TechnoRV now carries the Pepwave brand of cellular routers, and it is only after months of testing and seeing firsthand the benefits of these units that we confidently bring these units to you. If you are looking to improve your internet experience on the road by having faster speeds, and unbreakable connectivity, then the Pepwave routers are the answer. There are a lot of reasons why the Pepwave Routers should be your next addition to your “Staying Connected on the Road” arsenal, and I am going to explain the details and benefits in this article. TechnoRV prides itself in providing the best information on its products, and we have put together a lot of information articles and videos just for you.

Cellular Data Plans and Pepwave

Before we get into the benefits of Pepwave Routers, let me discuss the first part of making this transition a reality, and that is getting a cellular data plan that works for you and your needs. TechnoRV does not provide data plans, but it is pretty easy to get a cellular data plan that works in a cellular router. There are so many plans that are great, but because each RVers needs are different, we would like to introduce you to the Mobile Internet Resource Center as a great place to find out what the best data plans are at any given time. There is a lot of free information on this site, and there is even a subscription service to this site that can get you deeper level information. For now, here is a link to their review of the best plans on the market right now:Top Cellular Guides for RVers - Jan 2021

I can tell you that the best plan I have seen lately (2-11-21) is the T-Mobile data plan that offers 100 gigs of data for $50 a month. I do not know how long they will keep providing this plan, but if you want one you should consider getting it sooner than later. I got one the other day and I simply walked into the local T-mobile store and told them I wanted a SIM card with their 100 gigs for $50 a month plan and within 10 minutes I was on my way with my new SIM card. Having multiple SIM cards for your new Pepwave device is a great Idea. We carry a Verizon, AT&T, and now T-Mobile plan with us.

Why Pepwave?

Let’s get into the Pepwave routers and why they are a game changer for RVers:

Speed, speed, and more speed! So how does the Pepwave consistently get more speed than a standard phone hotspot, or cellular hotspot like a Jet Pack/MiFi device? There are several reasons for this, first, the transmitter and antennas in the Pepwave are much stronger than those in your phone and other hotspot devices. A transmitter sends your signal to the cell tower and the antenna hears the signal coming back from the cell tower, and by increasing these two points of transmission you can see drastic speed increases. In addition, the Pepwave routers have built in MIMO (Multiple In Multiple Out) antenna technology. This simply means that the Pepwave Routers have multiple antennas communicating with the cellular towers instead of one antenna. Imagine one antenna trying to communicate with a tower. As the transmission waves travel, they are broken up by the environment like trees, buildings, bad weather, and more. This creates errors in the transmission and these errors reduce the throughput speeds that you will experience. If we use multiple antennas to make that transmission, the errors are reduced because both antennas are working simultaneously to complete the transmission, and the end result is less errors, and more speeds.

Carrier Aggregation = Speed

Carrier Aggregation equals even more speed. The Pepwave routers are rated in category levels, Cat 6, Cat 12, and Cat 18. These different levels simply mean that the device can aggregate more frequency bands to bring you faster speeds. Imagine a particular cell tower has 8 cellular bands available for users to have access to. What if you only had access to one of those bands, and what if the one band you were connected to was overloaded with other users? Of course, this would mean that your experience would be slower speeds. With carrier aggregation, the Pepwave Routers can connect to multiple bands simultaneously to increase the end users speeds. The Cat 6 modem can connect to 2 frequency bands at a time, the Cat 12 modems can connect to 3 frequency bands at a time and the Cat 18 can connect to up to 5 frequency bands at a time. Because of this carrier aggregation these modems can have blazing speeds as follows:

WOW! These are amazing speeds considering you can stream a high definition movie for about 4-6 MBPS. So why did I say “Theoretical Speeds?” Well, that is because these units are capable of this type of performance, but there are other factors that would likely keep you from achieving this type of performance. Most cell towers would not support this type of speed, then you could have signal strength issues due to distance from the cell tower or obstructions between you and the tower. There are a lot of factors that can affect speed, but all things equal, a Cat 18 will outperform a Cat 12, and a Cat 12 will outperform a Cat 6. With that said, it really comes down to what you are using the devices for, and what type of speeds do you really need.

