Nomad connectivity 12 min read

Internet in a van or motorhome: 4G/5G or Starlink?

By Azimut AI · September 21, 2026 · Updated October 14, 2026 · Our editorial policy

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.

75–100 W

Starlink Standard on average; Mini: 20–40 W, 15 W idle

3.5–13 W

4G/5G router, idle to full load (Teltonika measurements)

6 W

no-load draw of a switched-on 12 V 800 VA inverter (Victron)

3 d/month

threshold below which cellular wins

Why connectivity moved into the electrical budget

Starlink publishes its dishes' consumption in its support pages: 75 to 100 W on average for the Standard, 110 to 150 W for the Flat High Performance, 20 to 40 W for the Mini, which drops to 15 W idle. Ten hours a day, that is 0.75 to 1 kWh daily for the Standard and 0.2 to 0.4 kWh for the Mini — the order of magnitude of a 12 V compressor fridge. In a van, it is a second fridge added without ever being planned for: before buying, add the dish to your power budget.

The power path matters too. Feeding a terminal at 230 V means going through an inverter, which loses part of the energy in conversion and draws power even with no load: Victron gives 6 W at no load for its Phoenix 12/800, i.e. 144 Wh a day if it stays on, about 70 % less in search mode. 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 — a few watts, 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 — roughly 3.5 to 13 W depending on the model and the load: Teltonika measures 3.5 to 4 W idle for its RUTX11 (4G) and up to 13 W at full load for its RUTX50 (5G). 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) — 75 to 100 W on average for the Standard dish, 20 to 40 W for the Mini, 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 in-motion use is only allowed with the hardware and plan intended for it: check before buying.

On the subscription side, the EU “roam like at home” rule applies across the EU and the EEA: calls, texts and data are billed at domestic rates. But “unlimited” is not unlimited abroad: your operator may apply a fair-use cap, commonly a few tens of gigabytes a month, as soon as you leave your home 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

Starlink gives 75–100 W on average for the Standard dish and 20–40 W for the Mini (15 W idle): over ten hours, 0.75–1 kWh or 0.2–0.4 kWh a day, the order of magnitude of a 12 V compressor fridge.
A 4G/5G router fits in 3.5–13 W depending on the model and the load; a phone hotspot costs only a few watts 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, the “roam like at home” rule bills roaming at domestic rates, but operators may cap “unlimited” data abroad under a fair-use policy — 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.

Sources

Facts checked on October 14, 2026