What internet do we use in our van?

Kathryn BirdFounder and Creator, Wandering Bird · Founder of the UK's largest motorhoming and road trip blog- Wandering Bird

Internet in our motorhome- what do we use?

25 Jul 2022 · 1 min

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0:59

In this short Q&A, Kathryn Bird answers a viewer’s question about how they stay connected while living in their van. She explains that they use a dedicated Wi‑Fi onboard unit (essentially a router) equipped with a permanent roof‑mounted antenna, which boosts any existing mobile signal. The unit contains an EE SIM that provides unlimited data in the UK and works across most of Europe, though signal can be lost in remote mountainous areas. She notes that recent EU roaming rule changes mean the UK‑based unlimited plan no longer offers free data in Europe, so for longer trips they plan to purchase local pay‑as‑you‑go SIMs with data to avoid high roaming costs. The overall message is practical advice on hardware, carrier choice, and adapting to roaming policy changes.

Questions this video answers

We use a Wi‑Fi onboard unit (router) with a permanent roof antenna and an EE SIM that provides unlimited data in the UK and works across most of Europe, though we may switch to local pay‑as‑you‑go SIMs for longer European trips due to roaming rule changes.

Chapters

Hi and welcome back to The Truth About Van Life, where your questions get answered. This week is a question from Lisa, and she asked, what internet do we use in our van? We use the Wi-Fi onboard unit, which has been fantastic. So that's basically a router. It's also got an antenna which is permanently attached to the roof, and that really helps boost our signal. Now, they can't magic a signal out of thin air, so if there is no data signal or you don't have a signal on your phone, It's not going to create one for you, but it has got a SIM card in it, so if you can get a signal on your phone, it'll generally give you a stronger signal, we found. We've got an EE SIM in there and we've used that all around the UK and all around Europe with very few problems unless we're right in the middle of mountains or something. We have got unlimited data on it in the UK. Now, with the new roaming rules, that doesn't equate into Europe anymore, so what we are looking at doing on our longer trip is perhaps getting a local pay-as-you-go SIM with data, which will be a lot cheaper than using roaming. Hope that helps. See you on the next one. Bye.