San Juan Island cell phone service

[Camasonian]

Note that for extended cruising if you watch media - you probably care not only about signal strength, but amount of data as well. You use about 1GB/hour when watching Netflix/Hulu, and about 0.5GB/hour watching Youtube.

T-Mobile's "unlimited" data plans have 50GB of data on the device but only 14GB of data if you share your data via hotspot (to smart TV or iPad). After that your speed is throttled to about 3Mbs, which is NOT enough to watch Netflix/Hulu, but OK for Youtube.

Visible (Visible Wireless | Unlimited Data, Talk & Text Cell Phone Plans) which runs on Verizon network offers unlimited 5Mbs via hotspot, which should give you unlimited Netflix/Hulu. Visible SIMs cannot be used in the routers/modems and doesn't work in Canada

Google Fi (runs on T-Mobile) only gives 22GB of data and throttles to 256KB after that, but works in Canada

Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime all allow you to download shows and movies for offline viewing. The Netflix limit is enormous. I think you can download up to 100 titles at a time. I'm not sure what it is for Amazon Prime or if they have one. For Hulu the limit is 25 titles at a time. That is one of the reasons that I bought an iPad with a lot of extra memory. I'm pretty sure the other streaming services like HBOMax and Apple+ do the same thing. I've just not ever tried it with those. But you should be able to download a whole summer's worth of streaming material for offline viewing if you have enough storage space and never need cell signal for your Netflix or Amazon Prime.

Unless I'm trying to stream live sports I always download a big selection of shows before traveling so I don't burn up data watching shows that I can download for free when I'm home with an unlimited FIOS connection.

 

[syjos]

We are cruising San Juans with a Netgear Nighthawk M1 connected to a Poynting Omni 402 MIMO antenna and here are download/upload speeds for T Mobile and Verizon:

Hope Island - Verizon 42/20 - T Mobile 7/22 with antenna and 7/7 without.

Anacortes - Verizon 60/19 - T Mobile 47/29 with antenna and 25/29 without.

Lopez Sound, South end - Verizon 2/0 - T Mobile 24/4 with antenna and 3/2 without.

Garrison Bay - Verizon 3/0 - T Mobile 41/9 with antenna and 35/2 without.

Will be at Reid Harbor next week and will post results.

Speed via Speedtest.

T Mobile is on a Hotspot only 100 gb plan.

Verizon is on an unlimited phone and data plan.

 

[syjos]

Thanks for the thanks!

 

[Lobstah]

Google Fi

Just to throw another entrant into the race...

My wife and myself, along with several close friends all use Google Fi.
It has several distinct advantages over other plans.

1) No contract.
2) You pay for the amount of data you use. Use 1.2G?...bill for data is $12.
3) They "autoswitch" between 3 diff networks...Tmobile, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular, along with tons of international providers, depending on strongest signals.

One friend has sailed around the world 3 times with his Fi phone, and I think he's only encountered "no service" once or twice. I think one was Pitcairn Island.

We traveled to Alaska, and spend land time, then did the standard cruise down to Vancouver, had excellent coverage all the way down.

Lob

 

[AlanT]

Thanks for the replies. I have had some dead zones with my current verizon, ie. Deer Harbor, Rosario, West side of Orcas. Similar problems in Canada. I have just using my phone with no onboard signal enhancement. Sounds like its still worth staying with Verizon.

There seems to be a new Verizon cell tower at the Northernmost hill on Orcas that covers Sucia as well as the bays on Orcas. So Sucia is no longer a problem for Verizon users. I had iphone reception in Deer Harbor, Stuart Island, West Side of Orcas for voice, although data and texting was limited in Stuart Island. However my wife with a newer iphone had worse, ie no, reception in some of those areas.

 

[Snapdragon III]

We had Verizon for years and recently switched to T-mobile. So far the T-mobile has been great, but we haven't used it too much. With the Verizon we consistently noticed that it worked way better in the winter, and the middle of the night in the summer. My theory is that they have a limited capacity of number of connections that they can support, and with all the boats, and people using their cabins in the summer their network would get overwhelmed and slow way down, or not work at all. Haven't used Verizon for a year, so it may be better now.

 

[syjos]

We are cruising San Juans with a Netgear Nighthawk M1 connected to a Poynting Omni 402 MIMO antenna and here are download/upload speeds for T Mobile and Verizon:

Hope Island - Verizon 42/20 - T Mobile 7/22 with antenna and 7/7 without.