SpeedFusion

Unbreakable Connection and even more Speed Technology! Is it important to you to always stay connected? Maybe you work from the road and have meetings via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. It would be pretty embarrassing if you kept dropping off of the call because of your poor connection. Pepwave has a series of activations that can ensure an unbreakable connection, and also give you even more speeds. This technology is called Speed Fusion and it encompasses 3 main services:

Hot Failover

Let’s say that you have your Pepwave connected to multiple cellular carriers, and a WiFi connection to say a local campground. The Pepwave can automatically, and instantly move you from one source to another to ensure you have an unbreakable connection. This happens in an instant, and so fast that if you lost connection with a cell carrier, it would swap you to your next connection without even disrupting your Zoom call.

WAN Smoothing

This is a unique technology that Pepwave has implemented and it basically always ensures that you have the best of the best as it relates to your available connections, and here is how it works. Let's say you are going to jump on a Zoom call with your boss, or even some family members. When you activate the call the Pepwave will send packets of data to all of your available connections, like multiple cellular data plans, and even a WiFi connection. Whichever connection provides the best service at the time will get the job. The good news is that this continues to happen throughout the Zoom call so at the end of the Zoom call you may have used some data from one cell plan, some data from another cell plan, and maybe even some data from the WiFi connection that you may have. This all happens in the background and as the end user you experience the best of what all of the carriers have to offer.

Bonding

This simply means that the Pepwave will pull together all of your available resources for the internet, like multiple cell plans and WiFi and bond them together to give you faster speeds. So if you have a Verizon plan and a AT&T plan then it bonds them together to give you better speeds than either of them could give you singularly. Amazing technology and you will be able to tell an immediate difference.

Load Balancing

Load balancing means that if you have multiple users accessing your Pepwave that the Pepwave will appropriate the bandwidth needed for each user. It is highly unlikely that multiple users will have the same bandwidth needs. Maybe someone is gaming, and someone else is uploading a video, and someone else is sending an email. All of these functions have different consumption needs and the Pepwave will evaluate these needs and ensure that each user has what they need to get their function completed without issue.

Security

Everyone wants top grade security while on the internet. Pepwave uses VPN technology that is so secure that a would-be attacker would never stand a chance at getting your information, and it works like this. Let’s say you are sending information to someone through the internet. The Pepwave breaks this information into very small bits of data called packets so that an attacker would not be able to make anything out of the information because it is only a piece of the whole pie. Then, these small packets of data are then encrypted with military grade 256 bit encryption. If you are looking for the best and most secure way to be on the internet, then the Pepwave is no doubt the best unit on the market.

If you are interested in a video overview of what makes the Pepwave products so special, and how it can help you better stay connected on the road then check it out here: Pepwave Cellular Router Overview  We have an entire playlist made for the Pepwave Routers that you can look through as well.

TechnoRV and Pepwave

TechnoRV offers many different models of the Pepwave and we are here to help you make the best decision for your specific needs. I have made a video detailing out the different models that we offer, and you can check that out here: Pepwave Router Comparison Video

If you want to dig deeper into the different models of Pepwave Routers, then we made videos that detail out the specifics of each of the Pepwave cellular router models. You can check them out here and I have included their prices as well:

Max BR1 MK2 Cat 6 Single Model Router ($599.00)

Max Transit Cat 18 Single Modem Router ($749.00)

Max Transit Duo Cat 6 or Cat 12 Dual Modem Router ($799.00 and $999.00)

In addition, we have recommended external antennas with each of the units that we offer. The external antennas are optional, and the unit will work fine without them, but having an external antenna will always improve performance. Even if you don’t plan to install the antenna on day 1, it may be a good idea to go ahead and get the proper antenna and then you can install it, or have it installed when you have the time to do so.

One comment about pricing, due to manufacturer guidelines, we are not able to publish the prices for the 3 Pepwave Max Transit routers on our website. We of course have given you the pricing in this article. In order to purchase one of the Max Transit products you will simply click on the link in each of the product descriptions for more pricing info and it will verify that you are a customer of TechnoRV, and then you can purchase from that link. The Max BR1 MK2 can both be ordered from the Pepwave category page of our website.

I know this is a lot of information, but we always like to make sure we do our part to ensure that you are fully educated before you make your purchasing decision with us. We have also created a very comprehensive FAQ for the Pepwave routers and if you have a question, it is likely answered here: Pepwave Cellular Router FAQs.

You can also answer a few questions we have put together that may help you choose which Pepwave routers are best for you.