Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?

Semi truck driver. I have a laptop, and a phone. I use the phone's hotspot.

"Being on the internet" is not part of my job, and many nights I don't bother to take the laptop out of its bag.

I never use wifi because I'm paranoid.

While driving I listen to podcasts or streaming. I never predownload anything.

I don't know if I ever get throttled. Sometimes, even in this day and age, I'm out of cell range, and my podcasts pause.

I might watch a movie on the phone once a week or so.

Which is not at all helpful to you, except possibly to observe: the less you need, the better it is.

Your lifestyle and work may just be five or ten years ahead of it being worthwhile for businesses to provide what you need.

I've been pretty happy with spending most of my time in Costa Rica for nearly a decade or so. The pandemic numbers here have been really low, partly because people are fairly health-conscious here. Anti maskers are basically just gringos nobody likes or want anything to do with here instead of crazy people yelling vitriol in grocery stores. I don't live at the beach, because frankly it's kind of distracting having people come up to you wearing headphones asking why you're working and not vacationing, but if I want I can just go and hang out in a hammock in a less than 6-10 hour bus ride to whichever spot. There's also a LARGE amount of fibre optic internet rollout here, MUCH more than my 1st world home country that seems to be falling apart by the day, so I only have to rely on 3g/4g when the power goes out once in a while. If it stays out longer than my battery lasts I let people know I'm on a bus to find somewhere that isn't out after checking the power company website. Another thing about avoiding the beach is avoiding the hours long blackouts.

As for my setup it's literally just my laptop and some notebooks in my bag. I have two bags, one carry-on and one backpack, and minimalize as much as I can so that if I have to get on a plane for whatever reason in short order I'm pretty much already good to go. The heaviest things I own are probably books, but they're pretty sweet books so I take the weight.

I run https://www.waveform.com and we help a lot of folks like yourself get better signal. It's not really worth messing around with cheap options - your productivity is on the line and it's worth spending a little for great connectivity.

With that in mind, the best option is a Pepwave MAX HD2 Dual SIM. Then put a Visible SIM from Verizon in one slot and a Calyx SIM (T-Mobile) in the other, or sign up for the AT&T iPad plan. Either use whip antennas or ideally use a roof-mount 4x4 MIMO antenna to get the best signal.

Using Pepwave's VPN you can run WAN smoothing and/or bonding to make sure that your connection is rock solid.

Worth looking the LTE hacks facebook group, though they tend to use cheap gear, and I'd recommend using something beefier.

If you purchase a contributing membership from the Calyx Institute, they gift you a fully unlimited 4G/LTE mobile data plan: https://calyxinstitute.org/membership/internet/4g-lte-faq . The membership costs $500 the first year and $400 each additional year. It's a popular option in the nomad community.

These two apps in particular were invaluable: Wifi Map (lists nearby hotspots), and iOverlander (shows nearby camping, RV, and boondocking areas along with their amenities).

For me, I found that logistics made this style of living enjoyable or stressful. I needed to plan farther ahead to be able to be productive in a new setting, and I was better off settling into a new place for a few days and doing a big chunk of work in a nice new environment and then spending a couple of days after that traveling, rather than trying to work and travel in smaller, more evenly-spaced chunks. The days where I tried to travel any distance and also work any amount all kind of sucked.

I lived out of an RV for about a year an a half, I found that Internet was the most challenging part of being on the road. We ended up planning where we were staying based on if there was coverage there or not, which surprisingly still allowed us to go where we wanted to go.

What I did for internet was pick up a sprint hotspot from FMCA: https://www.fmca.com/index.php?option=com_fmcatechconnectv2&... they have special deals for members. $50 a month, and it does not have data caps. You do have to hold a membership though, which does have an additional cost.

The hot spot worked well enough,The speeds I got were in the 1.2-3.4 mbps range, which works. If you are lucky enough to be on a cell tower without a lot of load, you can take advantage of around 34 mbps speed. I only managed to get that speed twice on our trip, first in Tucson when we stayed near the west part of Saguaro National Park, and again in Washington Just outside of Mount Rainier. There should be more spots like that, but we didn't stumble on them.

