Telecommunications:

For telecommunications, we use a Netgear AirCard 810 WLAN router, and it’s been fantastic. Just insert a local SIM card, and suddenly you have Wi-Fi in the van for your phone, laptop, or tablet. It works like a charm and is even portable, with a battery that lasts quite a while.

To boost reception, we installed an LTE Low Profile MIMO antenna on the roof, which usually adds at least two bars of LTE—sometimes that little extra makes all the difference. Overall, we’re extremely happy with this setup.

We also have a traditional router for situations where we might want to connect to a local network with more range, such as at a campground. In practice, though, we rarely use it—since we’re mostly off the grid, the Netgear setup works so well and often comes with no data limits.

For example, when traveling through France, we can get a SIM card for €10 and a generous data pack for €20, which we never exceed. The pack even covers neighboring countries, offering 35 GB of 4G across more than 115 destinations in Europe, French overseas departments, Canada, Australia, Israel, the USA, and South Africa. We’ve had no issues with it, and it’s a deal we can fully recommend.