Welcome to RVForums.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Friendliest RV Community on the web
  • Modern site for PC's, Phones, Tablets - no 3rd party apps required
  • Ask questions, help others, review campgrounds
  • Get the most out of the RV Lifestyle
  • Invite everyone to RVForums.com and let's have fun
  • Commercial/Vendors welcome

Cellular struggles, a day in the life of mobile Internet

Welcome to RVForums.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Modern secure site, no 3rd party apps required
  • Invite your friends and let's have fun
  • Commercial/Vendors welcome
  • Friendliest RV community on the web

Neal

Staff member
RVF Administrator
Joined
Jul 27, 2019
Messages
11,480
Location
Midlothian, VA
RV Year
2017
RV Make
Newmar
RV Model
Ventana 4037
RV Length
40' 10"
Chassis
Freightliner XCR
Engine
Cummins 400 HP
TOW/TOAD
2017 Chevy Colorado
Fulltimer
No
AT&T:

Since moving to my Pepwave MAX Transit CAT 18 I've seen odd behavior with the AT&T Mobley SIM in regards to LTE-A. Most of the time it just shows LTE (not LTE-A). However, when performing tasks such as speed tests LTE-A will come on. I thought it may be a defective unit as my other Pepwave MAX Transit CAT 18 with Verizon does not have this issue. Both are using the same antenna brand and type (Pepwave). When getting to my current location I decided to put the paddle antennas on and see if that made any difference. While speeds went up, no, the LTE-A issue remained. I figured it may be something internally so I moved the SIM to my other Pepwave which I hate doing anything with the Mobley SIM as it's a nugget of gold that I don't want to jeopardize ($23/mo unlimited, unthrottled (supposedly)). I was relieved to see the same behavior so it's not a defective Pepwave. While I do have my CAT 6 BR1 MK2 in use with T-Mobile running, I did not want to move the SIM another time and see if this was a CAT 18 vs CAT 6 issue. I reconnected the external antenna and will leave it alone from this point forward, it is what it is. It seems it's something the carrier is doing in regards to tower connections seeming like they are giving you LTE-A on demand.

My phone is on AT&T as well. What's ironic is the speed difference. My iPhone 12 PRO MAX will speed test are around 150 down yet the Mobley SIM in the Pepwave will be 20 if I'm lucky. Obviously the tower has the bandwidth, it must be cellular games, plans, phone vs. hotspot, who knows. I'm half tempted to put my phone SIM in the pepwave to see what happens but I don't need to be screwing up my phone when it's my only lifeline. I'll pass on that test for now.

Verizon:

Upon arrival it would not connect. I dropped the connection to the disabled slot, waited a bit, then back to priority 1, still no connection. I figured Verizon had no service here. When putting the AT&T SIM in the unit it wasn't changing over so I rebooted. Now I get Verizon (and very fast speeds) and then AT&T worked. For those with Pepwaves you may want to just reboot your device on arrival. I also have mine setup for daily reboots in the middle of the night now. Back to Verizon...what's interesting are the speed tests from my computer show maybe 20 yet my speed tests from my iPad show 120-150 down. Something is very different in speed tests depending on the endpoint. I have TTL 65 set on the pepwave but I'm not sure it's working as expected. I have since removed the TTL settings as with the CAT 18 units I'm not seeing a difference.

T-Mobile:

Upon arrival this showed as the dominant carrier, interesting. T-Mobile is in the CAT 6 Pepwave. I figured while I'm doing all of this cellular experimentation let me see how T-Mobile does in the CAT 18 Pepwave. Speeds dropped to typical T-Mobile crap, maybe 5 at best with typical upload 1 at best. Seems like T-Mobile doesn't like CAT 18. I put the SIM back in the CAT 6 and still slow, so I must have flagged something. While writing this I figured I should check T-Mobile again and it's still a full pound of suck, 2 MB at best. Quite frankly I have yet to see T-Mobile be worth having. I may dump this plan at the end of this trip if I don't see improvement.

