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tl01

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 20, 2010
2,350
649
Is there a better deal than 4 gb of LTE for $40 a month for tablets? I need at least that much and I need the iPad to be a hot spot.
 
Is there a better deal than 4 gb of LTE for $40 a month for tablets? I need at least that much and I need the iPad to be a hot spot.

T-Mobile has 4.7GB for $40. Just not sure if they support hot spot and you'd likely get better coverage with Verizon anyway. I'm assuming the Data Only Share Everything 4GB $30 + $10/Tablet is what you're getting?
 
T-Mobile has 4.7GB for $40. Just not sure if they support hot spot and you'd likely get better coverage with Verizon anyway. I'm assuming the Data Only Share Everything 4GB $30 + $10/Tablet is what you're getting?

Yes. That's what I have currently. The coverage has been great and I am leery of switching for that reason. I guess for .7 more GB it might not be worth it. Do they really have a 4.7gb limit?;). I'm surprised that the carriers haven't increased the amount of data for the price in a long time.
 
I'm surprised that the carriers haven't increased the amount of data for the price in a long time.

Why would they when they can just charge you an extra $10-15 per GB? :rolleyes:

If you want reliable coverage just stick to Verizon. I'm actually planning on getting a T-Mobile iPad mini 2 or Air to trial T-Mobile's service using the 200MB starter data. However, I'm still keeping my Verizon and AT&T iPads.
 
Why would they when they can just charge you an extra $10-15 per GB? :rolleyes:

If you want reliable coverage just stick to Verizon. I'm actually planning on getting a T-Mobile iPad mini 2 or Air to trial T-Mobile's service using the 200MB starter data. However, I'm still keeping my Verizon and AT&T iPads.

Back in the day when it was all about cell minutes... You had to pay for each minute... Then you started getting free minutes... And that kept increasing til they offered unlimited... I'm not saying they will go back to unlimited.... But generally the cost of things decreases over time. Also, I'm surprised that one company hasn't done a special during a new device release like verizon did when they offered double data for the same price.
 
Back in the day when it was all about cell minutes... You had to pay for each minute... Then you started getting free minutes... And that kept increasing til they offered unlimited... I'm not saying they will go back to unlimited.... But generally the cost of things decreases over time. Also, I'm surprised that one company hasn't done a special during a new device release like verizon did when they offered double data for the same price.

Different cash cows at different times. First it was minutes, then messaging, now it's data. They offer unlimited minutes likely because even if they offered unlimited talk, most folks would only actually use less than 1000 minutes a month. Data is their current cash cow. Would data buckets increase? Eventually. AT&T and Verizon haven't yet felt the need to be more competitive in terms of pricing as they don't have a lot of competitors. However, it looks like T-Mobile's new "Un-Carrier" approach will shake things up.
 
Different cash cows at different times. First it was minutes, then messaging, now it's data. They offer unlimited minutes likely because even if they offered unlimited talk, most folks would only actually use less than 1000 minutes a month. Data is their current cash cow. Would data buckets increase? Eventually. AT&T and Verizon haven't yet felt the need to be more competitive in terms of pricing as they don't have a lot of competitors. However, it looks like T-Mobile's new "Un-Carrier" approach will shake things up.

Sure most people don't use many minutes... Especially now a days... But that wasn't the case when they started giving out free minutes. My first phone came with zero minutes and I remember being so excited about 50 free weekend minutes. I couldn't believe I could actually use my phone rather than just carry it;).
 
Sure most people don't use many minutes... Especially now a days... But that wasn't the case when they started giving out free minutes. My first phone came with zero minutes and I remember being so excited about 50 free weekend minutes. I couldn't believe I could actually use my phone rather than just carry it;).

Yeah, but they needed to draw in new customers somehow. If service remained prohibitively expensive, then people wouldn't sign up.
 
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