Cable Internet at a campground?

[TravelTiger]

The other day I saw an interesting post on Facebook from a full-timer.

He said, if you are at an RV park that has cable, and you plan to be there a while (ie months), consider contacting the cable supplier to have internet service activated through the cable. If you have your own cable modem, you can then have an alternative to expensive cellular or intermittent wifi internet service.

I had never considered that, but now wonder if that really is feasible?

That said, we found out that cable internet was available in our area from the local cable provider (Suddenlink), even though our site in this rv park does not have cable service.

The cable provider has lines on the utility poles running right behind our site. The simply brought a service line down the utility pole, added a connection point and grounded it, then strung cable along the ground over to our rig (he implied it would be buried eventually). We have the cable coming into the rig via the slide, for now, but will install a receptacle for it specifically on the rig at some point. I already had a cable modem from our previous sticks & bricks, so it took the tech about 10 minutes and we were up and running with 250 GB of data, 15mbps service for under $50 a mo.

This will replace 30 GB of 4G LTE cellular data at $225 a mo.

Granted, it's not mobile... But we are fulltiming here for DH's work, not going anywhere except possible vacations. I can still use my 4G LTE hotspot for when we travel.


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[jassson007]

We have people do that in our park as well. We considered it but never did. New park owner upgraded wifi equipment and it is more reliable now.


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[olcoon]

Great idea, and it sure would beat the campground's wifi!

 

[danemayer]

I've done that before, ordering cable internet on a month-by-month no contract basis. Comcast even had a promotion giving a lower price for internet if bundled with TV. Since the park had a "bulk agreement" for TV, they counted that as qualifying for the promo at no charge for TV. Just gave me a lower price for internet.

 

[MCTalley]

If the cable company sells you data over the existing campground cable system and the connection (at least at your site) is typical fuzzy analog channels, does the data tend to be erratic, slow or crummy? (Or are we talking about higher-end cable systems?)

 

[danemayer]

If the cable company sells you data over the existing campground cable system and the connection (at least at your site) is typical fuzzy analog channels, does the data tend to be erratic, slow or crummy? (Or are we talking about higher-end cable systems?)

Most campgrounds provide standard definition analog signals that don't look very sharp compared to high-def satellite or over-the-air digital. If that's what you mean by fuzzy, you shouldn't have a problem.

But if the cable system is old and tired with poor connections (snowy pictures with lines), you may not get an optimum internet connection either. It could manifest as slower than promised, or perhaps the connection goes up and down.

 

[MCTalley]

But if the cable system is old and tired with poor connections (snowy pictures with lines), you may not get an optimum internet connection either. It could manifest as slower than promised, or perhaps the connection goes up and down.

That was what I was referring to. We seem to run into more of these than not. We're never in one place long enough to take advantage of this option, but good to know for the future.

 

[danemayer]

Another situation you may run into is the cable company telling you that cable internet is not available at the park, even though they provide cable TV. In past years they may have offered internet at the same location.

When cable companies made the switch to all digital broadcasts over the last couple of years, the digital signals required using a set top box rather than just hooking up to the coax connector on the pedestal.

Many RV owners were unable to hook the set top box to the TV, so in some campgrounds, the cable companies installed an MDTA device at the front end of the park to convert the digital signal back to analog and again let you just hook up to the pedestal connector, without using a set top box.

The MDTA was not designed to allow internet signals without interference to the TV signals, so the cable companies haven't offered internet with MDTA installations.

 

[rxbristol]

We have the cable coming into the rig via the slide, for now, but will install a receptacle for it specifically on the rig at some point.

I have our modem in the basement. I run the cable through the UDC, it then crosses into the basement.