Anacortes - Verizon 60/19 - T Mobile 47/29 with antenna and 25/29 without.

Lopez Sound, South end - Verizon 2/0 - T Mobile 24/4 with antenna and 3/2 without.

Garrison Bay - Verizon 3/0 - T Mobile 41/9 with antenna and 35/2 without.

Will be at Reid Harbor next week and will post results.

Speed via Speedtest.

T Mobile is on a Hotspot only 100 gb plan.

Verizon is on an unlimited phone and data plan.

We are now anchored in Reid Harbor. Download/upload speeds are:

Verizon 0/0 - T Mobil 24/1 with antenna and 4/1 without.

We've never gotten 4G here on Verizon. Texts and phone calls on Verizon do come through but are iffy and depends on tide height.

I've noticed that speeds on T Mobile with antenna varies throughout the day, no matter where we are, but there is always sufficient speed to download. As an example, download speeds here at Reid varied from 23.5 Mbps to 1.64 in a period of 2 hours.

All of the T Mobile results so far has been via Netgear Nighthawk with and without the roof top mounted Poynting Omni 402 MIMO antenna. The Verizon speeds are on a Samsung Galaxy Tab A by itself.

Will see if the SIM from the Tab A will work in the Nighthawk.

 

[Scottwb96]

Ex-AT&T datacenter/server guy here and that is nice data. But I would be hesitant to run a surge suppressor with all that connected and on the same curcuit. Might want to look at ABYC and circuit protection with the load you have on that. Just an FYI.

VT

Good afternoon VT,
I have all of my equipment on a dedicated circuit (outlet) with a 15a breaker on my panel. The SD-WAN device (VeloCloud/VMware) I use pulls about 5a at start-up then cycles down. The SD device is also providing power to the Tmobile Inseego 5G hotspot. The Cradlepoint is about 1.5a as well.
I am also running these all back to small UPS, more to smooth any power fluctuations or transfers from shore/gen/inverting...
I've been running this setup for about~18 months or so and it's worked flawlessly for me...

My next "experiment" will be adding the new Tmobile "home internet" to the mix. I ordered the device back in June, it's supposed to arrive TODAY! I plan to do the "antenna hack" and open it up and add in the external jacks so I can run an externally mounted antenna for that unit as well...

https://www.waveform.com/a/b/guides/hotspots/t-mobile-5g-gateway

 

[syjos]

We are cruising San Juans with a Netgear Nighthawk M1 connected to a Poynting Omni 402 MIMO antenna and here are download/upload speeds for T Mobile and Verizon:

Hope Island - Verizon 42/20 - T Mobile 7/22 with antenna and 7/7 without.

Anacortes - Verizon 60/19 - T Mobile 47/29 with antenna and 25/29 without.

Lopez Sound, South end - Verizon 2/0 - T Mobile 24/4 with antenna and 3/2 without.

Garrison Bay - Verizon 3/0 - T Mobile 41/9 with antenna and 35/2 without.

Reid Harbor - Verizon 0/0 - T Mobil 24/1 with antenna and 4/1 without

Seed via Speedtest.

T Mobile is on a Hotspot only 100 gb plan.
Verizon is on an unlimited phone and data plan.

We are now at Friday Harbor.

Verizon - 68/37 - T Mobile 28/33 with antenna and 28/33 without.

It is interesting that performance is the same on T Mobile with or without the antenna.

And that Verizon is so fast.

Verizon internet is received on a Samsung Tab A Tablet.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Don’t need no stupid cell phone.
Put your mind on the boat. The engine, fresh air, water and boats everywhere enjoy. Perhaps a half dressed woman to see.
Then you can make fun of the kid w his nose to the phone walking off the float.
Or you can be the kid.

 

[backinblue]

I'm not glued to my cell phone at all, but I use it for internet when on the boat for things like weather forecasts and even for texting other boaters or calling home. I've been on some boats where 100% of their navigation/communication is done through a tablet. That's not for me, but for some it seems fine.

 

[ghost]

Don’t need no stupid cell phone.
Put your mind on the boat. The engine, fresh air, water and boats everywhere enjoy. Perhaps a half dressed woman to see.
Then you can make fun of the kid w his nose to the phone walking off the float.
Or you can be the kid.

This is your opinion and your luxury. If I made the same choice, I get to stay home. Cell service, especially this year with a big consumer test coming up in September, I can’t be away from my job. I guess I can, but my experience is that they stop paying me pretty quickly.

