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Carrier AT&T ipad mini fight with Tmobile

A

Alerx7

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 11, 2013
4
0
I bought a sim from a t-mo store and activated the 30 dollars monthly no contract and had to hustle for it cause tmo didn't want to do it cause supposedly I have to purchase the sim kit ($30 month no contract) from Walmart, but anyways they gave me the plan on the sim.

Put it in the ipad mini (AT&T) and :D boom full bars and LTE even showed up on the top(in midtown NYC) I inputed the apn settings fast.t-mobile.com exited settings held the power and home button, ipad turned back on opened up safari typed in apple.com and it worked flawlessly ! Buuuuut 30 minutes or so later of browsing data stopped working and I was extremely pissed off after bragging about an mini on tmo to all my friends. Long story short..... Called tmobile and a rep from wherever the call centers are from these days told me she didn't have the settings for my apple device that I should call apple and tell them to help me with the device setting to make it work (huh?) I found that hilarious I hung up and I'll call back tomorrow during the daytime hours and see if I can get it back up and running.

I had my share of trouble with tmobile in the past and got my way most of the time. I think there has to be a way for it to work on this 30$ a month prepaid unlimited text and web and 100 mins plan since it'll work on a "mobile broadband" plan from tmobile

Sorry for the long post just my 2 cents if anyone has had luck in NYC or any other city using an ipad mini with tmobile on the prepaid unlimited web text and 100 minutes please give this community your input. There should be a sub forum for the ipad mini too if someone can do that it would be cool.
 
bursthead

bursthead

macrumors 6502
Apr 9, 2010
282
3
Your problem is getting t-mobile. Your resolution is get ATT.

T-mobile if you search this forum and many reviewers have given horrible reviews of tmobile service. There are a few exceptions for certain people that live areas that take advantage of tmobiles faster lte network. But those people are few and far between.
 
C

cfs

macrumors 6502a
Feb 8, 2008
626
16
bursthead said:
Your problem is getting t-mobile. Your resolution is get ATT.

T-mobile if you search this forum and many reviewers have given horrible reviews of tmobile service. There are a few exceptions for certain people that live areas that take advantage of tmobiles faster lte network. But those people are few and far between.
Click to expand...

Agree on this point. Tmobile is pretty bad with customer service. They actually irritate me just as much as Verizon did when I wanted a SIM card for my iPad. While agree that tmobile has some great deals for those who live in their service area, if you want 5gb 100 minute plan the reps in the store just give you hell or act dumb. In my experience, I was pretty much on my own trying to get this plan with my Nexus 4. I went to two different stores and they all gave me the runaround. I finally i just did the research and figured it all out. So bizarre though that nobody would help because it is a product that the company actually sells.
 
bursthead

bursthead

macrumors 6502
Apr 9, 2010
282
3
cfs said:
Agree on this point. Tmobile is pretty bad with customer service. They actually irritate me just as much as Verizon did when I wanted a SIM card for my iPad. While agree that tmobile has some great deals for those who live in their service area, if you want 5gb 100 minute plan the reps in the store just give you hell or act dumb. In my experience, I was pretty much on my own trying to get this plan with my Nexus 4. I went to two different stores and they all gave me the runaround. I finally i just did the research and figured it all out. So bizarre though that nobody would help because it is a product that the company actually sells.
Click to expand...

The 5gb 100 minute plan is online only. I had the same issue with the store, they cannot help you with it at all. If you want the plan, purchase a sim kit on ebay and do the activation online.
 
C

CEmajr

macrumors 601
Dec 18, 2012
4,451
1,241
Charlotte, NC
Your problem isn't T-Mobile or their coverage.

The problem is that you're trying to use a phone plan with your iPad. They offer Mobile Broadband plans that work fine with an iPad Mini. You need to get one of those plans for it to work properly. You could go to AT&T or Verizon and it still wouldn't work properly if you try to put a sim with a phone plan into an iPad mini.
 
J

JackieInCo

Suspended
Jul 18, 2013
5,178
1,601
Colorado
CEmajr said:
Your problem isn't T-Mobile or their coverage.

The problem is that you're trying to use a phone plan with your iPad. They offer Mobile Broadband plans that work fine with an iPad Mini. You need to get one of those plans for it to work properly. You could go to AT&T or Verizon and it still wouldn't work properly if you try to put a sim with a phone plan into an iPad mini.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is the problem. I have been using the $35, 3.5GB plan on T-Mobile with my Mini now for two months. LTE works great and has never failed me.

