Paying for Internet

[Jim]

I've stayed at a couple of RV parks that provided free Internet, but for all intents and purposes, the free stuff sucked. As an option, they offered a "pay version" that was strong enough to stream movies and do just about anything with. At the time, I thought it was a money grab and that it should have been included in the price of the site.

But in talking with a camper the other day, they said they liked the idea. Why should he, who didn't care about the Internet anyway, have to pay for a service that he wasn't going to use.

Curious how our RV Forums group feels about paying for upgraded Internet.

 

[Neemer]

If I have no other options, I would pay for it. We require connectivity. We have two data plans that have served us well, but we’ve not yet been in a location that one or the other hotspot couldn’t service us.

 

[redbaron]

I pay a lot for internet. If the services I have won't work, I would be happy to pay for the parks.

I have setup RV park systems in remote areas around Montana and know the costs the parks had to endure. I encouraged them to charge a premium for it, but they felt that was too much hassle.

One park has 200+ sites, 2gb of internet, and nothing but complaints. When I evaluated it I found the problem and solution. It required a lot more AP set at a much lower power setting, and being connected via fiber or cable. Expensive, but would allow every camper to stream.

By charging $3.00/nt for the premium service the park would recouped all investments year 1.

They declined. The reason...everyone has terrible internet around here.

Thing is, they didn't have terrible internet, just terrible distribution within their own campground.

Last year I upgraded one of their neighbors parks, but it was at end of season. Instead of adding the fee for internet, they raised base prices for everyone, and eliminated good sam and other discounts.

 

[FLSteve]

Just speaking for me ... but I want the free stuff as we just use it to check email and stuff like that. We don't stream movies (at least yet) as we still have Direct TV for that. So not really wanting to pay for it now. We also have hot spots on our phones as a back-up.

FLSteve

 

[GlampDaddy]

We all pay for internet, one way or another, and some more than others. At most parks, I already have service (that I've paid for). If my service doesn't work, I'd gladly pay the park a reasonable price.

 

[Neal]

It is actually more common than you think as many campgrounds use Tengo Internet and they do just that. Free and Premium tiers so your concept is not new to campers.

 

[Chargerman]

I’d am fine with paying for it when there isn’t another viable option. We don’t hit it hard so usually a slower connection is fine but if not we have paid

 

[JRW-NAW]

Mostly primarily use our phones hotspots but will pay for internet service when cell coverage is poor or overwhelmed. A recent experience with a parks paid 'premium' service found it just as slow (or overloaded} as the standard service.

 

[Buly]

I had in general poor paid service at RV parks. Constantly disconnecting and have to go thru login procedure. Free service at RV parks is useless most of the times. You get what you paid for
We use Visible service hot spot thru our old WiFi Ranger router. Most of the times is adequate for streaming movies and internet.

 

[Scooterfan]

Charging / Paying for internet service at campsites is reasonable PROVIDING the customer gets what they paid for. If one paid extra for good service and didn't get it, there would be more (reputation) damage than not having it at all. IMHO. Blessings

 

[Gizmo]

We tried the campground wifi route when we first started RVing. At each campground, you have to figure out how to log on and get all your devices to log on. Then we tried booster and that didn't get us the results we wanted. We have a Verizon Grandfather Unlimited Hotspot but have found that Verizon isn't performing well most of the time. We recently got an Unlimited Hot Spot from Calyx Institute. The first year was 750.00 which includes the purchase of the InSeeGo 5G hotspot and years' worth of service (About 61 bucks per month). In the second year, it cost 500.00 (41 dollars per month). We are currently staying the Tucson City limits and Verizon we get between 4 and 7 on speedtest and on the T-Mobile Calyx plan we have a high 500 but average between 200 and 300 on speedtest. The Calyx hotspot is truly unlimited and I put between 600 and 800 GB per month and stream all our TV needs. Unlike the other NON Profit that gives out hotspots, you can call these people and get a callback or email within a couple of hours.

 

[MapNerd]

Take my money. Just give me what I paid for. Charge a $1-$5 maintenance fee on top of the service fee to help recoup your costs for the hardware and ensure you have funds to keep it relatively modern.

If there’s a problem and the service isn’t what I paid for, it’s understandable. Things happen man. Just provide me an easy refund process that is fair to both of us.