Having good cell service means I can spend a week on the boat. I’ve put a lot of money and effort getting good networking on the boat this year. Without it, I would have had no contact at all with the boat.

Not everyone is retired.

 

[syjos]

Anchored in Parks Bay:

Verizon 4/0 - T Mobile 25/2 with antenna and 1/0 without.

We are cruising San Juans with a Netgear Nighthawk M1 connected to a Poynting Omni 402 MIMO antenna and here are download/upload speeds for T Mobile and Verizon:

Hope Island - Verizon 42/20 - T Mobile 7/22 with antenna and 7/7 without.

Anacortes - Verizon 60/19 - T Mobile 47/29 with antenna and 25/29 without.

Lopez Sound, South end - Verizon 2/0 - T Mobile 24/4 with antenna and 3/2 without.

Garrison Bay - Verizon 3/0 - T Mobile 41/9 with antenna and 35/2 without.

Reid Harbor - Verizon 0/0 - T Mobil 24/1 with antenna and 4/1 without

Friday Harbor - Verizon - 68/37 - T Mobile 28/33 with antenna and 28/33 without.


Speed via Speedtest.

T Mobile is on a Hotspot only 100 gb plan.

Verizon is on an unlimited phone and data plan.

 

[syjos]

We are retired but can not imagine being completely cut off from home, relatives, friends and personal business while cruising for 2 plus months.

Phone is used to communicate with boating friends and to coordinate meet ups with them.

Internet for banking, paying bills, news, email and web surfing. We use internet more than phone.

If we didn't have a life, no friends and no relatives we would not need a phone.

 

[Scottwb96]

We are now at Friday Harbor.

Verizon - 68/37 - T Mobile 28/33 with antenna and 28/33 without.

It is interesting that performance is the same on T Mobile with or without the antenna.

And that Verizon is so fast.

Verizon internet is received on a Samsung Tab A Tablet.

Thanks for all the testing/info!!! I will be up in the San Juans 27th-7th. I will be testing a few things as well.

1. New Tmobile "home internet" 5G device.
2. New external antenna "hack" installed on device for better connections.
3. New Peplink Mobility 42G (has the super low-end 600mhz freq that Tmobile needs)

 

[ghost]

The T-Mobile home 5G is not supposed to work. They configure them static for your nearest tower and then they are not supposed to change.

At least that’s what I was told when talking to the rep who got me my 5G sim for my peplink 5G.

 

[Scottwb96]

Yeah, also heard that as well. But so far, moving from place to place hasn't been an issue...
I've definitely been on multiple towers (even within an hour or so) the last few days and all has been working properly...

 

[syjos]

Just moved and reanchored at the other side of Parks Bay.

T Mobile speed (with external antenna )increased to 28 Mbps download / 4 Mbps upload. Previously 25/2 at first spot.

Not a big increase but shows how location can make a difference.

Tide height can also make differences in speed throughout the day.

 

[syjos]

The Poynting Omni 402 MIMO antenna is well worth $350.

Speed with the antenna is significantly improved.

I have a Digital Antenna Dual Band 4' Cellular antenna which I connected to the Nighthawk Hotspot. Though it increased the number of bars on the Hotspot, the speed stayed the same.

I also had access to a Poynting Omni 400 (non MIMO antenna) for a short time and it also increased the bars but speed increase was minimal.

I had a Wilson signal booster connected to the Digital Antenna up to 2019. It was an older unit manufactured before amp power limitation but was useless in the San Juans for internet. It was OK for phone reception.

MIMO technology is the way to go currently.

 

[Scottwb96]

Check out the Peplink Mobility 42G specs...

 

[HouseMD]

Agree with the other Friday Harbor locals. We basically all use T-mobile here on the island and while out on the water (ferry or otherwise).

 

[bowball]

Cruising the San Juan’s for ten years and have had AT&T, Verizon and currently T-Mobile. Too many dead zones with the first two and T-Mobile is consistently good. The rumor was that Craig McCaw (McCaw Cellular and NextLink) was a big PNW boater and instructed his engineers to have great service throughout the islands.

McCaw is a big boater there - his favorite place to boat-, but McCaw Cellular became ATT Wireless when ATT bought them, which was decades ago! Nextel too was his.

 

[OldDan1943]

Always have a back up plan for your cell phone. It's called a satellite phone.