At&T instead of Verizon

[Sadov]

I am going to buy iPad 3 32GB but I don't know what nets should choose. I was in Apple Store in Boston and one of the serviceman told me that I should choose Verizon because Verizon support both nets At&t and Verizon. Is it true? Please, help me.

 

[Lucky_Charms]

This is true. You can pop an AT&T micro sim into a Verizon 3rd gen iPad and it will utilize AT&Ts 3G and hspa+ network. You won't be able to use their LTE network however as that runs on a different frequency. You can also pop in a Verizon micro sim from your Verizon phone and utilize your unlimited data plan if you happen to have been lucky enough to be grand fathered into one as I have been.

 

[Seadog]

The choice of carriers should be based on the area you are in. Each vendor does better in some markets than others. It does no good to buy Verizon if you are needing AT&T 4G, and you cannot use the AT&T system while you are using Verizon. If both carriers have equal coverge, then look at what plan meets your needs. If you are good with less than 1 Gb, the Verizon plan at $20 may suite you, but if you need more, the AT&T $30 3 Gb is better than the Verizon 2 Gb.

 

[Erwaso]

Unless Verizon is still doing the 4gb for $30 promo, not sure if it applies to tablets tho. IMO, I'd go with AT&T since if their LTE went down you'd still have hspa+. Verizon has more LTE coverage but when it went down 4 times last year, the old evdo rev 0 was excruciatingly slow to be on.

 

[Lucky_Charms]

Verizon also allows you to tether if that's important to you.

 

[bobnowak]

This is true. You can pop an AT&T micro sim into a Verizon 3rd gen iPad and it will utilize AT&Ts 3G and hspa+ network. You won't be able to use their LTE network however as that runs on a different frequency. You can also pop in a Verizon micro sim from your Verizon phone and utilize your unlimited data plan if you happen to have been lucky enough to be grand fathered into one as I have been.

This is interesting. So if I have an iPad 3 wifi and 4g, can I use the sim in my Verizon Blackberry Bold which has unlimited data in my iPad for 3 or 4g network access? Thanks

 

[Seadog]

The deal with Verizon is that you can tether a laptop or other device to an iPad. Since you cannot have a cell phone without a data plan, the only thing this really works with is laptops/netbooks. The VErizon smart phones will not allow tethering for free. I also doubt that your Blackberry sim will fit an iPad without modification, but even so, it would be against the Verizon rules and could cost you your data plan. Most people use about 2-4 Gb of data per month. Non-promotional rates are better for AT&T in that range, but when you go to 5 Gb, they both charge the same.

 

[Lucky_Charms]

The deal with Verizon is that you can tether a laptop or other device to an iPad. Since you cannot have a cell phone without a data plan, the only thing this really works with is laptops/netbooks. The VErizon smart phones will not allow tethering for free. I also doubt that your Blackberry sim will fit an iPad without modification, but even so, it would be against the Verizon rules and could cost you your data plan. Most people use about 2-4 Gb of data per month. Non-promotional rates are better for AT&T in that range, but when you go to 5 Gb, they both charge the same.

The blackberry uses a standard sim. You need a micro sim to fit in the new iPad. Phones like the galaxy nexus, samsung stratosphere, and the razr max use micro sim. You can modify it but I'm uncertain how well this works. Now if you do have a micro sim and are grand fathered with unlimited data then you are allowed to transfer that sim to and from any device which accepts that micro sim without any penalties. In other words they do not throttle, nor do they cut you off. This is allowed and Verizon is aware of this. The reason behind this was it was one of the stipulations that they had to concede to with the FCC when they purchased part the 700mhz spectrum.

I am grandfathered in with an all data plan. No voice. I just use google voice and talkatone for calls. Currently at 9gigs and climbing but the vast majority stay well under 5gigs. Also before you transfer your sim from your cell to your ipad make sure that it has been provisioned in the phone first otherwise if it happens to be a new sim and is initially placed in the ipad then it will provision with a tablet data plan. Also, your voice plan is useless with the ipad. Do some research yourself and find out about this. It was pretty interesting. I discovered this little gem of knowledge while reading the macforums website.

 

[Lucky_Charms]

Here's a link to the website for everone's convenience

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1336647

End result is.......it works!