i just bought two iphones and went with a 4gb Share everything plan. I was/am now paying $20 a month each for my wife's and my IPAD for a 1GB data plan for each IPAD. My question is can I cancel my 1GB data plan on each IPAD and then add the two IPAD's to my 4GB Share everything plan that I have with my iphones to use the same pool of data and can I do this WITHOUT disabling the SIM card in the IPADs and forcing me to get new SIM cards to use with my Share everything plan? Whats the process to do that? My last question is once I get the two IPADS over to my Share everything plan would I then have to connect via personal hotspot thru my iphone(1st one) or can I connect directly using my IPADS 4g LTE?
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Can I cancel my IPAD monthly data plan and then add to share everything plan?
- Thread starter ace08
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Why not save even more money by canceling the data plans and just tethering them to your iPhones?
That's what I'm thinking. Wifi iPad is perfect with hotspot. Plus with AT&T, you get voice and data at the same time. Why would anyone going forward buy the carrier specific version iPad?
I thought of that but been told the carrier will see that tethering activity and bill you anyways.
I am 99.999999% sure that it not the case. But I would be interested in hearing from others to confirm.
As per recently passed government regulations (In the US), AT&T and Verizon's share everything plans include tethering as part of the plan.
Wow, really? So I can just turn on the Personal Hotspot feature on my phone and access it's wifi network on my iPad without incurring any additional costs? Not being sarcastic by the way, I was just about to post this exact thing in a search on here since I had no luck in a Google search on the subject.
That is correct. I actually cancelled the wireless service on my iPad because now I can just enable the hotspot feature on my iPhone and share the data connection that way. Saves me from having to add another device to the shared plan @ $10/month.
Having a tablet added to the shared plan works out better for those who have a dumb phone + tablet, or those who use their tablet on 3G/4G enough to warrant it and don't want to constantly drain their smart phones' batteries thru tethering.
Initially when I got the share everything package when I bought the new iPhone five, I thought I should just get a 3G or 4G iPad instead of Wi-Fi one I have now. But since I can use the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality on my iPhone now, I can just keep the Wi-Fi iPad. When did this change happen? This is the first I've heard of it.
The Personal Hotspot feature was introduced with iOS 4.3, in March of 2011. AT&T used to charge $20 per month if you enabled this feature on your iPhone, in addition to whatever you were already paying for data.
With the new Mobile Share plans, however, tethering is automatically included, along with unlimited minutes and texting. The new plans were announced in mid-July and became effective on August 23rd.
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Cool, from doing some google searching it sounds like I'm in the same boat with Verizon, even though you appear to be talking about AT&T. Thanks again for the info, I will take my iPad to work one of these days that I have a boring assignment and see how smoothly it works.
Thanks for confirming...I was nervous for a minute that I made the wrong choice!
I had the AT&T data plans for 2 household iPads ($15/mo each). By going to the Verizon Share Everything plan, I was able to cancel the AT&T service and save that $30. The Share Everything is virtually identical in cost to what I paid in total before, so I netted saving that $30/mo.
The only negatives: You need your iPhone to use the iPad on 3G and you 1st need to activate the Personal Hotspot function. But to me that's a very good tradeoff for $30/mo.
The positives: Aside from saving $, you also can use the hotspot for tethering other devices such as laptops or iPod Touches. My son loved having full Internet access in the car on his Touch on a recent long drive.
I cancelled my prepaid plan with Verizon and added my iPad to my share account. I had to get a new Sim card for it, and it uses it's own Internet.
I know someone who has been caught tethering without a plan. Sometimes if you use a ridiculous amount of data, the carrier will look at what you are doing. The person I know who got caught was using Sprint and using over 5 Gigs a month (playing xbox live). Sprint didn't bill or anything...just cancelled the contract and terminated their service.
I don't know if they would be able to see an iPad tethered to an iPhone though since the data would be so similar.
My use with tethering is VERY limited. In fact, that's why I was happy to cancel my month-to-month AT&T plan (which was only 250mb/mo and I only hit that limit once).