Starlink sure is needed but time will tell how that's going to work out for RVers as well as cost and speeds. For someone that works while RVing the cost is just part of the business requirement and expense. I don't think we'll be able to let go of cellular for a long time though, we'll need a backup for the time being so that will be added expense. I just hope Starlink forces cellular prices to go down.

So that's the continued trials of a cellular RVer. Antenna selection seems to be the most important. If in a fiberglass RV then paddles are probably the best bet. If you're in a metal enclosure then roof mounted is probably necessary. I'm remaining with my pepwave roof antennas connected for now, they should provide the optimum performance as they have a clear 360 line of sight, but the paddle antennas typically outperform. I hate how the paddle antennas move around so I may 3D print a contraption that goes over top of them to maintain their spacing.
 
One experiment I haven't done with the CAT 18 routers such as the AT&T issue with LTE-A is to unplug to the two AUX cellular connections. This may put it back into CAT 6 mode, i.e. take away the 4x4 MIMO and revert to 2X2.
 
Hey Neal! Frustrating to not ever get consistent results, isn't it!?

Just wanted to say "don't give up on T-Mobile", because I'm in love with them...if nothing else...because their customer service. But, yeah...I know that's not worth anything if the cellular service doesn't work.

So, on that note...T-Mobile usually SMOKES the competition for me and my travels. Right now, we're south of Dallas and T-Mobile 700% faster than AT&T. I'm running the Transit DUO Cat 12 with dual SIMs.

Wish this stuff was easier!

Running them Dual gives T-Mobile a little bump:
Both.png


T-Mobile on its own:
TMO.png


AT&T alone:
ATT.png


As for the paddles...yeah, with 5 of them, I'm super happy mine are staying put. But the front of Transit is hanging over shelf, which allows me to splay the antenna in a 360 degree fashion. I've considered putting a drop of Shoe-Goo just on the swivel if I even need to gently fix them in place. Since they're tightened down, I think that'd work for you as well.

Steve
 
I also am using TMobile in a Pepwave Max Transit Duo CAT12. Its kicking AT&T’s tail.

one thing you might try is using a VPN. I have noticed that with AT&T in Priority 1 and T-Mobile disabled, my AT&T speeds on my personal devices are abysmal - sub 2mbps. But, on my corporate devices when I use the corporate VPN, all of a sudden my AT&T speeds jump to 25mbps+. Still not amazing but good enough for most things on 1-3 devices.
 
AT&T has been the winner 99% of the time for me. What's bothering me is not maintaining a LTE-A connection. I don't know if this is the Mobley plan getting deprioritized or what.
 
Are you band locking?
 
Are you band locking?
I'm not overriding anything on the device. I've been back and forth on TTL overriding. On that note, I think TTL override is to tell a carrier it's a PHONE and not a hot spot. But all 3 plans I use are hot spot plans so I'm not sure it's going to help me.
 
I put AT&T back in Prio 1 and dropped all others to 2 and 3. I guess it's that time of the day, wind speed, sun angle, and moon phase. But she's alive again. Top two are AT&T and 3rd is Verizon. T-Mobile is 10 down at best. This "may" be the behavior of the newer Pepwave MAX Transit CAT 18 in that LTE-A is enabled on-demand and is not always maintained. Maybe it is or was saturating towers? I don't know, WAG! I guess I could ask Peplink or post to their forum (probably a better idea).

speeds.png
 
Man I don’t get anything close to those speeds on my CAT12 pepwave
 
After posting speeds went back down to like FIVE! Now it's back up to 90. I put TTL 65 back in all three Pepwaves and I'm not fiddling with antennas. I'm leaving this alone, it's just how cellular is and I have to put my time elsewhere. Now...what to do with my 56K modem? Oh sorry, flashback.
 

Latest posts

Latest resources

Back
Top