Also, don't expect that you can get the same quality connection as you would get over fiber, scale back the resolution on your video streams :)

I think Verizon throttles you down to 600kbps, not mbps [1].

It’s 2021, so ridiculous.

[1] https://www.verizon.com/support/verizon-plan-unlimited-faqs/ (FAQ #6)

For 1.5 year I biked around the US camping with the occasional hotel.. I had an 11" macbook air with a data plan. Sometimes I would throw a rope over a branch and pull my phone up high to get cell signal, connecting to the phone via bluetooth. I did hardware development, fortunately for mobile hardware, so that packed away nicely. I would charge/work at a nice cafe if there was one, then at night a bit, and every 7-10 days get a hotel and work nonstop. I had a solar panel for my phone, but if I were to do it again I would get a bigger one to charge my laptop as well.

I loved it. Check out adventurecycling.org if you are interested - there are maps for biking routes all over the US.

I’m not living this lifestyle, but I feel that Starlink will drastically alter this market and open up so much more remote working environments. You should consider to at least sign up for the beta so you can get access sooner, theoretically you would get 100+ mbps anywhere in the US with no caps within the next year or so, and I’m guessing they’ll make a remote-friendly plan. Right now you officially can’t travel with the dish, but they’ve unofficially said there’s no limit imposed on the dish location.

I've been living on the road from an RV for the past 4 months and would be happy to share a bunch of tips. Data connectivity was the biggest concern I had before starting out and thus did a ton of research before embarking. So far that research has paid off in spades and I have not had any issues, despite using 700GB+ a month in cellular data. I don't have time at the moment to break down all the details in this comment, but please feel free to reach out to me (contact info in my profile). I'll try to come back later and share more details here for anyone who is curious, but you can also reach out and ask even if you aren't the OP too!

I traveled across Asia for 3 years. I had a Mission Workshop Radian and attached Spar which I loved. As for data you should expect to do most of your work in co-working or coffee shop spaces as cellular data still doesn't cut it if you're on video calls all day. As for the rest of my tech set-up (loosely):.

* Bose in ear noise cancelling headphones with microphone

* 2xPhones (A pixel 2 main and Huawei P30 Light backup) this is because I'd be screwed if I didn't have a phone.

* Lenovo X1

* RAV 90w charger with two USBC ports

* iPad pro (downloaded Netflix content, games, books)

* Earpod Pros

* A 1000mah charger I got as conference swag

* Misc cables/micro SD cards

Largely I considered a drink or food every two hours as rent for coffee shop space where I would do bandwidth heavy work (and charging). Another 2-4 hours of work I would hotspot my phone and largely use ssh.

I've been traveling the US full-time (RV) with my family (wife & 3 teens) for 5 years. I pair-program daily (over SSH/TMUX) and only require audio streaming for chat, generally don't need video or screen-sharing. We have 3 lines of Verizon "Beyond Unlimited" (not sure if they offer this anymore). I believe that is "unlimited" up to 75GB from the phone itself, and 25 or 30GB hotspot, per line. The kids burn through their data fairly quickly so we look for parks/resorts that have some sort of WIFI option, whether public or paid, to supplement their needs. For my personal and work usage, I'm able to get by without reaching my cap each month on the Verizon plan. I also purchased a cellular booster (weboost) which has made a huge difference in some rural areas. Staying connected to the interwebs is what bank-rolls this operation so it has been the single biggest pain-point for travel, but doing research on locations has help mitigate some of that. https://www.campgroundreviews.com has been a good resource. Hope that helps. Happy/safe travels.

Everyone is talking about hotspots, but since I got used to having WWAN (as opposed / in addition to 'WLAN') directly in my laptop there's zero chance I could ever go back to tethering.

