Ipad 2 ATT Service Question

[Casey914]

Brought home a 32gb ATT Ipad 2 Yesterday. Turned it on and my wife and I are getting used to it.

After I fired it up it showed that I had ATT 3G signal, however I never signed up with ATT. Does it come with time? I called ATT and they said no.

Was it just showing me that I had 3G service if i opted for it?

Thanks and sorry for the "green" question.

Casey

 

[poloponies]

Brought home a 32gb ATT Ipad 2 Yesterday. Turned it on and my wife and I are getting used to it.

After I fired it up it showed that I had ATT 3G signal, however I never signed up with ATT. Does it come with time? I called ATT and they said no.

Was it just showing me that I had 3G service if i opted for it?

Thanks and sorry for the "green" question.

Casey

No, you don't get service until you opt-in.

 

[Casey914]

Great. Thanks for the response.

 

[HazyCloud]

Thing only thing I can think of is you may have got one that was returned and already activated. A friend of mine bought an AT&T version and his has never said AT&T at the top. (He hasn't activated 3G yet.)

 

[MozMan68]

..and I imagine there's an option to turn off the cell signal?? I imagine that would increase battery life...

 

[Casey914]

I immediately turned it off... Will do some more digging. Came completely wrapped up so i doubt it was a return of any sort. I did find it interesting that they told me i could return it(even if opened) up to 14 days of ownership.

 

[dacapo]

I immediately turned it off... Will do some more digging. Came completely wrapped up so i doubt it was a return of any sort. I did find it interesting that they told me i could return it(even if opened) up to 14 days of ownership.

Just out of curiosity, *where* did you buy it? At an Apple store, or at an AT&T store?

I bought mine at an Apple store and actually will return mine today, but I never signed up for the 3G service, and the AT&T 3G info never came up on my status bar.

 

[Casey914]

@ an apple store in northern VA.

 

[Night Spring]

I believe that if you turn on cellular data in iPad settings, the 3G signal will show up even if you are not signed up for AT&T service. This is because the iPad comes with an AT&T SIM card already inside, and you can use the 3G connection to sign up for service with AT&T.

 

[iphone1105]

Thing only thing I can think of is you may have got one that was returned and already activated. A friend of mine bought an AT&T version and his has never said AT&T at the top. (He hasn't activated 3G yet.)

My brand new in box from Apple Online came with 3G, it's just showing you the bars and coverage, makes no difference until the sim is activated

 

[Mlrollin91]

I believe that if you turn on cellular data in iPad settings, the 3G signal will show up even if you are not signed up for AT&T service. This is because the iPad comes with an AT&T SIM card already inside, and you can use the 3G connection to sign up for service with AT&T.

All correct except the last part. Sadly you need WiFi to sign up for AT&T Data plan, which I found to be quite shocking.

But yes, it will show you signal unless you turn off cellular data, with or without a service plan activated.

 

[Night Spring]

All correct except the last part. Sadly you need WiFi to sign up for AT&T Data plan, which I found to be quite shocking.

Really? I thought I'd seen someone post that they were able to sign up for the plan with just the 3G without any wifi connection. I may be misremembering, though.

 

[SPEEDwithJJ]

Thing only thing I can think of is you may have got one that was returned and already activated. A friend of mine bought an AT&T version and his has never said AT&T at the top. (He hasn't activated 3G yet.)

Interesting. So it is now OK to re-box/re-wrap up the returned iPad 2 units & then sell them off as new instead of refurb?

 

[madat42]

Really? I thought I'd seen someone post that they were able to sign up for the plan with just the 3G without any wifi connection. I may be misremembering, though.

That's interesting too, because once I activated service, I could only check my account with 3G on, and not over wifi.

 

[gigemzach]

All correct except the last part. Sadly you need WiFi to sign up for AT&T Data plan, which I found to be quite shocking.

But yes, it will show you signal unless you turn off cellular data, with or without a service plan activated.

Incorrect. You don't need wifi.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Incorrect. You don't need wifi.

I've tried it multiple times, only connected to 3G, without a data plan activated and it will not let me sign up for a data plan. It will say over and over that it cannot connect to the internet, or whatever that little pop-up is.

I needed it at school while the school WiFi was down, and there was no way for me to sign up.

That's interesting too, because once I activated service, I could only check my account with 3G on, and not over wifi.

Well once it is activated you are able to manage your account directly through the 3G. Signing up for it is different.

Edit: I stand corrected. I tried it right now and it works fine. I wonder for the week that I attempted it, the server was down for iPad activation over 3G. Thats really weird. Sorry All!

 

[deeddawg]

Thing only thing I can think of is you may have got one that was returned and already activated. A friend of mine bought an AT&T version and his has never said AT&T at the top. (He hasn't activated 3G yet.)

No idea what's up with your friends iPad, maybe he turned off cell data.

Out of the box the 3G GSM ipad2 will say ATT 3G in the US whether or not you've signed up for data.

That's what I saw personally on my own ipad2 and didn't sign up for data until a couple months after buying it. If it's on wifi then no 3G symbol, and also if you turn off cell data to save battery if you didn't sign up for a plan it won't say 3G AT&T either. But that's not the default out of box setting.

Interesting. So it is now OK to re-box/re-wrap up the returned iPad 2 units & then sell them off as new instead of refurb?

Oh relax, don't believe everything you read on the Internet. I wouldn't jump to conclusions based on a poster's (well intentioned, but incorrect) belief about the behavior of his friend's iPad.