates and some media specific capabilities that the NERA terminal does not. Thrane & Thrane also have a BGAN terminal with higher speeds than the NERA Pro.

Like all sat systems, the data rate is very, very expensive. We plan to use internet cafes, which are as plentiful elsewhere as Starbucks are here, for our primary access, but will use the BGAN system in remote areas if we need connectivity.

We also have an Iridium phone and a data kit, but don't plan to use it for data unless there's some truly dire need.

There are also some other low data rate systems that use the ORBCOMM constellation.

Details at:
BGAN: http://broadband.inmarsat.com/
NERA WorldPro 1010: http://broadband.inmarsat.com/about/nera_worldpro_1000.aspx?language=EN&textonly=False Nera just updated from the 1000 to the 1010. You can get good deals on used rental 1000 units if that one is OK for your purposes.

[BajaTaco]

Here is a BGAN equipment and service provider with some rates listed, to get an idea of what it costs. - satphonestore.com (http://www.satphonestore.com/index.cfm?page=bgan&category=satellitephone) - Pretty cool to see this stuff evolving.

[haven]

Here's another source of information about satellite connections for
voice and data:
http://www.outfittersatellite.com/bgan_overview.htm

This new BGAN receiver/transmitter is certainly small. The antenna
used to be the size of a cafeteria tray, but now it's about half the
size of a laptop computer screen.

http://www.outfittersatellite.com/images/BGAN_NeraWorldPro_transceiver_hand350244.jpg

Chip Haven

[BajaTaco]

Great topic. I moved this to GPS/Computers so it could be referenced more easily.

[dhackney]

OK, sorry for the delay, it took me a few days to get these shot and posted.

Here's the Nera Pro 1010 next to the laptop. This is the entire unit, terminal and antenna.
http://www.hackneys.com/mitsu/photos/2006-12-11-1DMkII-HN7J0179-crop-small.jpg

Side view, laptop and 1010. This is the entire unit, terminal and antenna.
http://www.hackneys.com/mitsu/photos/2006-12-11-1DMkII-HN7J0180-crop-small.jpg

This is the 1010 seperated into its component parts. Antenna is next to laptop with its stand extended. Terminal is on legal pad. The terminal connects to the antenna with a DB9 cable.
http://www.hackneys.com/mitsu/photos/2006-12-11-1DMkII-HN7J0181-crop-small.jpg

I'm installing these components now. I'll post an update in a few weeks once we've done some field trials.

Our supplier was:
GMPCS Personal Communications, Inc.
Cliff Trinkofsky
cliff@gmpcs-us.com
http://www.gmpcs-us.com
(954) 973-3100 x 211

Excellent customer service throughout and after the sale. Cliff expedited a long terminal to antenna IP67 DB9 cable to me ahead of the unit so I could get that installed.

There are a lot of people selling these and other BGAN terminals. I found a very wide disparity in capability, product knowledge, technical knowledge, etc. among potential vendors. Caveat Emptor.

[BajaTaco]

Very nice Doug. Thanks for posting the pics and info. I'm anxious to see how it does for you.

[dhackney]

Here are some ideas on mounting. Our situation is a semi-permanent mount. The modem will be mounted with other electronics. The antenna will be deployed when we want to use the system.

Here's the antenna in a typical deployment position.
http://www.hackneys.com/mitsu/photos/HN7J0201-small.jpg

http://www.hackneys.com/mitsu/photos/HN7J0200-small.jpg

The mount is a Manfrotto super clamp and a Manfrotto universal hinged arm with quick release. I use the same quick release system on my camera bodies and lenses, so I can make use of this clamp/arm system in a lot of ways.

If we've got the rear awning deployed, I've got another 3 meter IP67 DB9 cable that I can use to move the clamp/arm/antenna system to an open sky shot.

Here's a closeup of the IP67 DB9 connection on the antenna.
http://www.hackneys.com/mitsu/photos/HN7J0199-small.jpg

Lastly, here's the electonics bay partially loaded. L to R: Nera Pro 1010 BGAN terminal, Linksys compact wireless G router, Linksys gigabit switch, Buffalo 2 terabyte RAID array (1.5 terabytes in RAID 5 configuration which is what I use).

http://www.hackneys.com/mitsu/photos/HN7J0211-small.jpg

This is a reasonable setup for mobile digital photography. It includes a RAID 5 array for storage, gigabit switch for high speed tranfer from camera/laptop, wireless router to allow editing/email/printing/etc. from anywhere within range. We carry a spare drive for the RAID array.

