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Carrier Purchase T-Mobile iPad Air and Swap SIM with Verizon 3rd Gen iPad - Good Idea?

ASUgrad1999

ASUgrad1999

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 13, 2012
180
152
Gilbert, AZ
I have a Verizon iPad 3rd Gen that I have connected to my Verizon Family Share plan for $10/month (I own it outright, no contract). I would like to upgrade to the iPad Air and let my wife and kids use my old iPad.

Can I do the following:

1) Buy a new iPad Air at T-Mobile and sign up of the 1GB of LTE for $10/mo
2) Immediately go home and swap the SIM cards of this T-Mobile iPad with my Verizon 3rd Gen iPad?

This would allow me to get the T-Mobile discount on the iPad (which is about $130 off) and free financing and it would allow me to have the fast reliable Verizon network on the new iPad and no risk of data overages on the kids' iPad.

Would this be as easy as swapping SIM's as soon as I bring home the new device? Is there anything else I should know?

Thanks in advance!
 
ron7624

ron7624

macrumors 68020
Oct 14, 2011
2,228
437
Houston, Texas area
ASUgrad1999 said:
I have a Verizon iPad 3rd Gen that I have connected to my Verizon Family Share plan for $10/month (I own it outright, no contract). I would like to upgrade to the iPad Air and let my wife and kids use my old iPad.

Can I do the following:

1) Buy a new iPad Air at T-Mobile and sign up of the 1GB of LTE for $10/mo
2) Immediately go home and swap the SIM cards of this T-Mobile iPad with my Verizon 3rd Gen iPad?

This would allow me to get the T-Mobile discount on the iPad (which is about $130 off) and free financing and it would allow me to have the fast reliable Verizon network on the new iPad and no risk of data overages on the kids' iPad.

Would this be as easy as swapping SIM's as soon as I bring home the new device? Is there anything else I should know?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

No. you can't buy a device from t-Mobike and use a verizon SIM card in that decice. Only a device purchased from Verizon, or apple with verizon specified or a used verizon enabled device will work with a verizon sim.
Verizon is the only carrier that restriction. All other iPads are unlocked for any orher provider. There are a bunch of threads dedicated to this topic.
 
J

joplinG5

macrumors member
Jan 5, 2014
57
1
ron7624 said:
No. You can't buy a device from TMO and use a verizon SIM card in that device.
Click to expand...


Sure you can! Every iPad TMO sells is carrier unlocked. Every cellular iPad sold in the US regardless of carrier is carrier unlocked.

Just buy the cellular iPad from whichever carrier has the best price and use it on whatever carrier you want. Simple as that.

Buying a cellular iPad is not like buying a carrier locked phone. Totally different world.
 
Night Spring

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,614
7,793
joplinG5 said:
Sure you can! Every iPad TMO sells is carrier unlocked. Every cellular iPad sold in the US regardless of carrier is carrier unlocked.

Just buy the cellular iPad from whichever carrier has the best price and use it on whatever carrier you want. Simple as that.

Buying a cellular iPad is not like buying a carrier locked phone. Totally different world.
Click to expand...

It's not that the iPad is carrier locked. When a device is carrier locked, the original carrier has to release the device for use on other carriers. In this case, we have the opposite problem. T-Mobile has no objections if you take their iPad and use it on Verizon. But Verizon won't accept iPads they don't see as their own.
 
ron7624

ron7624

macrumors 68020
Oct 14, 2011
2,228
437
Houston, Texas area
joplinG5 said:
Sure you can! Every iPad TMO sells is carrier unlocked. Every cellular iPad sold in the US regardless of carrier is carrier unlocked.

Just buy the cellular iPad from whichever carrier has the best price and use it on whatever carrier you want. Simple as that.

Buying a cellular iPad is not like buying a carrier locked phone. Totally different world.
Click to expand...

Unless you can get verizon to add your iPad to the 'list' of authorized iPads, no you can't. Yes they are all unlocked, but verizon will not hook you up unless your iPad is registered with them. Call and see before you buy. Tell them what you plan to do and ask them if it is possible. I hope I'm wrong, but others have run into this problem. I've also heard where a new verizon customer rep was was asked to add the sn to their list, and that new rep did it. So, yes it is possible, but not the norm.
In any case, don't take the advice offered you at the MacRumors site as gospel. Find out from the horses mouth.
 
M

MrDaveed

macrumors member
Jul 8, 2014
32
0
The tmobile air does work with verizon right out of the box, guys...
 

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MrDaveed

macrumors member
Jul 8, 2014
32
0
T-Mobile iPad on Verizon

I'm curious why there is so much misinformation here about using T-Mobile iPads with Verizon and inter-carrier changes... How many of us have tried it before? Here's some proof to debunk the myth.
 

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Night Spring

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,614
7,793
MrDaveed said:
I'm curious why there is so much misinformation here about using T-Mobile iPads with Verizon and inter-carrier changes... How many of us have tried it before? Here's some proof to debunk the myth.
Click to expand...

That doesn't debunk the "myth." That just shows that the iPad can "see" the Verizon network. It doesn't show that Verizon will let you sign up for their data plan.
 
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Night Spring

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,614
7,793
MrDaveed said:
Yep. Just told them I had my verizon ipad at home and they did it for me
Click to expand...

As in they added the iPad's device ID to their database? Yes, that's what people have been saying all along. If you call up and you get lucky, you can get them to add your iPad to their database.
 
M

MrDaveed

macrumors member
Jul 8, 2014
32
0
Night Spring said:
As in they added the iPad's device ID to their database? Yes, that's what people have been saying all along. If you call up and you get lucky, you can get them to add your iPad to their database.
Click to expand...
If you look, the OP has an existing line on Verizon and asked about using that on a T-Mobile Air. He didn't ask about signing a new line up. It was just plug it in and it worked. No call to Verizon.
 
east85

east85

macrumors 65816
Jun 24, 2010
1,343
495
Even on the off chance that you could convince verizon to enable it and on the off chance that it is even possible it wouldn't be worth risking your cash for those infinitely small odds.
 
M

MrDaveed

macrumors member
Jul 8, 2014
32
0
east85 said:
Even on the off chance that you could convince verizon to enable it and on the off chance that it is even possible it wouldn't be worth risking your cash for those infinitely small odds.
Click to expand...

I just showed that it's possible. What are the small odds against?
 
Night Spring

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,614
7,793
MrDaveed said:
If you look, the OP has an existing line on Verizon and asked about using that on a T-Mobile Air. He didn't ask about signing a new line up. It was just plug it in and it worked. No call to Verizon.
Click to expand...

Oops, I missed that part, sorry. Still, as another poster pointed out, the iPad 3 and Air takes different size SIMs. So OP would have to either cut down the iPad 3 SIM, or talk Verizon into giving him an iPad Air sized SIM.
 
N

nixiemaiden

macrumors 6502a
Jun 21, 2010
877
0
Doesn't TMobile have a restriction where if you sign up for their data plan, the sim is only good in the device you signed up with? Maybe it is a misunderstanding on my part but I think I read something about this somewhere.
 
rui no onna

rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,420
12,432
nixiemaiden said:
Doesn't TMobile have a restriction where if you sign up for their data plan, the sim is only good in the device you signed up with? Maybe it is a misunderstanding on my part but I think I read something about this somewhere.
Click to expand...
That's true for their 200MB free plan (and it's quite understandable why they'd impose this restriction on that). No idea if they do the same for paid plans.
 
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