Stop using a phone plan and activate the Mini on a data plan intended to be used on tablets, Mini included.
 
bursthead

bursthead

macrumors 6502
Apr 9, 2010
282
3
CEmajr said:
Your problem isn't T-Mobile or their coverage.

The problem is that you're trying to use a phone plan with your iPad. They offer Mobile Broadband plans that work fine with an iPad Mini. You need to get one of those plans for it to work properly. You could go to AT&T or Verizon and it still wouldn't work properly if you try to put a sim with a phone plan into an iPad mini.
Click to expand...

He can use t-mobile he needs to make sure his ipad is correctly configured. unlockit.co.nz
 
C

CEmajr

macrumors 601
Dec 18, 2012
4,451
1,241
Charlotte, NC
bursthead said:
He can use t-mobile he needs to make sure his ipad is correctly configured. unlockit.co.nz
Click to expand...

He can use it but not with a cell phone plan like he was trying to it's not going to work. He needs to get a Tmobile mobile broadband plan just like he would have to on all the other carriers.
 
J

JackieInCo

Suspended
Jul 18, 2013
5,178
1,601
Colorado
charlituna said:
iPads are sold unlocked. No need for this nonsense
Click to expand...

They are unlocked but in order to use my iPad Mini with my T-Mobile $35 data plan, I had to enter the correct APN. I did not go to unlockit to do this, I simply searched for the iPhone 5 APN. Using a T-Mobile sim with a phone plan no longer works on an iPad just at they don't work on a Nexus 7 tablet.

I do get T-Mobile LTE where I live on my Mini.
 
bursthead

bursthead

macrumors 6502
Apr 9, 2010
282
3
charlituna said:
iPads are sold unlocked. No need for this nonsense
Click to expand...

You really don't know what your talking about. Unlockit.co.nz allows you to change the apn(carrier settings) for tmobile. It's not an unlocking website:D.

For example if you have the verizon ipad you can use unlockit.co.nz to change the apn to ATT run on their network.

----------
CEmajr said:
He can use it but not with a cell phone plan like he was trying to it's not going to work. He needs to get a Tmobile mobile broadband plan just like he would have to on all the other carriers.
Click to expand...

You are correct:

T-Mobile blocks SIMs activated on phone plans from working in T-Mobile branded hotspots, USB modems and tablets (maybe they have finally figured out to block iPads using their phone plan SIMs too). Using T-Mobile service, a mobile broadband plan is required for T-mobile devices. T-Mobile MVNO SIMs don't seem to have the same restriction. For example, when I just want to use a small amount of data, I get my T-mobile 4G hotspot with Ptel Pay-Go SIM (10c/mb). I get 8 mbs down and 2.4 mbps up at my house, and can find a fast connection many more places than I can with the iPad Tmobile SIM, which uses the 1900 MHz channel for 3G in re-farmed areas. I will order a Lycamobile SIM to try in the hotspot (6c/mb). Am not sure it will work, since unlike Ptel, these SIMs roam on Tmobile and require an unlocked device.
Click to expand...
 
shenan1982

shenan1982

macrumors 68040
Nov 23, 2011
3,641
80
Not sure why I wouldn't be allowed to use my phone's sim in my iPad, it's my data, I pay for it. Did I really just say that? hehe.

Anyhow, how would t-mobile even know it's an iPad? It gets connected to the LTE on my iPad mini just like it does in a phone, so I don't get why it wouldn't work?

Any workarounds to do this?
 
R

revmike

macrumors newbie
Dec 15, 2014
1
0
Old thread, but needs a better explanation

The mobile providers usually don't sell you "a block of data", they sell you a block of data for use with a particular class of devices. They know that the usage patterns for a smart phone are different than the usage patterns for a tablet, which are different than the usage patterns for a laptop. For instance, you are more likely to watch a Netflix video on a tablet than a phone. When you tether to a laptop, you are more likely to run a VPN tunnel. These usage patterns put different loads on the network, and so the mobile providers budget and bill for them differently. (Whether they *should* do this is another argument, but the fact is they do.)

When you purchase a smartphone plan, you are buying data for use with a smart phone. If you put the sim into a tablet or MiFi type device, the carrier can detect that and disable your data access. If you tether when you aren't supposed to, they can detect that as well.

As you observed, they don't always do it immediately, but they will likely catch it and disable your access in a few hours or so. If you want to test whether a device works on a network, you should be fine. If you want to plug your sim into a new device, then contact the provider and change the plan, that should be fine. But your mobile provider will not let you use smartphone plan on a non-smartphone device indefinitely.
 
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