Our strategy for offsite backups is to take along a batch of bare drives and a USB drive frame. When we've got a few hundred gigs of data we'll copy them off the RAID 5 array and ship the bare drive back home for safe keeping.

If you are going to do mobile video editing you'd probably want to carry a high speed drive array for the edit work. The RAID 5 array would be good for backup, archive and offline edit files.

[Scott Brady]

Doug,

Thank you so much for posting this info. Have you conducted any data transfer rate tests?

It is amazing, but even two years ago there were no good choices, now several exist. Very encouraging.

Are there other systems worth considering in your opinion?

[Brian894x4]

I don't know if my set up relates, considering the far more high tech stuff on here, but I have a Verizon wireless card that I use on my laptop and as far as remoteness, what I've found is that in the major cities, I get broadband access, but anywhere else that I get a "digital" cell signal, I can at least get around dial up speeds. I've been way up, deep in the mountains where I barely got a cell signal and in fact was in and out, but I had internet access.

I pay about $60/month for this service, plus the cost of the card. For serious expedition travel I don't know how it would work, but I like for my local travels.

Just my 2 cents.

[haven]

Using a cell phone to connect to the Internet is not a viable plan when you're deep in the boondocks. But cell phone coverage is increasing all the time, and your phone can connect from some unexpected places.

There's a Yahoo group called "Internet by cell phone" that can help you use your cell phone to connect a computer to the internet at speeds faster than typical dialup modems (up to 144kbps vs 56kbps). The group has tutorials for Verizon and Sprint subscribers.

Another good source of information about cell phones and services is http://www.howardforums.com

It takes a little study, and the correct choice of phone, but the result is a "backdoor" way to access the Internet via regular cell phone using your cell phone calling plan, not a special (and higher priced) data-access plan. Nights and weekends unlimited use, etc.

The reason this works is that the cell phone companies use a digital connection to your phone to transmit value-added services like text messaging, fancy ring tones, music, games, and video, to name a few. The digital connection is called 1xRTT.

The cell phone companies are slowly closing the "backdoor" data access. They would prefer you to purchase a more expensive data plan. But it can still be a viable option for short-term travelers in USA and Canada.

Chip Haven

[dhackney]

Are there other systems worth considering in your opinion?

Scott,

We have not yet conducted data rate tests on the BGAN terminal.

For civilian use the options that I am aware of are:

Orbcomm constellation (2.4k - We use Skymate)
Iridium sat phone data connection (claimed 4.8-9.6k compressed, I don't see many users matching the claims)
Globalstar sat phone data connection (generally viewed as higher speed than Iridium but does not support global coverage)
US cell phone - (US only) dial up connection (speed depends on carrier, signal, etc.)
US cell phone - (US only) data connection (speed depends on carrier, rate plan, etc.)
US cell phone carrier based wide area network broadband (US only)(I use Verizon, and can get a signal in major cities)(speed depends on signal strength, carrier's underlying technology, etc.)
Non-US GSM 3G cell phone - (speed depends on carrier, plan, etc.)
Moto-Sat / Datastorm - (US centric North America, reaches most of the way down Baja)(.75 to 1+ meter dishes, speed varies by plan, high rates available, very popular in US RV community)
Various Inmarsat offerings, most oriented to the marine market, including:



BGAN - (Broadband Global Area Network) 492k IP, 256k dedicated streaming, very small terminals, DSL speeds, full 3G capability, vehicle mount in-motion antenna available for Hughes terminal
Fleet F77 - rate soon doubling to 128k, big dome required
Fleet F55 - 64k via ISDN channels, can bond two channels for 128k, big dome required
Fleet F33 - 9.6k , small dome
Mini-M - 2.4k, smallest footprint
Inmarsat B and M - 9.6 to 64k, large footprint for faster data rates


There are probably many more options available. I am not well researched in this area.

For non-US general internet access we use internet cafes, which are as ubiquitous as Starbucks are here.

Our strategy for internet access in non-US remote areas, in order of preference is:
1. Internet cafe (wait for one)
2. Global quad band cell phone (we buy SIM cards for local carriers)
3. BGAN (make it quick - bandwidth is VERY expensive)
3. Iridium (this is so slow, why bother?)
4. Skymate (this is even slower than Iridium, are you kidding?)

Doug

[fisher205]

Has anyone tried Wild Blue? They say they aren't transportable, but I know somebody has had to try it.