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jpoprock

macrumors newbie
Dec 28, 2011
4
0
Central Indiana
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I have a contact at the VZW store who said that VZW was really ramping up their 4GLTE coverage map quickly. I laughed, but she said that soon most areas that are 3G will be 4GLTE. I still laughed. It's strictly big cities and heavily populated areas. The rest of the 75% of the coverage map will be lucky to see 4GLTE by mid 2013 I bet.

However, back in Jan when the Ipad 3 was still but a guess, she did say VZW was going to switch to a Family Data plan price because too many people are jumping ship because everyone in the house now has a Smartphone, and $30 per phone doesn't cut it. So they were going to tweak the Family Share plan so that $120 of your phone bill wasn't just for owning a smart phone. I wouldn't get my kids smartphones at that price, that's foe sure! Dad's getting his first! Then mom...the kids can rot befirebefore I pay an additional $60.

She also said that since Wifi was everywhere, and people don't buy a lot of tablets with the data plan, VZW was going to offer a "buy what you need" option. Pay the $30 the first month, but then after that if you didn't anticipate needing wireless coverage for a few months, then u pay nothing. Going somewhere in July? Then add it June to pay for July (you pay a month ahead with VZW...and I'm sure you do with the others). So,having that option would make it totally worth it. Otherwise,people
 

cschmelz

macrumors 6502
Jun 6, 2007
342
107
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I have a contact at the VZW store who said that VZW was really ramping up their 4GLTE coverage map quickly. I laughed, but she said that soon most areas that are 3G will be 4GLTE. I still laughed. It's strictly big cities and heavily populated areas. The rest of the 75% of the coverage map will be lucky to see 4GLTE by mid 2013 I bet.

I had debated getting a Verizon iPad this round because I already have an AT&T iPhone 4S and it seemed to makes sense to have 1 of each, so I always had SOME sort of connection in non-AT&T locations but truthfully I don't travel much where there aren't AT&T connections available and I live in the 'rural' parts of Washington State. We aren't going to see LTE until 2014 or 2015 at the earliest (we still have a lot of EDGE!) so it made sense to stick with AT&T where we have (with iOS 5.1) pseudo-4G service aka fast 3G available NOW with AT&T.
 

fruitpunch.ben

macrumors 6502a
Sep 16, 2008
599
174
Surrey, BC
Did anybody see the tech specs page?

http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

The Verizon model includes ALL of the frequencies on the AT&T model, and adds CDMA.

This is ridiculous, I don't see any technical reason why they couldn't have just one LTE (and 3G) model to support both carriers without having to choose at purchase time and having it locked to only that carrier.

Edit: Apparently the AT&T model adds 2100 Mhz for LTE. Darn, I still think they should have made one model that can handle both.

They will, when the chip comes out 3Q 2012 that allows them to do that. Right now, they would have to add an extra chip which would decrease battery life which is one of Apple's top priorities
 

jpoprock

macrumors newbie
Dec 28, 2011
4
0
Central Indiana
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Oops...otherwise people are less likely to purchace a cellular network enabled tablet, plus a phone, plus home internetinternet, etc. If the Ipad could realistically replace my phone? Then sure. But its not convenient to carry a backpack around when you can put your phone in your pocket.

The Ipad having Voice Dictation ....I think this is Apple's way of trying to get people to use the Ipad 3 as their ONLY portable mobile device.

That may be what the rumored 7" will target. When they release that this summer, they'll kill off the 16gb Ipad line, and introduce a 128gig Ipad 3. Or they'll wait till next year and bust out the 128gb unit with the A6 Quad core/GPU.

Jason
 

jrfive0

macrumors member
Mar 22, 2011
45
0
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I just saw a verizon commercial promoting 4gb for $30 a month...anyone else see that ???
 

Tortri

macrumors 6502a
Aug 30, 2010
759
9
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I just saw a verizon commercial promoting 4gb for $30 a month...anyone else see that ???

I just got off the phone with Verizon and one of the questions was the Double Your Data plan and he said that only applies to new smartphones.
 

iBug2

macrumors 601
Jun 12, 2005
4,531
851
Can someone clarify the whole at&t or verizon model?

Do both these models work in LTE networks in Europe with sim cards for example? Because all the EU models of the iPad 3 have only one LTE model. So it seems only the US models need configuration for the network due to not using GSM. But does it mean that both the US models will work on Europe LTE networks with a sim? Or should one buy the EU models for that?
 

felixroqu3

macrumors 6502a
Mar 5, 2012
639
618
New York, NY
Is it really worth getting a 4G iPad if you really aren't on the go? And do you need to pay more money if you use it internationally?
 

MartyXB

macrumors member
Apr 16, 2011
77
2
Surely Verizon has better 4G LTE coverage, but many don't know that.

Too general of a statement. What matters is where you use the iPad the most. Again, just by looking at the online maps, AT&T has wider local coverage for the New York City vicinity. So unless the maps lie, if you stay primarily in the metro New York City area you would be better off with AT&T.
 

