Please help: iPad 2 and travel/network issue

[Leia1912]

Greetings, all,

I would like to use my iPad 2 for international travel, specifically, Russia.

AT&T has said outright they don't cover St. Petersburg, Russia, where I mostly work.

Verizon covers that area but not for the kind of data the iPad uses, according to their staff.

Does anyone have any advice about what I should do? Is there some magic international hotspot device I could use, and just get the iPad to piggy-back off of its WiFi?

Thanks for any input!

 

[andiwm2003]

I would check international websites. European countries often have prepaid data plans and sell you a Sim card for 10 EU and 2-5euro per day usages. They sometimes also have quite cheap data plans for a few month.

I would try to see if you can buy such a plan in russia. It is certainly cheaper than a US plan with roaming.

A good thing in my experience is a totally naive and friendly call to your consulate and simply ask them for tips. They live there and might have iPads privately and know how to go about it. In my experience they are often quite friendly with things like this.

 

[Leia1912]

I would check international websites. European countries often have prepaid data plans and sell you a Sim card for 10 EU and 2-5euro per day usages. They sometimes also have quite cheap data plans for a few month.

I would try to see if you can buy such a plan in russia. It is certainly cheaper than a US plan with roaming.

A good thing in my experience is a totally naive and friendly call to your consulate and simply ask them for tips. They live there and might have iPads privately and know how to go about it. In my experience they are often quite friendly with things like this.

Thanks for the input! A stupid question: Would it matter, then, which iPad I got (AT&T or Verizon), given that my goal would be to purchase a SIM card in Russia?

 

[Richdmoore]

As far as I know, sim cards are not used on verizon, they use something built into the device.

 

[ghostlyorb]

Thanks for the input! A stupid question: Would it matter, then, which iPad I got (AT&T or Verizon), given that my goal would be to purchase a SIM card in Russia?

I would say you would need a jailbroken iPad on AT&T.... and unlocked. Unless the iPad is already unlocked...

 

[Leia1912]

I would say you would need a jailbroken iPad on AT&T.... and unlocked. Unless the iPad is already unlocked...

Okay, thank you all for your input! I'll get the AT&T iPad2 and jailbreak it and unlock it when I need to take it international.

 

[paduck]

I would say you would need a jailbroken iPad on AT&T.... and unlocked. Unless the iPad is already unlocked...

iPads aren't supposed to be carrier locked. They do use a microSIM chip (if you get the GSM version which is the standard in Europe) and you might need to buy one of those to swap out. Otherwise, you should be fine.