AT&T vs. Verizon

[Obscurelight]

Would anyone be able to tell me which network iPad will work best overseas?

As far as I'm aware, the iPhone 5 with Verizon will work with LTE in Europe as well as Asia while the AT&T flavour will work with LTE in the U.S./Canada. I will be traveling to Asia several times through the next year and would like to know whether the AT&T or Verizon iPad will work better with foreign networks especially when it comes to LTE or it would not make much of a difference.

 

[TXGRunner]

In Thailand, they sold A1430 AT&T version

I bought my iPad 3 in Thailand. I thought it was the Verizon version since that is supposedly more compatible. I just checked the model number on the back...it says A1430

That is a real surprise. Getting the tech specs for iPad 3 is more difficult now, but, in Asia, it was sold like this:
4G LTE (700, 2100 MHz)3; UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

So, if most countries LTE networks (and planned networks) are lined up on the bands/freqs used by Verizon, why did they sell this version in Asia?!?!?

According to the iPad4 specs, it is model 1460 (Verizon model) which works most places (http://www.apple.com/ipad/LTE/) like Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc.

To add to the confusion, many of the discussions about compatibility mention you can use a Verizon iPad 3 on AT&T's 3G network, but not the other way around. Well, I used mine on TrueMove (Thailand) without any issues, and my son's was working on AIS, same model.

Since I don't know the details of LTE, maybe there is something else beyond freq and LTE band which determines compatibility. I don't know if a Verizon iPad3 will actually work on same band/freq networks in Korea, Japan, etc. I'll try in December and see what happens.

 

[TXGRunner]

Wow...did Apple really screw people in Asia?

I found this thread on a forum about 4G in Singapore.

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/i...telco-compatibility-3rd-gen-ipad-3638972.html

Looking at the specs for iPad4, it appears 4G in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Australia used the same bands/freqs as Singapore, which are the same as Verizon.

So, why did Apple ONLY sell the AT&T model of iPad3 in Asia? Worse, they advertised it as "4G LTE" when they knew the Asian 4G networks would be different frequencies.

That was really stupid!!