My main portable is one of those custom modern motherboards for a 2011 ThinkPad X-series shell since I hate the keyboards on all the new ones. Originally a "third-batch" I7-8250U that I've since supplemented with a "fourth-batch" i7-10510U system so I have a spare just in case something happens to it, and paired with a Telit LTE card and a T-Mobile "unlimited" (50GiB soft-cap) SIM.

T-Mo is probably not a good choice for very remote areas since their reception is spotty, but the price is right since I have a family plan of four unlimited lines for $130/mo thanks to some grandfathered stacked promotions. Pixx: https://imgur.com/a/JWGC39n

I don't have a good recommendation for the Zoom bandwidth issue, but it is possible to host an audio-only meeting if your participants are okay with that :) https://it.umn.edu/services-technologies/how-tos/zoom-host-o...

So it turns out that it's pretty easy to get around tethering data caps on phones in a couple of different ways, especially if you're on Android and have more control over your network settings.

I'm in the UK now and use prepaid GiffGaff cell service, which includes 80GB of LTE hotspot data. I don't do Zoom, but i use it for tethering upstairs sometimes because wifi and stone 19th century walls do not mix.

But honestly, if Zoom is your biggest bandwidth hog, just get a cell with unlimited data and use it instead of your laptop. If you're going nomadic, you can't reasonably expect your workflow to be unchanged from what you'd do at home or an office, right? A phone tripod stand is a lot cheaper than a big bandwidth plan for tethering.

Aside from that advice, I always carry a Raspberry Pi with me, with a couple of different setups on different SD cards, so I can use it as a local Node dev server with my iPad Pro as my workstation, or as a media server or a RetroPi game device or even a travel router if need be. Get a USB 3 external SSD and rubber band it to the Pi and, especially now with 64 bit Raspberry PiOS and Ubuntu, you've got a fairly decent little system that fits in your pocket.

I keep a lot of my gear in old fashioned tool rolls, like cables and adapters and such. They're great on space and it looks cool as hell when you roll one out on a table.

Anker makes a couple of USB battery packs that are also built in chargers for both USB 2 and USB C, and I can't recommend them highly enough. I've used them in Mexico and here in the UK and a million times on road trips, and they not only save on space but simultaneously allow you to charge themselves and your devices, rather than charging separately, and they're especially great for Pis because you can pull them off the socket and they won't lose power.

I can keep 90% of my gear in one shoulder bag and be able to work happily anywhere on earth. I also keep a MIDI keyboard in my checked luggage for writing music and a Leatherman and precision screwdriver set in there with my Dopp kit (I shave with a straight razor, which is also handy if you find yourself in a shifty motel somewhere.)

Hope that helps!

I've been doing van life for about a year and a half now. Zoom is the real killer and I try and steer my calls to audio as often as I can. I'm also a sysadmin/compliance consultant so I don't need as much screen time. My setup: Internet: Xfinity Wifi in city / TMobile Max for the road unlimited phone and 40GB tether. I've not yet tried to do all my zoom on the phone but in theory that would mean your Zoom wouldn't count against you. As some folks point out coverage gets crappy in the sticks and you'll need either ATT or Verizon to cover those holes. Laptop: HP 13 with a homemade lap desk and chairback Van: Ford handi that I converted Comfort: Meh, I've plans to improve the bed design but probably less of an issue for you folks.

Join the "LTE Hacks" FB group for tons of discussion of rural and rv modem options.

The three best options for unlimited data seem to be:

- Calyx Institute membership (Sprint)

- T-Mobile Home Internet

- $20 AT&T iPad Plan

Hardware is pretty minimal: MacBook, Android Phone, eReader, Roost Stand, Magic Keyboard/Trackpad.

But your question is more about data.

I travel internationally, and primarily use wifi at coffee shops, coworking spaces and Airbnbs. This year, that's been mostly wifi at the place I've called home all year. I've also got Google Fi which allows me to tether "unlimited" data. I think it has a cap at 22GB/mo, and maybe charges per GB after that, but I've never reached that.

