Okay, that was super helpful! So I don't end up talking to the wrong person and get the run around once again, let me ask you, does the T-Mo Nano Sim cost anything? How do I do this, do I order from their website or call them to get one? It's funny how the T-mo CEO does all this chanting and their employees don't understand how to sell their product to prospective customers.
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iPad Which cellular iPad Air to buy?
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Okay, that was super helpful! So I don't end up talking to the wrong person and get the run around once again, let me ask you, does the T-Mo Nano Sim cost anything? How do I do this, do I order from their website or call them to get one? It's funny how the T-mo CEO does all this chanting and their employees don't understand how to sell their product to prospective customers.
Half the time the T-Mobile employees all have different answers for everything! Which makes things so confusing for everyone trying to get answers.
I got my T-Mobile nano sim from the Apple Store when I bought my Verizon Mini Retina. They gave it to me free of charge. So I popped out the existing, unactivated Verizon nano sim and switched it with the T-Mobile nano sim. Then, I activated the T-Mobile nano sim and the free 200mb on my post-paid plan since I have a voice account with T-Mobile already. I opted to go post-paid in case I ever want to get the 500mb plan in the future. That way, it would be only $10 per month for me, instead of $20 b/c of my post-paid account and voice plan.
So you can go to T-Mobile and buy a nano-sim from them for $10. My dad did that for his Verizon iPad 2. The free 200mb works just fine for him.
Just recently T-Mobile had a 99 cent special for their sims. The nano sim was just 99 cents. I heard that they were free sometime in Nov or December of last year as well.
So you can go to T-Mobile and pick one up right now for $10 or you can order it online.
I am pretty sure this is the nano sim for iPad Air and iPad Mini Retina LTE, but if I am wrong, can someone please chime in on the correct sim--
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/T-Mobile-Mobile-Broadband-SIM-ONLY-KIT-Kit-Nano-SIM
To be safe, you are probably better off going to the store and getting the "right" one for $10.
Good luck!
I got my T-Mobile nano sim from the Apple Store when I bought my Verizon Mini Retina. They gave it to me free of charge. So I popped out the existing, unactivated Verizon nano sim and switched it with the T-Mobile nano sim. Then, I activated the T-Mobile nano sim and the free 200mb on my post-paid plan since I have a voice account with T-Mobile already. I opted to go post-paid in case I ever want to get the 500mb plan in the future. That way, it would be only $10 per month for me, instead of $20 b/c of my post-paid account and voice plan.
So you can go to T-Mobile and buy a nano-sim from them for $10. My dad did that for his Verizon iPad 2. The free 200mb works just fine for him.
Just recently T-Mobile had a 99 cent special for their sims. The nano sim was just 99 cents. I heard that they were free sometime in Nov or December of last year as well.
So you can go to T-Mobile and pick one up right now for $10 or you can order it online.
I am pretty sure this is the nano sim for iPad Air and iPad Mini Retina LTE, but if I am wrong, can someone please chime in on the correct sim--
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/T-Mobile-Mobile-Broadband-SIM-ONLY-KIT-Kit-Nano-SIM
To be safe, you are probably better off going to the store and getting the "right" one for $10.
Good luck!
No problem, anytime! Now I just hope that I do not steer you wrong. So if the sim I linked you to is not correct, I hope someone can correct me. I don't want to misguide you, but just letting you know from my experience what I did and what worked.
One word of note: I have a friend who bought a brand new iPad Air 64gb LTE (Verizon) last week. He switched out the Verizon unactivated sim for a brand new, unactivated T-Mobile nano sim. He had a few issues getting connected. It kept prompting him to setup the account even though he had already set it up and received the email confirmation assigning him his mobile phone number. Two days later, it was working. Not sure what the holdup was or the glitch, but it works fine now.
Forgot to mention that once you set up the account, you will be assigned a mobile phone number for your device. You use this assigned phone number, along with your email and password to check on your mobile internet account. So after I successfully set up my post-paid free 200mb, I received confirming emails with the assigned mobile phone number.
Good luck!
One word of note: I have a friend who bought a brand new iPad Air 64gb LTE (Verizon) last week. He switched out the Verizon unactivated sim for a brand new, unactivated T-Mobile nano sim. He had a few issues getting connected. It kept prompting him to setup the account even though he had already set it up and received the email confirmation assigning him his mobile phone number. Two days later, it was working. Not sure what the holdup was or the glitch, but it works fine now.
Forgot to mention that once you set up the account, you will be assigned a mobile phone number for your device. You use this assigned phone number, along with your email and password to check on your mobile internet account. So after I successfully set up my post-paid free 200mb, I received confirming emails with the assigned mobile phone number.
