Iphone vs separate hotspot box

Either will do the job under most circumstances. Some Jetpacks (cell modems) will get better reception, One plus for the separate modem - if you only have one phone and use it for the internet, when it is away from the RV, who ever is still there has no internet service.

service aka signal access has more to do with the carrier you have , not whether it is your iPhone or a Wi-Fi hotspot

If you get a hotspot, get one from a different carrier than your phone

That way one of them might have a useable signal

Most of us have at least 2 devices with different mobile phone carriers

I have AT&T for my hotspot, and Verizon for my phone

We each have phone hotspot, one T-Mobile, one Verizon. Very seldom do we have no signal on either one. Occasionally, we might have one not, and one works. Last trip out cross-country, we only missed a signal when camping in very outlying areas, and then we both had no signal.

I think phone hotspot and separate WIFI unit will get same signal if from same company. Before smart phones, we had separate unit, then one phone and one WIFI unit, and we saw almost no different between the two.

I have both an Android phone and a hotspot. One on each of TWO different cell services.. Sometimes one of them is FAST (Phone is currently over 100Mbps) sometimes slow... The phone also does Wi-Fi Pass through
The Box tested this AM at about 25Mbps. (There are other differences as well like the box is a TRULY unlimited plan).

But which one I use depends on relative speed 25 is fast enough so I use the 100% Unlimited box.. but in another place the box is down to 1-2 Mbps and the phone is around 80 So guess what I use.

That is how I would recommend. Have both but use whichever works best.

NOTE: in one place the phone was 0.. I mean NO SIGNAL and the box broke 100Mbps

THe box is 50/month via FMCA Tech Connect in my case Truly Unlimited SPRINT
The phone.. is T-Mobile.. and the funny thing is they just merged.

We have both AT&T and Verizon hotspots, along with Tracfone/Verizon phones with hotspot capability. The big advantage for us with our hotspots is that we can connect them to our roof mounted MIMO antennas for increased signal strength. One MIMO pair is omni-directional, while the other pair is directional using our crank up OTA batwing antenna. We've found that the directional MIMO pair often gives us a better signal than we can get with our cell amplifier/repeater. As said, one hotspot often works better than the other in various locations.

MrWizard wrote:
service aka signal access has more to do with the carrier you have , not whether it is your iPhone or a Wi-Fi hotspot

If you get a hotspot, get one from a different carrier than your phone

That way one of them might have a useable signal

Most of us have at least 2 devices with different mobile phone carriers

I have AT&T for my hotspot, and Verizon for my phone

This is exactly how we do it, and it works very well.

MrWizard wrote:
If you get a hotspot, (cellular modem) get one from a different carrier than your phone

That way one of them might have a useable signal.

Great advice !

I might also add, buy a cell phone that can make calls over the internet not just to a cell tower.

IMHO, if you are going to invest in a "hotspot"/cellular modem, get one that mount on the roof. That extra 5'-6' of height might be all that is required to make a connection.