If I were in the US in a motorhome, I'd probably try to get Starlink. That's a bit new and "untested" though. You could switch to Google Fi for a higher data cap, though beware that their coverage in the US is (last time I checked) not as widespread as Verizon, especially outside of cities.

You can also try to reduce your data use. I've used an app called TripMode on my Mac that allows me to block all data usage for apps and enable it on a per-app basis. That prevents things like Google Drive sync and other things that send a lot of data without my consciousness of it from blowing through data caps. It also lets you monitor exactly how much data you're using per session with each app.

- ‘86 Winnie RV

- Nomad Internet: It’s RV friendly cell data service with high caps. ~400GB monthly with version or T-mobile variants

- Work MacBook Pro

- Personal MacBook Air: The M1 is wild fast

- Adjustable Desk: Cheapest one on Amazon

- Keychron K8 Mechanical Keyboard: Great keyboard for the price

- Logitech Master MX3 Mouse: Best mouse I’ve ever used, hands down.

- Crappy Dell monitor: My company paid for it, but boy is it bad.

- DDJ-SB3 DJ Controller: Former DJ, so gotta shake the rust of now and then.

- GoPro Hero Black 9: Just got this, amazing little piece of kit! Just need to use it more

- Polaroid whateverthehell: makes instant shots. Fun for on the fly shots, and a way to meet strangers.

- Arctis Pro Headphones: as a DJ, I do not recommend these, not loud enough. Could be hearing damage. Sound quality is good for the price, as is build quality.

These are my ...

- computer: https://xn--gckvb8fzb.com/a-nomads-computer/

- command line: https://xn--gckvb8fzb.com/a-nomads-command-line/

- camera: https://xn--gckvb8fzb.com/a-nomads-camera/

- coffee: https://xn--gckvb8fzb.com/a-nomads-coffee/

- digital infrastructure: (soon)

... setups.

I don't have direct experience except that from 2013-2015 I was stuck on a DSL line that offered about the same speed as your throttled connection. This is well before Zoom of course, but there were some basic things that I did that may help you adjust to using less bandwidth.

There's also a lot of good stuff in the comments. It's dated, but the principals will still be valid.

https://www.tidbitsfortechs.com/2013/12/surviving-internet-o...

I hope it helps.

Can you change some of the tools you use? It may not be quite as cool to use Office rather than G Suite but much easier to work offline with them. (Appreciate it may be limited by employer requirements). Also consider a decent external LTE/wifi aerial with adapters for your wifi and LTE dongles.

I mostly nomad'ed around SE Asia, where free wifi in cafes is a given, and mobile caps are ridiculously huge/cheap (US$1 per week for 250Gb of download cap in Cambodia!)

Video calls from cafes suck, obviously, but also pretty common. You get used to it.

We got used to having "good wifi" as one of our primary considerations for Booking.com or Airbnb searches.

I'm using a Purism 14 laptop running PureOS, with an additional travel monitor when there's room. Linux wifi UI could use some work, but otherwise it works fine.

Just flyover to Thailand or Bali and enjoy fast 4g networks (or fiber at homes), nice weather, good food, nature and people.

If you are in USA, the best thing I found was T-Mobile has at 100GB hotspot plan for $50 a month which each of you can get one.

I have faced this a lot, since I have been a digital nomad for 8+ months now. Other things I did: like downloading songs and movies on my ipad when I have wifi has saved me a lot of GBs. On windows there is a setting called "metered connection", which will make sure it does not download major updates etc over your hotspot.

I think you'd be better off transiting between urban areas where there's good 5G/4G service, and save your more off-grid adventures for the weekends.