MS2083

macrumors regular
Mar 7, 2012
208
0
California
4G LTE not worth the Extra $$$ unless you Travel Alot

was finally able to process my Pre-Order Purchase at 1:58pm earlier today! Got the White 32GB Wifi Only... There's like 3 Starbucks locations that are 5 minutes from my house, and you have Free Wifi there! Super Fast T1 Connection Free Wifi at the State University, and Wifi at the house! doesn't make sense paying extra for the 4G LTE unless you will be traveling frequently...
 

erandall38

macrumors 6502
Jun 24, 2007
460
1
was finally able to process my Pre-Order Purchase at 1:58pm earlier today! Got the White 32GB Wifi Only... There's like 3 Starbucks locations that are 5 minutes from my house, and you have Free Wifi there! Super Fast T1 Connection Free Wifi at the State University, and Wifi at the house! doesn't make sense paying extra for the 4G LTE unless you will be traveling frequently...

I travel a decent amount. I have about 6 vacations this year and I fly to every 49er home game (big Niner fan and season ticket holder). Even in these situations wifi is pretty rampant. Airports, airplanes, hotels, stadiums, etc all have wifi. Some free, some with small fees.

BUT, that being said.. I still got the 4G. Two reasons. I would like to have the option while in the car (I think some cars are coming with wifi now). I live across the street from the beach and try to go a few times a week. No wifi there... hopefully this will change one day. But those two are enough to get the 4g for me. I'm sure others have at least 2 examples that make the price bump worth it to them.
 

MartyXB

macrumors member
Apr 16, 2011
77
2
I'm sure others have at least 2 examples that make the price bump worth it to them.

In the iPad 1 days the 3G version had a major compelling reason for the price bump - GPS. Only the 3G version came with this option. I use my iPad as my car navigator and I can' tell you how many times I would use my iPad and Google Maps to show me where I am and what is nearby.
 

erandall38

macrumors 6502
Jun 24, 2007
460
1
In the iPad 1 days the 3G version had a major compelling reason for the price bump - GPS. Only the 3G version came with this option. I use my iPad as my car navigator and I can' tell you how many times I would use my iPad and Google Maps to show me where I am and what is nearby.

I've seen people install them in their car. So it basically becomes a touch screen car NAV. You could pop it right out and it looked like it was made from the manufacturer.
 

MartyXB

macrumors member
Apr 16, 2011
77
2
I've seen people install them in their car. So it basically becomes a touch screen car NAV. You could pop it right out and it looked like it was made from the manufacturer.

What I did was very simple. I took two of those GPS stick on disks and put them on my dash, one on top of another. I then took a string, tied the ends together ran the looped string around the GPS disks and simply hung, like you would hang laundry, the iPad from it. Voila, a car mount for the iPad where the iPad is hanging from your dash, leaning against in my case my radio, which I dont need since I connect a cable from the iPad's headphone jack to the aux in port of the radio, and stream Pandora (or play my music) while my navigation app is running. All sound is funneled through my car speakers.
 

BC2009

macrumors 68020
Jul 1, 2009
2,237
1,393
Too general of a statement. What matters is where you use the iPad the most. Again, just by looking at the online maps, AT&T has wider local coverage for the New York City vicinity. So unless the maps lie, if you stay primarily in the metro New York City area you would be better off with AT&T.

True.... I suppose I am looking from my perspective of only buying the data plan when I am traveling. I stick with AT&T on my iPhone because my home-town AT&T 3G coverage is great and its faster than Verizon's CDMA. However, when traveling I use the iPad as my way to access the web and I found when I had an AT&T iPad, that having the data plan was often useless (even in NYC -- but this was before their NYC upgrades).

As far as LTE coverage goes, I'd like to know I have a higher shot of having coverage when traveling so Verizon is what I chose for iPad 2 and "The New iPad". Now that Verizon is also gonna give tethering on all plans and they have confirmed the 1GB for $20 remains, I am completely ecstatic.
 

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
I just don't get it. Why would you even want a 250MB/month plan on an LTE connection? Seems like a waste. And the other caps seem to be so low for how fast data can purportedly be consumed.

Why not offer more realistic caps like 5/10/15GB and make the prices $35/$75/$90? Then you are actually differentiating between 3G and true 4G service.

Look at it the other way round. You have been using an iPad 2 with 250MB/month plan quite happily. Now you replace it with a new iPad because of the retina display. You are not using more data than before. The only difference is that the few times that you do use the phone connection instead of WiFi, it is really quick.

What you are saying is like managing for the first time in your life to get a taxi in London without getting stuck in a traffic jam, and then complaining that the price per hour is much higher. Or that you only got 10 minutes driving time for your money instead of the usual two hours.
 

charlituna

macrumors G3
Jun 11, 2008
9,636
816
Los Angeles, CA
Should be $30/mo for 3GB, not 2GB AT&T!

And I believe the 250MB was bumped to 300MB

----------

I wonder where does that leave people who are still grandfathered under the unlimited plan that started with the iPad 1

Supposedly that will continue however don't be shocked if ATT doesn't allow you to use your iPad as a hotspot under those plans (same as they did with the phone tethering) and if within 3 months they are throttling you for going over 30GB in a month
 
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