Camping and Broadband – Synergy Made Possible with mmWave

Two campgrounds in Northwestern Ohio has been a popular destination for families for years. Many reserve a campsite for the entire season, while others may rent for a weekend or more. But what they all have in common is the desire to stay connected and for that they need a broadband connection. “Getting away from it all” is not a message kids have ever heard or appreciate and parents are not far behind. After receiving numerous calls from campground renters to solve this issue, the owner of one such campground decided this was a problem that needed to be resolved.

The challenge of course is how to deliver these services to what can be thought of as rural beyond rural. The initial thought was to run a fiber connection to each trailer/camp site. This was quickly deemed untenable just from a cost perspective. No one runs fiber inside a campground, there are no DSLAMs nearby to tap into. Using a cellular plan over a weekend, a week or more will almost certainly put you on the throttling list of most mobile providers. Let alone consider the limited speeds of a few Mbps from a typical mobile network.