I've traveled both US coasts as a DN. My gear was essentially:

  - Macbook Pro
  - Verizon Jetpack
  - iPhone with hotspot enabled
  - Goal Zero Sherpa 100AC 
  - Goal Zero Nomad 50 Solar Panel
  - BMW X3
  - In-vehivle laptop mount arm (passenger side)
  - Belgian Malinois

my #1 reason for not going nomad is I HATE LAPTOPS. I just love my PC. my two big ass monitors. a keyboard and mouse. a station that's always set up. I don't need to drag around nothing. I am always connected via ethernet.

I've heard of https://unlimitedville.com/ recommended before, although I have not used them. They at least have deals with different carriers in case one is problematic so you can switch to another.

I'm no longer a digital nomad. But, when I was . . .

* Macbook Pro 13". Ended up with a Spanish keyboard partway through travels when I had to replace a stolen laptop in Barcelona

* Google Fi. Had great tethering, and you can pay per-gigabyte to maintain data speeds after the typical 15gb limit.

* iPad as a second monitor

* Apple international power adapters

* Geoblue for health insurance

* Occassional WeWork membership. Today I'd take a look at their All Access offering. But, many cities have _some_ kind of coworking option.

* (Couldn't find any insurance to cover stolen laptops, and Airbnb's insurance apparently doesn't cover it either)

I make an annual donation to the Calyx Institute, which has worked out really well for me: https://calyxinstitute.org

Not related to data, but nomads and semi-nomads might want to consider an external GPU setup. I tried it and really like it (though it is a bit of a pain and not for people who don't want to deal with drivers and such).

The gist of it is that, if you want to combine the mobility of an ultrabook with the power of a desktop, you can mostly have your cake and eat it too by putting your extras (GPU, spare hdd, cat5, optical drive etc) in an enclosure with its own power supply. This only became possible due to usb-c being fast enough to act like part of the bus.

In theory, it's awesome - take your laptop out and about and use it like a laptop, then take it home and have a full desktop worth of peripherals, without having to plug in external monitors and stuff every time. In practice, not all cards/laptops/enclosures work together and you'll likely spend some time trying different combinations of drivers and settings. There's a forum[0] dedicated to this that I found highly helpful. I have mine working and I do like it, it is a lot easier than bouncing back and forth between a laptop-for-mobility and desktop-for-power and having to share everything over distributed tools, but it took a good month of futzing to get it running stably and to get it to reliably swap drivers when plugging/unplugging.

0: egpu.io

Why not use a phone for zoom calls? This way that doesn’t impact your hotspot data cap? Another thing to consider is an iPad LTE and an unlimited plan for that.

When we traveled(2015-2018): - laptop, no larger than 17 in screen, and the thinner and lighter the better. - portable monitor like the Asus ZenScreen MB14AC - VPN - universal power adapters & a surge protector - small mouse & small keyboard like the Logitech K380

Most of my Digital Nomading has been outside the USA in Europe & Asia. We stayed between several weeks to several months per location. Internet experiences, and requirements will vary country by country but as long as you stay in or near a large metropolitan area you can expect fast internet. The the only exception so far has been China, theirs was slow no matter where I went.

I always tried to make my personal hotspot(Google Fi) the last resort. I used a local hotspot, AirBNB/Cafe WiFi, and coworking spaces as must as possible. Also, for video conferencing, I'd lower streaming quality. No one needs to see my ugly mug in that high a resolution. VPN was not for video conferencing, or browsing reddit/HN. It was mostly for interacting with financial institutions, and transferring IP back and forth with work. It's up to you on how paranoid you wanna be.

Maybe not the perfect instagram digital nomad life but I do have some experience on working from the road.

I travel a lot between EU/Asia/LatAm (yes its still happening) and for that my company provides unlimited plans. I spend most of my year on the road, from 6-8 months, but the longest stretch was only 4 months. We have 2 subs that cover pretty much the whole world.

I use a MacBook 13 fully specced out and a Samsung 21 Ultra where, when outside of the office, I hotspot from when WiFi in public is unavailable (LA/Asia has lots of free fast WiFi places).

