Here is how to transfer your Unlimited ATT data plan to your new 4G iPad
- Thread starter MikesTooLz
- Start date
Unfortunately, mossfur, the unlimited plan is only for those that got grandfathered into it (it was available at the very beginning days of the iPad, but the carriers stopped it in the early summer of 2011). You can't get it any longer.
As far as moving your current plan over, I really don't see why you can't follow the same steps here. To be safe, however, I'd check with your carrier - they would be the ones that would know for sure (cause I've been known to be wrong in my assumptions before!
). It may be that you'll have to cancel the plan on the old and re-start it on the new...Marilyn
pianoman
iPF Noob
Don't forget, everyone, that "unlimited" is a misleading term. AT&T says in their contract that after a certain amount of GB of usage on the unlimited plans they have the right to 'throttle' your speed way down in a given month. Resets next month. You guys will likely be using a lot more data with 4G. So be wary - unlimited isn't truly unlimited with AT&T. Several have found out the hard way.
Also note that full 4G (LTE) is only available in very few major cities. Not very widespread yet from what I've read. The 4G readout icon in the upper left of the status bar is simply an indicator of a broadband signal as opposed to "edge" - and isn't a verification of being actually on 4G speeds. It could be 3G even when it reads 4G. That's a frustrating implementation to me. Just like it shows you "edge" service if that's all that's available - that icon should switch between 3G and 4G to show you your service speed in a given area. Can anyone verify this behavior? Have you ever seen it read 3G instead of 4G (or LTE)?
Also note that full 4G (LTE) is only available in very few major cities. Not very widespread yet from what I've read. The 4G readout icon in the upper left of the status bar is simply an indicator of a broadband signal as opposed to "edge" - and isn't a verification of being actually on 4G speeds. It could be 3G even when it reads 4G. That's a frustrating implementation to me. Just like it shows you "edge" service if that's all that's available - that icon should switch between 3G and 4G to show you your service speed in a given area. Can anyone verify this behavior? Have you ever seen it read 3G instead of 4G (or LTE)?
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MikesTooLz
iPF Novice
currently they are not throttling the LTE iPad plans, however that does not mean they couldn't start doing it at any time.
pianoman
iPF Noob
Not sure where you read that - but I assure you if you overuse any connection speed on an unlimited plan you run the risk of being throttled.
Take this with a grain of salt, but I recently read that AT&T was throttling unlimited smart phone plans, not iPad plans, at least with 3G. So if that were true, it wouldn't be a stretch to learn that they weren't throttling iPad 4G, either.
I'm on unlimited 3G on iPad and iPhone and received a standard throttling notice on my cell phone bill months ago, but I've never received one for my iPad plan (all I get is email confirmation of monthly credit card charging). I've continued to use as much data as I've wanted to on iPad, going well beyond what was indicated for throttling, but have yet to see any throttling of my use. I kept expecting them to clamp down, and wouldn't be surprised if they do, but we'll see. Meanwhile, I use my iPhone unlimited relatively little.
IGonz
iPF Novice
I think I might just upgrade to the Ipad 2 to keep my grandfathered unlimited. Something about 4g lte with the grandfathered unlimited plan doesn't sit well with me. I'm getting 3meg downloads with 3g and that's more than enough.
At least wait until there is actually 4g LTE in this area.
I'm averaging 5-15gig/month.
At least wait until there is actually 4g LTE in this area.
I'm averaging 5-15gig/month.
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No prob. If throttling kicks in and I'm throttled for the rest of a month (as throttling on AT&T is described), I have a second (never used) SIM that I can use to sign up for a month's data if needed, lol.
Meanwhile, I'm using unlimited as a normal person would define unlimited, rather than the legalese that carriers use.
tlbaker
iPF Novice
Kaykaykay said:
I know it's insane. I am at approx. 800 MB on my unlimited iPhone data and about 900 MB on my tethered iPhone data to iPad but that's tiered so no worries there as they would want me to blow through that and charge me more $$$. Ain't gonna happen. I am on wifi most of the time.
Sent from my Verizon Black 64GB iPad 2 w IOS 5.1 Update From NYC!!! using iPF.net
IGonz said:
I moved from my iPad1 with 3G to the new iPad with 4G and the speed difference is AMAZING.......my iPad is now about 4X the speed of the 3G (12 Mbps vs 3Mbps) and now it's about 3X faster to use the 4G than my home Internet via WiFi (crappy cable through Cox).........now if only AT&T would come up with a hotspot option for their version I'd use this for everything.............oh yeah I forgot to mention I am "Grandfathered" on the unlimited plan I signed up for when I got my first unit (launch day in 2010).
Cheers!
pianoman
iPF Noob
My information came from two friends that hit 5GB with their iPad 2 3G (grandfathered in) unlmited plans and were throttled late in month. So it does happen. And the same level of Internet use on 4G will likely eat up the data allocation quicker.
But 5GB is a boatload of data. I use my iPhone 4S as a jailbreak modem for my iPad2 regularly all day. And I've had a hard time getting even to 2GB of usage. I wonder what people are downloading to get to 5GB??!? ;-)
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I don't know what your friends are doing with their data. When I'm traveling, I use 3G for everything, including streaming movies. That takes a lot of data.
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MikesTooLz
iPF Novice
We are starting to get off topic of transferring the data plan to the new iPad.
ATT has not come out and said that they will be throttling the iPad plans however they did come out with a press announcement saying that 3G phone plans will now start throttling at 3GB and LTE phone plans will throttle at 5GB. So according to the phone plans LTE plans will give you more bandwidth before getting throttled.
ATT has not come out and said that they will be throttling the iPad plans however they did come out with a press announcement saying that 3G phone plans will now start throttling at 3GB and LTE phone plans will throttle at 5GB. So according to the phone plans LTE plans will give you more bandwidth before getting throttled.
tlbaker
iPF Novice
Kaykaykay said:
I find that 3G doesn't work as well for me to stream movies and I need to get on wifi to do this. Then again, I was trying to do this from my grandfathered unlimited data from my iPhone. I stream movies via Netflix via iPhone so I can have my iPad free lol.
Sort of looks like something out of the Sandford & Son sitcom back in the 70s with Redd Foxx lmao!!
Sent from my Verizon Black 64GB iPad 2 w IOS 5.1 Update From NYC!!! using iPF.net
