Recreational Vehicle Use Way up in 2020—As Is the Need for RV Internet
Travel and fun during our pandemic summer shifted to the ground, as more and more flights were canceled; many people took to their “home” on the road for fun — and work.
SatelliteInternet.com, a site that helps people find exactly what the URL promises, has an article about How to Get Satellite Internet for Your RV. The site recently updated the story with results from a new survey.
The results would be shocking in any year that didn’t have a COVID-19 pandemic shutdown/quarantine, but they seem almost tame when you consider how hard it is even to get out of the house these days. Overall, 41 percent of Americans increased their travel options this year by opting for road trips, camping trips, and buying or renting RVs this summer.
The story even cites a recent New York Times article that makes this summer sound like the true heyday of RVing. No shock when 56 percent of respondents said they’d bought or rented their RV this summer, due to COVID-19. Which is hard to do, since RV sales are up 170 percent from last year.
Other interesting stats are listed above. Key among them: 84 percent of people want an internet connection in the RV. That’s not impossible thanks to satellite internet and the two existing US-based services, ViaSat and HughesNet. But as many who’ve used those services (even in a house without wheels) can attest, the days of 1990s dial-up connections are almost preferable. Help might be on the way from low-earth-orbit satellite internet services to come from Amazon (Project Kuiper) and Elon Musk (Starlink), but those might take years to arrive. So even SatelliteInternet.com recommends that RV travelers try mobile hotspots, or turn their phones into mobile hotspots, to get that desperately needed internet fix.
Eighty percent of survey respondents are bringing tech with them in the RV, internet or not.
Airlines are who we should feel sorry for. Just 34 percent say they’d feel safe traveling that way-or even staying in a hotel. Almost half, 47 percent, canceled some kind of airline trip they had planned for the summer of 2020. Then again, it’s hard to feel sorry for airlines.
Here’s the best news of all for people working from home: 59 percent of respondents say they’ve done some telecommuting from the RV. If you can find a spot that can deliver the internet you need, maybe the RV is all the space you’ll need for a work-from-home future.
Here’s a video primer on how satellite internet works via SatelliteInternet.com.
Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com.
