This is one of a series of posts about the technology we have used on our trip, this one covering how we managed mobile phone data coverage in remote areas.
If you are travelling in the outback throughout Australia you will have noticed that typically there is only mobile coverage around towns and along major highways. You will get 4G in major towns but it's rare, no doubt will change over time as they upgrade infrastructure. Quite often there is weak coverage along roads it's just your average mobile phone or tablet cannot pick it up.
The solution is to install a external antenna designed for the frequencies used by mobile carriers. You will need to check as these differ but most antennas are multi purpose.
We choose the RFI CDQ2197 - Quick Removable 7.5dBi Bullbar Antenna
http://www.rfiwireless.com.au/
You can get them online here for around $180 and I would recommend getting it installed by a professional as the coax will need to be neatly run through your car.
They are 1.2 m long, you can get a shorter version also Which is 1 m but it slightly lower gain at 6.5 dbi
Below is an image of the antenna on our bull bar, it's the black on the left one next to the UHF radio antenna.
RFI have a good reputation and are built for outback use.
These can easily be unscrewed from the spring, so you can get into garages or shopping centres.
We ran the coax run to the rear of the car connected to a patch cable to suit our Telstra modem.
Telstra Mobile Wi-Fi 4G Advanced
Below is an image of the modem mounted to the rear window with velcro tape. We had a dual USB port wired into the back of the Prado by ARB which powers the modem 24/7 from our aux Battery.
You need to connect the patch cable into #port 1 of the Telstra modem. 4g uses 2 antennas while 3G only uses one, port one is used. If you have 4g coverage you won't need to use your external antenna anyway.
The Telstra modem also acts as wifi hotspot so all our devices can connect and share the coverage while we are in the 4wd and while we are at camp outside the car. There is an internal setting within the modem to increase the power output of the wifi, this needed for camp use.
Off course this is only data coverage so you won't be able to make or receive a phone call but you could use Skype or FaceTime if needed.
The image below shows the iPad with no service but we are still connected via the Telstra modem.
That's about it really, works a treat, we had mobile coverage right across the Nullabor where our devices had no native coverage.