Good luck!
what happens when you hit 200MB?
Hi all, awesome informational thread. I have a Verizon iPad 3 and I think I will get a sim after reading this. I have a question about the limit. What happens when you reach 200MB? does the iPad know and just immediately disconnect? or does it stay connected but the data just stops coming in? Will it go past 200MB and then you get charged for it?
Also, I haven't used my Verizon service much at all (which is why on my new rMini I just got WiFi). If you're sitting at home with WiFi, is the iPad smart enough to use the WiFi if available over the cell data or do you have to turn off the cell radio when in WiFi range to save MBs?
Thanks for answering my silly questions
Hi all, awesome informational thread. I have a Verizon iPad 3 and I think I will get a sim after reading this. I have a question about the limit. What happens when you reach 200MB? does the iPad know and just immediately disconnect? or does it stay connected but the data just stops coming in? Will it go past 200MB and then you get charged for it?
Also, I haven't used my Verizon service much at all (which is why on my new rMini I just got WiFi). If you're sitting at home with WiFi, is the iPad smart enough to use the WiFi if available over the cell data or do you have to turn off the cell radio when in WiFi range to save MBs?
Thanks for answering my silly questions
UPDATE: I called T-mobile and they were very helpful over the phone. They sold me the Micro Sim for $10 and they said it would work with a Verizon Tablet. They are shipping it for free. I'll post back with an update after I receive it letting you and others know of my experience in activating it. This has been a great thread so far.
It just stops working when you reach 200MB. Yes, the iPad will use wifi when available.
Just to update. I got a T-mobile nano-SIM card and activated the Sprint version Ipad Air without any problems on the 200MB plan, no billing info needed (it did ask my email/name/birthday/service sip but I probably could have made something up)
I agree with others here. Verizon is the brand to go with initially. You can use SIMS from all the carriers. That being said, I am disappointed with Apple in disabling the "hotspot" functionality on the iPad with the latest 7.1 release update. Prior to the update, it worked flawlessly with cellular. Now it only works via WIFI or Bluetooth mode. Bad Apple.
It's automatically Apple's fault huh? Did you think it through that the cell carriers might be having a problem with the hotspot feature eating up bandwidth or for some other reason? Dang, you guys hate on Apple every chance you get.
Still works fine for me over cellular on 7.1. The popup screen states that your Wi-Fi needs to be on for the personal hotspot feature to work.
Okay, I'm really confused now. I just spoke with T-mobile about getting a sim. I have the Verizon iPad Air. They said their sim won't work with my iPad because Verizon iPads are on CDMA and T-mo is on GSM. So how are so many people here with Verizon iPads getting the T-mo sim to work?
That was true of older iPads, but not the new Air or rMini. Just order the BYOD (bring your own device) nano sim off of the T-Mobile website for $9.99 (sometimes on sale fro $0.99). No need to talk to anyone at T-mobile. Activation is done entirely on the iPad. I would actually advise against setting it up with T-mobile's assistance. If you do you might wind up on a monthly pre-paid data plan.
I order the nano sim from T-mobile's website for my Verizon rMini and activated for the free 200 mb per month. Very easily done!
Mine should be delivered today or monday. Already ordered the micro sim. Thanks for your help though. I'm going to use it when needed for work. I wanted the Verizon iPad so I can use their service for emergencies since their LTE has much more coverage.
With regards to an iPad Air and cellular ... For the US ... There is only one model. Hence, if you purchase a cellular Air, it will work on any US carrier ... At least the big ones ... AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint. Hence at the end of the day it should not matter what cellular Air version you get from a network perspective. However, if you purchase a Verizon Air ... An Air with a Verizon SIM in it ... And try to activate it say on Sprint ... Sprint may charge you an activation fee or a SIM fee. Hence you may save some money getting an Air for the carrier you intend on using it on to save on any fees.
Actually, the problem isn't activation fees since there are no activation fees on prepaid. It's that CDMA carriers such as Sprint and Verizon can be impossible to work with. While hardware is the same, good luck getting Sprint and Verizon to activate iPads whose IMEI are not on their whitelist. Verizon is easier. As long as the SIM card is already activated, it will work on any unlocked iPad. I think Sprint locks the SIM cards to the device or activates service based on MEID so you can't just switch SIM cards.
Four months after its release, and they still don't have their facts straight. Crazy!Ya ... I had the same experience. I wanted a Verizon version ... they had the one I wanted in stock ... so at the end of the day I got what I wanted.
When I went into the Verizon store though to add it to my share account ... they ended up having to swap the SIM anyway ... go figure. I was not charged any fees however.