Cellular Internet Connections: It’s Not Just the Signal, it’s the Speed

Where most people look for pretty trees at the campground, we look for pretty cell towers!

by Chris Guld www.GeeksOnTour.com
We travel all over the country in our Motorhome and we depend on our website, GeeksOnTour.com, for our living. Internet connections are very important to us and we rely on Verizon thru our Android phones to provide that connection. We also live-stream a smartphone educational show every week. It’s called What Does This Button Do? and we do it from our motorhome. In case you are not aware, “Streaming” and “Internet Hog” are synonymous!
I have to be reminded that some people use their phones to make phone calls! Just to be clear, we’re only talking about Internet … Data … connections in this article. Voice is a different topic which may or may not be affected by the same factors.
Most people judge their cellular Internet connection by simply looking at the signal bars on their phone. 1-2 bars = bad; 4-5 bars = good. But that’s not always true.

Using Ookla Speed Test App

Signal strength is only one measurement, and in my opinion it is not the most important one. We have been in places where we were seeing only 1-2 bars, yet our Internet performance – the speed – was very good. We have also seen 4-5 bars and had low speed. We use the Ookla Speed Test app to check our speeds. We’ve seen download speeds ranging from .2 Mbps to 74. But, those numbers don’t always correlate with the signal strength.

In the image above you can see that the signal strength is not that great, yet the speed is VERY good! And, we’ve seen the results go the opposite way as well; where the signal strength has been registering 5 bars, yet the speed is <1Mbps.
When we pull into an RV park now, we drive around with our cell phones out and Ookla Speed test running. At each possible site, we’ll do a speed test. We were recently at the Thousand Trails park in Hershey, PA and we planned to be there for #48 of our What Does This Button Do?, so we really needed good Internet. When we pulled into the park, our signal strength was registering only 2 bars … of 3G. Not good. There were some areas where we saw no signal at all. Then we found one area with 2 bars of 4G, so we started an Ookla speed test and saw less than 1Mbps of speed. We thought we would need to leave and find another park, but we kept looking at other sites and doing speed tests. We found one, where Ookla registered 2-3 Mbps both up and down, so we parked. Surprisingly, we were able to do our show just fine.

Not all Cell Towers are Equal

Realize that the signal strength bars are simply measuring how strong the signal connection is between your device and the nearest cell tower for your service provider. So, there may be times when you are very close and have good signal strength, but it’s an old tower with outdated equipment. A better connection doesn’t help if what you’re connecting to isn’t any good. And vice versa – you may have a weak connection but if the cell tower you are connecting to has the latest and greatest technology, you may still get good results. Realize that “Old” and “Outdated” may be measured in months!
Cellular technology is very fast-moving. If you want to learn more about this, we recommend the excellent book: RV Mobile Internet Handbook by Chris Dunphy and Cherie Ve Ard of Technomadia. You can find the book and much more on their website RVMobileInternet.com.

The Numbers Don’t Tell the Whole Story

You can’t just look at the numbers and know how good your Internet connection is. I thought we would be unable to do our streaming show from the Hershey campground based on the numbers, but it went just fine. There are so many factors in this complex technology.  It’s your experience that counts. Browse to a website; did it load fast or are you still waiting? Try to play a Youtube video; does it start right away and continue straight thru or does it stop every few seconds to buffer? Try uploading a video; does it complete or does it die halfway through? If you’re not getting the results you want, there are signal boosters that will help, but only IF the problem is signal strength. If the problem is cell tower equipment quality, you may need to move!

Renew your Verizon Unlimited Data Plan Now

Last year, I wrote an article, “Get your Verizon Droid or iPhone before July 7 (2011)” to urge new Verizon customers to act quickly.  Now, they’re at it again!  Last year, on July 7, Verizon ended the unlimited data plan for new customers.  This year (we don’t know exactly when) they will end it for existing customers.  Meaning, if you have an unlimited data plan now, when you upgrade your phone and sign a new 2 year contract, you will lose that unlimited data – there will be no ‘grandfather’ rights.  They will be implementing tiered and family sharing plans instead.  For more details, see this PCWorld Article.

So, if you are eligible for an upgrade, do it NOW.  I just upgraded my Droid1 for a new Droid Razr Maxx 4G (a great device!) yesterday, and they continued my unlimited data plan with no questions asked.  I now have unlimited Internet access for two more years. 

If you’re wondering why an unlimited plan is such a good thing, read my article from last year where I go into much more detail.  But, check out the current plan costs.  For $30/mo now you only get 2GB of data per month.  Although that’s enough for basic email and web-browsing on your phone, it’s not nearly enough if you like watching videos on your phone, or if you like to share your phone’s Internet connection with other devices – like many of us RV travelers do.

Current Verizon Pricing

Although I believe that an unlimited data plan is worth fighting for, it’s not as important as it used to be.  It used to be that overages were charged at .25/megabyte.  That added up QUICK!  If you went over your allotment by just 1GB, your overage charge would have been $250!  Now, the overage fee is a flat $10/GB.  So, if you have the $30 for 2GB plan and you use 10GB in one month, your bill will be $110.  That’s bad, but not heart-stopping like the per megabyte charge.

This tip by Geeks on Tour: a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as how to use Android smartphones, managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.

Fed ruling protects GPS users

The dreams of a company who wanted to develop wireless broadband integrated with satellites and ground stations have gone up in smoke. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has changed its mind and rescinded its earlier approval of the network after GPS enthusiasts peppered the government with concerns the network could wipe out GPS reception for many users across the country.

LightSquared, a Reston, Virginia company had planned to provided nationwide 4G broadband coverage, which included a plan to transmit computer-users' signals via satellite. The ground-based transmitter stations would have used a radio frequency close to those used by Global Positioning Satellite receivers. Even though the frequencies are different, GPS users said the powerful transmissions of LightSquared's network would overpower GPS devices, rendering them less effective to virtually useless.

LightSquared argued that GPS users would simply have to upgrade to new equipment that would not be affected by its broadband transmissions, asking the FCC to "approve a technical solution" to the issue. With over 100 million of the popular way-finding gadgets sold in the US in 2010, even if just half of users were adversely affected by LightSquared's signals, that's a lot of very unhappy users, expected to apply a costly "technical solution."

In the end the GPS community has apparently won the day. Although LightSquared has vowed to investigate an appeal of the FCC's ruling to nix their plan, the fallout from the ruling is already apparent. The company's CEO stepped down early this month, and late last month it was reported the company had defaulted on a $56 million spectrum-sharing payment. At this point it appears the only folks looking at a "technical solution" are those over in Virginia.