Nomad connectivity 12 min read September 21, 2026

Nomad internet: 4G, 5G or satellite?

The reflex is to go looking for coverage. In Europe it is largely there: cellular covers the great majority of roads and coastlines. The real trade-off has changed column — it now sits in the electrical budget. An active satellite terminal draws the same order of magnitude as a compressor fridge. That is the number nobody budgets for.

40–75 W

full-size satellite terminal active; ~20 W idle

5–12 W

4G/5G router with external antenna

10–15 %

lost by going through a 230 V inverter

3 d/month

threshold below which cellular wins

Why connectivity moved into the electrical budget

A low-orbit satellite terminal draws on the order of 40 to 75 W in operation and around twenty watts idle; the compact model comes down to 20-40 W. Ten hours a day, that is 0.4 to 0.75 kWh daily — precisely the order of magnitude of a 12 V compressor fridge. In a van, it is a second fridge added without ever being planned for.

The power path matters too. Feeding a terminal at 230 V through an inverter costs 10 to 15 % more than the same load taken natively in 12 V, the permanently switched-on inverter included. And it is idle draw, not peaks, that empties the bank: a terminal left powered all day consumes more than a focused work session. Connectivity is therefore sized like refrigeration — in kWh per day, not in megabits.

Three ways to get online, and what each really costs

• Phone hotspot — 2 to 5 W, nothing to install, no extra subscription. The flaw is not the draw: it is that the phone heats up, flattens and becomes unavailable, while it is also the navigation and the way to call for help. A stopgap rather than a working setup.
• 4G/5G router with an external MIMO antenna — 5 to 12 W depending on the model and the number of users. The best watts-per-megabit ratio in Europe. An external antenna beats an amplifier in most real cases: what drops the call is the uplink — the weak signal your hardware sends back to the mast — and an antenna mounted high, clear of the metal roof, works in both directions.
• Low-orbit satellite internet (Starlink today, its announced competitors tomorrow) — 40 to 75 W active, 20 to 40 W for the compact model, plus a monthly subscription on a different scale from a cellular plan. In exchange: broadband where no mast reaches. The dish needs sky — trees, cliffs and a marina's rigging all cost throughput — and using it in motion requires the flat high-performance hardware and the matching plan, not the fixed version laid on the roof.

On the subscription side, roaming is included in most French plans within the EU and the EEA. But “unlimited” is not unlimited abroad: a fair-use cap, commonly a few tens of gigabytes a month, applies as soon as you leave the country. What ends the month is not coverage — it is the cap. Check it before you draw the route, not after.

The decision rule, and the case where satellite is the wrong answer

Under 3 days a month out of coverage — cellular wins

Count the days in the month when you will genuinely be out of cellular coverage AND need broadband. Below three, a router and an external antenna win on every axis: watts, weight, bulk, monthly cost. Satellite here is hardware paid for and carried in order to stay switched off.

3 to 10 days a month — the mix, with the satellite plan paused between seasons

Cellular as primary, satellite as backup, switched on for the task and off afterwards. The subscription can be suspended out of season: it is the recurring cost, not the hardware, that weighs on the year.

Offshore, dead zones, work that cannot drop — satellite earns its watts

Offshore, in interiors with no mast (the Scandinavian north, the Iberian interior, the bottom of Alpine valleys) and for calls that cannot cut out, there is no alternative. From there on, budget it like a fridge: fed on DC without an inverter where the model allows it, with its reserved share of the battery bank and of the solar.

Key takeaways

An active satellite terminal draws 40–75 W (20–40 W for the compact model) and ~20 W idle: 0.4–0.75 kWh a day over ten hours, the order of magnitude of a 12 V compressor fridge.
A 4G/5G router with an external MIMO antenna fits in 5–12 W; a phone hotspot costs 2–5 W but flattens the phone, which is also the navigation and the emergency device.
An external antenna beats an amplifier in most cases: it is the uplink, not the download, that drops the call.
In EU roaming it is the fair-use cap — a few tens of gigabytes — and not coverage, that ends the month.
Rule: under about three days a month out of coverage while needing broadband, cellular wins on every axis, weight included.

FAQ

Does a satellite messenger replace satellite internet?

No — they solve two different problems. A two-way satellite messenger handles SOS, short texts and weather bulletins: it weighs grams and sips milliwatt-hours, so its endurance runs to weeks depending on the tracking interval. Satellite internet is broadband and tens of watts. Many crews carry both: the messenger for safety, cellular for work, and satellite internet only if the itinerary justifies it.

External antenna or amplifier?

The external antenna wins in most real cases. What drops a call is the uplink, not the download: an amplifier boosts noise along with signal and is tightly regulated, while a properly mounted MIMO antenna improves both directions. Where there is genuinely no signal, neither helps — the only options left are to move or to switch to satellite.

Is a European plan enough to work from abroad?

Within the EU and the EEA, roaming is included in most French plans, but “unlimited” data is capped abroad by fair use — commonly a few tens of gigabytes a month. It is that cap, not coverage, that ends the month for anyone running video calls or uploading files. Check the fair-use volume before the itinerary, not after.