Cyber family tests new satellite Internet system
(Highway 50, Nevada. The Loneliest Road in America) — The Bell family rolled out of the MotoSAT factory in Salt Lake City in mid-August to test the F3 satellite dish that its manufacturer claims will revolutionize mobile communications throughout North America. The F3 is a mobile two way satellite dish that can deliver Internet, TV and even voice to most locations in North and Central America. The 1.2 meter dish is installed on top of the Bell's 28-foot motorhome and will provide vital communications for the cyber-hungry family of four.
"The dish will be the central hub for our lifestyle," explains Dorothy Bell. "We need it for work, school and recreation." Bill and Dorothy Bell are co-founders and webmasters of the largest internet site on the web devoted to RV camping in Mexico. Their two children, Adam 15 and daughter Dylan 13, require constant Internet access for school and chatting with friends.
"The dish enables us to live our dream," says Dorothy. "We are now free from sporadic cell phone connections, infrequent Internet cafes and impossibly slow phone lines. We can truly be the nomadic cyber family that communicates with our world from wherever we want."
MotoSAT says that it sells more than 200 of the smaller .75 meter dishes every week to RV'ers and others who require true two-way satellite communications.
The new F3 dish is substantially larger and will receive and send signal from fringe areas otherwise not reachable by the former technology. "The Bell's should be able to communicate from Alaska to the Equator," says Royal Lamb, MotoSAT VP. "We are confident that this dish will provide professional and reliable communications to even the most remote areas on the continent at a reasonable cost."
In addition to hardware and installation costs, consumers are required to subscribe to internet service which currently starts at $99 per month for unlimited always on signal. "We can easily justify the costs as it makes our professional and school life feasible. We can semi-retire and tinker with projects and photos," says Dorothy.
Bill and Dorothy are both former journalists and municipal politicians that have slipped readily into an early working retirement while pursuing travel and photographic adventures that they love. "We have always wanted to travel and work on the road but the technology wasn't reliable enough to do this professionally. With this dish we can send reports back to our web from the most remote Caribbean Beach or beside a jungle pyramid in Palenque," explains Bill, the photographer of the family. "I can immediately upload numerous pictures and video footage to our web and have them available within minutes."
The Bell's website, www.ontheroadin.com, is a cyber travel guide to Mexico for RV'ers and includes interactive maps and camping directory listing each of the 400 campgrounds — each with pictures and write-ups.
A major consideration for these now full-time travelers has been education for their two children. The Bells have enrolled the kids in Internet school — Distance Education — offered through their local school district in North Vancouver, Canada, that is heavily reliant on the Internet to communicate with teachers and with fellow students throughout the world. While both Bell teenagers regreat that they will miss the daily interaction with friends, they understand that the new satellite dish will provide a means to communicate with classmates and friends.
"Dylan and I want to talk to our friends from beaches on the Pacific and show them some of our boogie boarding or surfing pictures. Too cool," say Adam. "We can send them a new age post card complete with video of palm trees, marketplaces or discos. We can talk to them daily instead of waiting until we reach an Internet café."
The Bells will be testing this new 1.2 meter dish from Mexico and Central America this winter and spring and will return to America and Canada later in 2004. They are currently in Nevada and welcome comments, emails and visitors to their web.
RETURN TO RV TRAVELER NEWSLETTER INDEX
