Sitting here in the middle of my field (sorry, that one never gets old), I am enjoying a fast internet connection with sufficient bandwidth that I can watch the new Audi commercial starring dueling Spocks without worrying about overages (Goooooo Bilbooooo!). I can’t help but marvel about how quickly things have changed.

It was about this time five years ago that I really began to research in earnest how I was going to live on the road, and one of the biggest components was getting online. I was chagrined to finally admit defeat. The only way I could get coverage just about anywhere was with a satellite dish, and that was several thousands of dollars to invest just getting set up, never mind the billing costs.

But within only about a year and a half, Bell and Telus joined to update cellular service across Canada. Suddenly, there was service just about everywhere. Mobile bandwidth devices were pricey and the plans outrageously high, but the investment was now only a few hundred dollars. Less than two years after conceding that I would never under the existing circumstances have a mobile internet connection, I got a free mobile internet modem in exchange for taking over a contract. It is not hyperbole to say that this changed my life. Suddenly, I could work freely from the road.

Something similar happened almost exactly two years later, friends gave me an internet modem for use in the U.S., which cost a pretty penny to set up but offered more bandwidth, and suddenly I had internet coverage in almost all of Canada and the U.S.

And just a year after that, I’m sitting in the middle of a field in rural Saskatchewan, a field that just a few months ago didn’t even have cell coverage, with a new Canadian mobile bandwidth device, which only cost me $50 (plus $180 for a booster, still cheap compared to a few years ago) and I am experiencing not only the fastest internet speeds of my life, but also the biggest and most affordable bandwidth allowance I’ve yet seen.

I really think that cellular connectivity is the future of the internet and I am excited to see how the technology will continue to evolve in the coming years. It is likely to get even faster and cheaper.