Electronics with me, I take: laptop, phone, camera (RX100 6 or my A7R 3) and WF1000XM3. That's it. Sometimes it's already too much.

Can't live without: VPN (personal/office), streaming services (spotify/netflix/hbo) and I load some books on my phones kindle app.

I never think about data limits but I am also never too far from main cities.

If I could change something would be to get the MacBook 16. But then I think of the weight and hassle.

Some suggestions come to mind:

If you're OK with it, turn off video and set zoom/whatever to low quality audio. This whole "cameras on" thing adds nothing to productivity and culture unless it's screen sharing you need to do.

xfinity and FIOS, maybe others, also offer a good amount of public hotspots which you can sign into with your subscriber login. I don't believe there's a cap and speeds are great.

Try to plan meetings vs heads down or offline work around when you are likely to have wifi if you can.

If you're working from a van I might look into some sort of directional antenna so you can get a significantly higher range on wifi to a bridge and then re-broadcast that inside the van. Thats not an area I'm experienced in but just an idea.

ergonomics are a key point for me. using a gooseneck tablet holder to hold an x86 tablet (i talked about the Dell Venue 11 Pro i used for many years recently[1]). a bluetooth keyboard (the Lenovo), small bluetooth speaker, bluetooth headphones, and usb-c battery pack make up the rest. in the future, i'd like to go dual-screen. Linux should let me use a second tablet as an extended desktop in my environment, Sway, and GNOME folks are joining the party now too[2].

i'm on a grandfathered unlimited plan, that supposedly is good to ~75GB before they start thinking of cancelling your contract, that i pay way too much for, because its been years since i've been very nomadic.

i've long been keen to compare post-cap throttle speed across plans. Comcast has some of the best in the business. their unlimited plan is $45/mo, and after the 20GB cap, it does 1.5Mbps down/768k up. whereas those cheap pieces of shit at Google Fi throttle you to 256kbps. put a chain around my ankle and drop me over the side, you terrible monsters. Verizon isn't even honest enough to give you a straight answer: they say you may not experience any drop after their 22GB cap, that traffic is simply de-prioritized, but users report being capped to 600kbps, which i would very much like confirmation or denial on. TMobile's generous 50GB cap has a similar "we won't throttle we'll just de-prioritize you" promise, & i haven't found much info from customers on how it has impacted them.

of course, everything gets way worse when you start hotspotting. i'm afraid to even mention it, but if you buy yourself a non-branded phone, or miraculously can install a ROM (rarer and rarer a possibility!) they often don't come with the tracking/surveillance systems to detect & monitor hotspotting.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26526683

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNOME-40...

Not really a digital nomad right now, but my work setup is what I did use as a software developer. Just my laptop, my phone for a hotspot, and a backup USB rechargeable battery for the phone.

The most important things for me are simplicity and robustness. So it's a light, relatively cheap laptop with a very long battery life. The phone is also cheap and robust. I would normally work outside somewhere, so the laptop needs to last a while.

I'm lucky enough that in my country we have a very comprehensive 4G internet network, I've even been able to work in national parks in the sticks, although if I'm at a national park I'd rather be exploring that working anyway!

I mostly stay at airbnb - and I make sure that it has wifi and that there are positive comments re wifi and no negitive comments - I will also ask the host before booking

I bring a 27' 1440p monitor and a monitor arm to use in conjunction with my laptop to have a good dual screen setup - I also tend to bring a 50' ethernet cable to connect to the router to avoid wifi trouble

I use google fi for my phone - it works all over the world and if my internet goes down I can tether to my phone (at 10 USD per gb) - its also great that I have the same number wherever I go so whatsapp etc just works and I can give work contacts a stable number

I have a french sim with free mobile, they give you 25 GB per montlh in a lot of countries all over the world, including the USA, for 20 euros (24 usd) per month, 4G download speed is excellent.

