Communication While Traveling In Your RV

 Communication While Traveling In Your RV

When traveling in your RV, you will likely require the ability to stay in contact with your relatives and/or friends, call ahead for reservations at RV parks, and/or be able to contact your financial institution or perhaps companies such as your electric company, credit cards companies, etc.  You may also need to remain in contact with the business world, if you are like me, and run a business from our RV.

We utilize two kinds of communication – cellular phone and connection to the internet.  Below are a few tips to help you with communicating while on the road.

• We have found that more and more RV parks offer internet service.  The majority offer this service at no cost though some will bill you on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.  Internet service at RV parks can range from very good to very poor, mostly dependent upon your distance from the office where the equipment resides or your distance from any repeaters that have been installed throughout the park.  If reliable internet connection is essential, you may want to look into an “air card” which can be ordered through a cell phone service provider.  Ask if there is a plan available that you can suspend or “put on vacation” when you are not traveling.

• There may be a financial benefit for bundling your cell phone service with your “air card” service.  We chose to use two separate companies to increase the probability of having service if one service was unavailable.  We use AT&T for our cell phone service and use an iPhone so we can get internet service (though high usage can be expensive).  We use Verizon for our “air card” internet service.

• Make sure your family and/or friends have your travel plans including the name, location, and phone number of the RV parks where you will be staying. In the case of an emergency, family or friends can still contact you through the RV park office “land line” even if you do not have cell phone or internet service

• Our most important communication tip (use it whenever you travel even when not in your RV) is in the case of an emergency and your cell phone shows low service – still dial 911!  We have been in two situations where we or other RVers needed assistance and we were in such remote areas that our phone strength was one bar. We were either unable to use our phone or we couldn’t keep a connection without the call dropping.  Upon dialing 911, the phone strength rose to five bars and we were immediately connected to the Highway Patrol who sent assistance.  Technically, I don’t know how this works but if you are in an emergency with low phone signal strength, still dial 911.

Even though your communication needs while traveling in an RV may be different from ours, pre-planning to determine your needs, investigating available options and price shopping for various communication services will assure you stay connected while traveling.  Remember to inform your family and friends of your itinerary and the contact information for the RV parks you plan to stay at in case there is an emergency while you are out of phone/internet service area.  Always remember to at least try calling 911 in an emergency even if your cell phone indicates low or no service.