What do you use? OH especially wants Discovery+/TNT. With ID mobile now but it's not at all satisfactory. We normally use CLs as you all know by now and many of them don't have WiFi.
I spent quite a bit on a 5G mobile wi-fi on my van as I need to have internet access while I am away in case I am needed for work.
To my disappointment, I learnt the hard way in that no matter how good and advance is the hardware, it cannot pick up and boost a signal where there is none, and there are still pockets of mobile signal blackholes with no coverage.
Site wi-fi is hit and miss, and I am currently pay 15.00 GBP per device where I am in North Wales as the mobile signal coverage for EE and Smarty are very poor.
There are restrictions on usage with the Club wi-fi (CAMC club site), no streaming for example.
I asked for a pitch with good site wi-fi and got one with a mask just a few feet away from my pitch.
I could not justify the cost of Starlink satellite service now that I have the 5G mobile wi-fi installed. However, if I were to start from scratch I might consider getting Starlink as a business expense!
DK
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We have found very few sites with good enough wifi to stream TV. You will really need to use 4g/5g and either tether to your phone or get a dedicated 4g/5g router. However, whichever you decide, you will need a lot of data to stream TV. We bought a few cheap preloaded sims from eBay a few months ago and they will last us all through the summer, but these are not often available and you could find yourself paying £20+ for 200gb of data which might last you for a month but might not! We have found that Vodafone works well for us in most places we go. ID mobile uses the three network so if you are not happy with them, don’t choose any other provider who also uses Three. My husband is with talkmobile who use the Vodafone network and he is happy enough with them. Asda mobile and Voxi also use Vodafone (the cheap sims we are currently using are Voxi) and would both work the same as Vodafone but beware Lebara mobile who also use Vodafone but it is a cut down version and not good for streaming TV.
It might be worth getting a 1 month contract on something like talkmobile or Asda to see how it does for you and to see how much data you are likely to use.
I suspect mobile reception on any network is going to be at its worst on an out of the way CL. I have just got a new phone and decided to leave 02 (due to cost) and go to Smarty. They, like ID run on the Three network. We no longer have a van so its a bit academic getting internet on sites. Do you have your own phone? If so you could try that on a different network which might give you slightly more options as you travel around.
Thanks David, yes, where we have a connection I can get Discovery+, but it costs. Probably cheaper to go to the pub, which is what we did when Sky first came in.
We bought a TP link router which works very well on 4G.,Using an O2 sim. Providing signal is ok.
We can watch freeview on the tv. I expect we could stream tv with the router as we have Netflix and Disney but haven't bothered yet. Not interested in sport,
------------- DS-There's more to life than football!!!
Probably not going to be a very helpful answer, as I show little interest in streaming anything, 'sport' isn't even in my vocabulary, and fully accept that a camp site is out of reach of ANY mobile signal, and perfectly at ease with that!
You'll likely need a SIM for each network on top of any equipment capable of picking up weak signals, as coverage varies widely across the country, and often one area is dominated by one network whilst others are too feeble to be usable, so you'll be swapping to the most viable network SIM on any given campsite.
Bottom line is, you can invest in fancy receivers and SIMS and still have no reception! There are endless 'Not Spots' in the country, caused by lack of transmitters and terrain or obstacles that block the signal. I've not found the networks coverage maps to be terrible reliable with an ordinary phone as a receiver, maybe more sophisticated gear is better! What I do know is, even in the burbs of London, I can't walk around the house without risk of dropping a ordinary basic phone call! - been like that with numerous handsets and networks over the years!
Quote: Originally posted by Mrs. Bonce on 09/5/2025
Thanks both. I have an EE dongle with its own SIM card. Can I swap Sims around?
Post last edited on 09/05/2025 13:46:13
The technology behind the equipment and SIMS is not network dependent and is interchangeable, BUT equipment supplying networks often lock the equipment to their network by firmware settings, these can usually be overridden by high street phone shops for a fee of a few pounds, once the equipment is free of any contract obligations.
Like 664DaveS, I use a TP-Link 4G router with an Tesco unlimited data Sim which uses the O2 network. I've found this works well. On CAMC sites, I just rely on the laptop wifi, although it's not the most reliable.
I've asked several BT people about 5G, and they all tell me that because of its limited range, it isn't suitable for rural areas. Of course, if you live in many parts of Scotland, you're lucky to get anything.
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Topic: Internet/wifi
via mobile 07/5/2025 at 8:58pm