Coverage with free SMS and free calls too : https://assistance.free.fr/mobile/freeroaming/

After traveling for 4 years as a nomad, I will now buy 2 or 3 more sim like this because they work great and are cheaper than local sim without the hassle / paperwork

If a french friend can give you a free mobile sim, don't hesitate :)

T-mobile 4G/5G hotspot is $50/m for 100GB. [1]

They have an unlimited business version, WFX, for about $90/m. [2]

[1] https://www.tmonews.com/2020/12/t-mobile-5g-hotspot-inseego-...

[2] https://www.fastcompany.com/90611291/t-mobile-wfx-work-from-...

Right now, using resold T-Mobile via Calyx on their hardware.

Lots of good resources out there. https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/ do a lot of review and news on the topic.

5G, multiplexed LTE and Starlink are popular options. Some devices out there allow you to intermix radios via standard mini PCIE modules.

Depending on the duration of your stint, I believe the official stance from Starlink is that your device be readily configured to your current location by calling customer support.

I’m also interested in a mail forwarding service that can be used as residential address and won’t give any issue with financial institutions, if you have any to recommend :-)

I have my MacBook, a spare phone, my camera, and my iPad which I use as a second screen using duet.

For Internet, I’ve been using Speedify VPN. It lets me combine/bond multiple internet connections without any additional hardware. So I can connect to a mobile hotspot over WiFi, another over USB, and my phone over USB and combine the connections. Data caps are not a problem in India though, for $5 prepaid you get 50GB, for $20 postpaid you can get 1000s of GBs.

FYI: Verizon has "business" plans that give you much more "premium" data. I'm looking at one plan which is unlimited, and you get 60GB of hotspot usage per line before being throttled. With the business versions of plans, you can usually just call up the carrier and ask to talk to a Sales person. They can even cook up some custom plans for you if you're willing to pay a bit more. Probably worth it given your needs.

I have been getting by with an iPad Air that has cellular and wifi connectivity no matter where i go. I do have an iPhone Pro 11 as well. Basically, I just carry these two devices wherever I go. As both are readily connected, it is very convenient for me.

For my iPad though, I also utilize a VM which I access through the Shells.com app. This allows me to have access to a Linux and Windows machine through my iPad so I have everything all in one.

My partner and I have worked most of this year from a little 13 ft Scamp travel trailer all across the U.S. and we're currently building out a van to get a bit of extra mobility. I'm a staff engineer for a consultancy with lots of meetings with our enterprise clients, so solid internet is a major concern.

The hotspot I use is called "Glocal Me". It's run by a company out of Hong Kong, and sells fairly expensive U.S. data packages. I chew through a lot of data on that, but the price is worth it to me because there doesn't seem to be any throttling during periods of high consumption, I can scale back what I pay for when I have other options for access, and the data purchased works on all major U.S. carriers so I have a much wider coverage area than I would trying to tether with my phone. It works internationally so I'm looking forward to using it for trips abroad where I've generally relied on putting a local sim in my phone and tethering.

In a trailer this size, the table converts to your bed, so having a good desk set-up is tricky. I've landed on a usb-c external monitor that goes in a claw I mount on the table each morning to provide an eye level monitor. I use a small mechanical keyboard and wireless mouse, so the whole set-up is easy to store each morning. I can't recommend working on a laptop all day every day, I'm young and fit but maintaining that posture for long still really messes with me and most other folks I've talked to about it.

For power, we're just running 200w of Solar when we're off-grid (which is about half the time in the West where boondocking within cell-service abounds.) My partner and I are able to power our laptops with USB-c adapters so we can run off 12v directly without the waste of going through an inverter.

We love doing this enough that we're putting a ton of effort into building a van out right now. A primary factor in that choice is that with an RV or a trailer, you're much more limited on where you can park. We've had days where we haul our bitty trailer into town for meetings to get better service, but people certainly look at us funny when we're posted up in some parking lot working on our laptops.

Let me know if you've got questions. I've been having a blast with this way of living and have met a bunch of people doing the same this last year. I've really enjoyed sharing the experience with people.

