All iPads iPad and cellular service

Is your iphone on AT&T or verizon?

I'm on Verizon. I activate it on iPad when I need then deactivate when I don't. I think it's similar with AT&T.

I'm pretty sure you can buy an AT&T ipad 4 and it'll work on tmobiles network. Then just use one of their SIM cards

----------

Or just wait for the ipad 5. It'll def be on tmobile

I use the Verizon 1 GB pre-paid monthly data plan on my iPad 2. It indeed can be activated and deactivated on a month-by-month basis as needed for travel, etc. I find it to be very useful, convenient, and a good value. I will use this plan again on my iPad 5 assuming it is still available.

I believe that there is a maximum number of months it can be left deactivated before Verizon purges it from their system and you may need a new SIM card after that. Can't recall the length of this period, but seems like it is perhaps 6 or 9 months. My usage is more frequent than that, so it hasn't been an issue.

There are zero activation and deactivation fees. There are no taxes or fees on the service itself. When you activate it, a charge of $20.00 will show up on your credit card bill.

Truefan31 said:

I'm pretty sure you can buy an AT&T ipad 4 and it'll work on tmobiles network. Then just use one of their SIM cards

----------

Or just wait for the ipad 5. It'll def be on tmobile

Click to expand...

I use my iPad Mini on T-Mobile all the time. I get LTE where I live actually on the Mini.

----------

colodane said:

I use the Verizon 1 GB pre-paid monthly data plan on my iPad 2. It indeed can be activated and deactivated on a month-by-month basis as needed for travel, etc. I find it to be very useful, convenient, and a good value. I will use this plan again on my iPad 5 assuming it is still available.

I believe that there is a maximum number of months it can be left deactivated before Verizon purges it from their system and you may need a new SIM card after that. Can't recall the length of this period, but seems like it is perhaps 6 or 9 months. My usage is more frequent than that, so it hasn't been an issue.

There are zero activation and deactivation fees. There are no taxes or fees on the service itself. When you activate it, a charge of $20.00 will show up on your credit card bill.

Click to expand...

There are complaints on the forums that Verizon sims are being deactivated after just two to three months.

AT&T will deactivate a sim after three.

T-Mobile gives one year.

I have AT&T for phone and iPad, I just added my iPad as post paid on my plan, its $10 extra a month and I can use it as much or little as I want. I share 4 gigs with 2 iPhones and my iPad. they will charge $36 for activation, however if you call and complain they will usually credit that.

mlody said:

Do you have to pay any additional fees like an activation fee when activating a service after each de-activation? What about things like expiring SIM card? I know both ATT and Verizon use SIM cards in ipad's - are there any re-activation issues if for example a cellular service is deactivated for an extended period of time? - lets say over 12 months?

Click to expand...

No there isn't any activation fee after each de-activation. I use pre-paid verizon data plan (though my iphone is on ATT). You can have it deactivated up to 5 month and if you don't activate it after 5 month, your sim will completely be useless. Just as long as you re-activate it before the 5 month is up you should be fine. If that ever happens, you may have to buy the sim card again from e-bay. I've heard stories where Verizon won't give you a sim card unless you have it post-paid?? (I could be wrong here?)

Normally what I do is once I activate the sim card, I pay, I then deactivate it because I don't want it to automatically charge my debit/credit card every month for renewal. Before the month is up, I decide whether I need to renew it or not.

Shadowbech said:

No there isn't any activation fee after each de-activation. I use pre-paid verizon data plan (though my iphone is on ATT). You can have it deactivated up to 5 month and if you don't activate it after 5 month, your sim will completely be useless. Just as long as you re-activate it before the 5 month is up you should be fine. If that ever happens, you may have to buy the sim card again from e-bay. I've heard stories where Verizon won't give you a sim card unless you have it post-paid?? (I could be wrong here?)

Normally what I do is once I activate the sim card, I pay, I then deactivate it because I don't want it to automatically charge my debit/credit card every month for renewal. Before the month is up, I decide whether I need to renew it or not.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't count on the 5 month deactivation period with Verizon. Search this forum about Verizon deactivating them after 2-3 months.

I have a cellular iPad 2 but I've never actually inserted a sim card into it. Whenever there's no wifi and I need to use the internet on my iPad, I just turn on Personal Hotspot on my iPhone and voila, I'm using my iPhone's cellular data on my iPad. No need to open up 2 different accounts.

mlody said:

Thank you all for the contribution in this thread. I feared it wouldn't be easy and this just confirms it.

In the meantime, I reached out to few ATT and Verizon stores and this is really a sad state of pre-paid system. Basically, because each SIM card in tablet has its phone number associated, the companies like ATT or Verizon want to put those numbers out into the "available pool" as soon as they can - Verizon will do it immediately, while ATT will keep the number up to 3 months.

As far as the T-Mobile goes, their rural coverage has more holes then a Swiss cheese, so getting a T-Mobile tablet/hotspot goes beyond the point at this time.

I think at this point, I am going to forget the whole cellular iPad just to save myself frustration.

Click to expand...

T-Mobile can be very good on NON iPads at the moment. I have a Nexus 7 that is designed for use on T-Mobiles frequencies and have been running it on T-Mobile for the past five months. Service is always fast and reliable, as good as AT&T is on my iPad in about 80% of the area that I live in.

T-Mobile on my iPad is very spotty but at least at my house, I get LTE, something I don't get on AT&T. The iPad doesn't have all the frequencies to fall back on when LTE is not available so my iPad spent a lot of time on edge when I spent a night driving during my job.

I fully expect in all iPad sometime in the next year, they will be fully capable of running perfectly on T=mobile.

Just to add, When the New Nexus 7 model comes out soon that has cellular capabilities, it will have a chip in it that can run on Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and every other carrier out there. The Nexus 7 maker is doing things with their devices that Apple strongly needs to be doing very soon.