UK iPad 4 and iPad mini buyers: What's the cheapest way to get data?

Personal hotspot on your phone. Wifi on your iPad. Works like a charm.

Get a tmobile pay as you go iphone sim.
£10 for 12 months data 500mb.

Activate the sim in an iphone then put in an ipad, done this twice without any problems.

3 PAYG 3gig sim. Currently retails for about £20 for 3gigs of data that you can use for 3 months. Just replace when you need to. You can get them on amazon for about £12 - less than £5 per gig, can't be beat!

Yixian said:

Obviously 500mb isn't enough for 12 months so when it comes to buying more data, how much do you pay? Another 10 quid? Because then Three is cheaper.
Replace? Do you have to buy a new SIM every time you need more data?

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You get 500mb a month for 12 months for a one off £10, i've also experienced that this limit isnt enforced, its not a hard 500mb cap. there may be some limits like downloading or youtube streaming, but email and browsing still works after 500mb.

If you use about 1GB a month then 3UK 3GB sims might be the best bet. But for people who use about 500mb a month then the T-Mobile deal is totally brilliant as it's less than £1 a month!

Pat too said:

If you use about 1GB a month then 3UK 3GB sims might be the best bet. But for people who use about 500mb a month then the T-Mobile deal is totally brilliant as it's less than £1 a month!

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Totally agree - the 500MB limit does not apply to browsing or email, just streamed data. So after you have used up 500MB with YouTube etc you can carry on browsing at no additional cost.

I understand that if you don't make at least one phone call or send one text every six months then the SIM might expire. For me this works very well, being mostly connected to wifi (home/work) and just needing occasional data whilst out and about.

crazytrain said:

3 PAYG 3gig sim. Currently retails for about £20 for 3gigs of data that you can use for 3 months. Just replace when you need to. You can get them on amazon for about £12 - less than £5 per gig, can't be beat!

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This is my choice, although you can't get nano-sims on this deal yet can you? You could cut them down I suppose, but it's a bit of a faff.

The T-Mobile £10 one off 500mb for 12 months is pretty good too, assuming you don't need lots of data. Used that in the past.

Giffgaff (O2) do a £10pm no contract unlimited data deal.

http://giffgaff.com/goodybags

We're going to have to wait on the iPad Mini sims as they're 'nano' .. not sure which of the networks are going to offer the data only nanos. I'm with Samba mobile for my iPad which works great but need to get them to make a nano sim asap! (Samba mobile use the 3 network .. you get free data for watching ads)

Ordered one of these, I'm reliably informed they work fine on full sized sims;

http://www.expansys.com/xbase-nanosim-card-cutter-includes-adaptor-236982/

The T-mobile deal is actually an 'iPhone 4 sim' If you order it online you need to activate it by Text. But a few people have had problems and needed to call customer services or use Twitter to sort it out. You used to be able to get the sim and activation in T-Mobile store but they may have stopped doing it now.

There's a big thread on AVForums, read the last dozen or so pages.
http://www.avforums.com/forums/ipad/1261409-20-6-months-internet-unlimited-t-mobile-32.html

Unless this can save you a lot of money over getting a dedicated SIM then I don't think it'd be worth it for the impracticality of having to always have your phone on, tethering (battery draining) and next to you?

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If your out mobile and away from Wifi, which I'm assuming you will be in order to require a 3G signal, why would having to take a phone with you bother you? Surely you would just have it with you anyway?

And the saving would be £100 off the cost of the iPad, and around £10 a month for a SIM deal. So £220 at least, per year. Thats almost the cost of the base Wifi model. Substantial enough for me to chuck a charger on my bag to cover any battery issues.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Original-Br...3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1351031169&sr=1-3

3GB of data which last three months

I usually just buy a few of them and go through them as and when I need. I haven't run out of data yet as my usage is light and usually set a reminder on my phone a couple days before it runs out so I can swap it over. Just in case I take it out and the sim doesn't work any more!

Also find three data rates to be very good, a lot quicker than my O2 used to be and quicker than my current Vodafone

Yixian said:

Thanks for the link, I find this very confusing though.. so you pay 10 quid for "the iPhone microSIM - Pop it in your iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S and you'll also get 12 months' free internet", does that mean 500mb for 12 months? And then you top up with 5 quid each time you need another 500mb?

Where did the "less than a quid a month" bit come in, or is that roughly what it equates to?

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Buy an iPhone micro sim and top up with £10
http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/sim-only/

if purchased in the store get them to activate it for Free Internet.
Then that's it, you now get 500mb every month for one whole year. You need to make at least one chargeable call in 6 months to keep the sim active.

If you order it through website then you need to Text and perhaps get it sorted via customer services.

Less than £1 a month as it is £10 for sim divided by 12 months

Pat too said:

Buy an iPhone micro sim and top up with £10
http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/sim-only/

if purchased in the store get them to activate it for Free Internet.
Then that's it, you now get 500mb every month for one whole year. You need to make at least one chargeable call in 6 months to keep the sim active.

If you order it through website then you need to Text and perhaps get it sorted via customer services.

Less than £1 a month as it is £10 for sim divided by 12 months

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Does this come in a nano sim format? And how do you make a chargeable call from an iPad? Assuming those two aren't issues, and you definitely don't need more than 500GB, this looks good.

Otherwise,so far it seems to be Giffgaff and Three leading on the iPad-only tariffs:
Giffgaff do no contract £5 for 500GB a month, £7.50 for 1GB a month, or £12.50 for 3GB. Three then offer £15 for 10GB a month.

So just depends how much data you want.

Pinksteady said:

Does this come in a nano sim format? And how do you make a chargeable call from an iPad? Assuming those two aren't issues, and you definitely don't need more than 500GB, this looks good.

Otherwise,so far it seems to be Giffgaff and Three leading on the iPad-only tariffs:
Giffgaff do no contract £5 for 500GB a month, £7.50 for 1GB a month, or £12.50 for 3GB. Three then offer £15 for 10GB a month.

So just depends how much data you want.

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The T-Mobile deal is actually better than £1 a month because they don't take your £10, you still have that left so it is actually free Internet for 12 months. After 12 months you can throw the SIM away and buy another, or as I did, top up to £20 and 'buy' 6 months more Internet.

You get 500MB data per month for streaming (youtube etc) and unlimited browsing/email.

Alternatively, if you don't want the hassle of potentially having to contact T-Mobile support (and they don't make it easy) you can buy a pre-activated card for just under £20 (and you will still have £10 credit on this).

You are advised to put the SIM in a phone every six months and make a call/text to keep it active. Worked for me. They currently are only available for the iPhone 4/4S so you will need to get yourself a SIM cutter (or decent knife) and chop down.