I have an off grid space that I work from. For connectivity, I use a 5G phone on T-mobile with the EasyTether app (which tethers over USB and doesn't count as hotspot data). I have an RPi connected to the phone and a travel wifi router connected to the RPi over ethernet.

That said, 5G service is pretty good in my location, speeds are fine, but isn't the cheapest solution ($70/mo.

Someone should build a Nomad version of Uses This!

https://usesthis.com/

usually I factor cost of data plan into the decision of where I go next for the reasons you mentioned. Since you say you're doing UI and frontend I think this is a big challenge when fetching and pushing binary data like static assets.

To reduce your data consumption and improve load times as well as security/privacy you may consider a /etc/hosts blocklist[1]. It's not going to help with reducing data in zoom calls, Netflix and podcasts but it adds up. Also don't forget application/service specific settings like switching all preferred resolution in video to the lowest quality etc.

DNS traffic can be reduced (and sped-up) with a local cache (dnsmasq - or better yet dnscrypt-proxy[2]).

[1] https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

[2] https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-proxy

I work from the road quite a bit and use a Pepwave Max router which allows you to pop in multiple sims. I have a Verizon prepaid sim as well as Google Fi which gets me Sprint & T-Mobile so I basically pretty much always have coverage. Data cap wise, Google Fi is pretty generous but also relatively cheap to add additional data-only sims if you need to.

The thing you're missing is a wifi antenna. They really open up where you can park and get internet during the day.

When I did it for a few years, I'd use coffeeshop or public wifi. LTE doesn't work well as a day to day. That is, for international stuff. Even if US centric, data caps are no good.

But quite frankly: I wouldn't do this lifestyle in a pandemic.

In the UK at least you should buy the Gigacube from Vodafone, it's unlimited wifi over 5g and it costs around £45 a month. You can power it off a battery and then it gives you local wifi connected to the 5g network.

I use ATT Walmart Plan for 8+17 GB for $41/month, prepaid. Hotspot allowed.

My setup (the inside of which many of you have seen and experienced at PyCon):

thisisthebus.com

Maybe you can get Starlink? Maybe.

Try Duo or another AI-powered video chat (possibly with purposely throttled connection).

Also, most digital nomads don't actually roam around in an RV. It usually just means living abroad temporarily.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but wouldn't you buy more data if you have reached your cap? It is probably be expensive, but if it is chargeable to your client or work, it might work out.

There are some amazing Digital Nomads groups on Facebook where you might also try posting this question (or just searching, this has been asked plenty of times)

I am looking at doing this next year and I think the best option is to just get a wework pass. I plan to work from there week days and ski weekends.

If your data cap lasts for a week, buy 4-8 SIMs and rotate them.

If you need a stable phone number, either buy a dual SIM smartphone or buy two smartphones.

Visible wireless (true unlimited on Verizon network) -> Cheap android phone -> wireless router = fast wifi network from cell towers

If people want a compact alternative to a laptop then look into ASRock DeskMini. Or possibly the new M1 Mac Mini.

Let's wait SpaceX. We will probably solve our problems in some time :P

ImmersedVR and an Oculus Quest 2. Up to five monitors right on your face.

What about Google Fi?

How can I email you with info?

My understanding is that most digital nomads live and work from co-working spaces in beautiful tropically warm places which offer a nice balance between luxury for cheap, tourism and paradise like many places in South East Asia. I think many base themselves in cities like Singapore but the hop around Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc., so they don’t really have the issue of mobile broadband.

For The last 7 years of working and traveling 50% of the time my setup has been two iPhones and a Macbook Air. I have about 30 sim cards now. In Europe I mostly use tmobile. Hotel lobbies usually have free wifi, as do cafes, hostels and bars.

The main difference is I kind of hate talking to people about work so I avoid video chat and try to keep all work communications on Slack/Signal.

America was actually the worst place to work and travel. Data there is too expensive and coverage sucks everywhere.