Welcome to the Apple iPad Forum, your one stop source for all things iPad. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
I work for one of the major providers and can confirm that they are indeed locked. You will need your PIN/PUK from the provider in order to unlock it. Unless you're out of contract my company wont give it to you.
I wouldn't expect any iPad to be locked unless you buy it subsidized, in which case it will be locked by the carrier so that it can recover its subsidy via your data contract.
Just buy the right one for your uses. The AT&T one is GSM, and the Verizon is CDMA. Many countries are GSM, if you need to take travel into consideration. The AT&T one will allow you to replace the SIM, say if you go abroad. The Verizon one doesn't have a removable SIM, so you'd have to use wifi, myfi or tethering abroad.
Kind of depends on how desperate you are to get your hands on one and when you think your country might get the new iPad, based on previous iPad releases. I would expect the AT&T one to work fine, because you'd replace the SIM with one from your country, as long as you have GSM. I travel and replace my SIM in various countries and my iPads work fine. The iPad doesn't care if I'm staying long term or short term, lol.
The charger will be different from country to country, of course. And if your country charges VAT or other duties, you might end up paying extra if your iPad is flagged by customs officers.
But what about 4G LTE ? if someday 4G LTE arrives in my country and at that time will I not be stuck ? will the U.S model of iPad (AT&T) then work on the 4G LTE Network of my country ?
I don't see how anyone can predict that with so many variables. If you're that worried, buy a wifi-only model and get yourself a myfi device or tether your iPad to a phone.
At the slow pace that 4G is taking to unfold around the world, your iPad probably will be obsolete before you have to worry about 4G compatibility issues. That's especially the case if your country is slow in getting new iPad models; that indicates that your country isn't a high-demand market for tech (which probably means slow upgrades to 4G as well).
But in general will the U.S 4G LTE Model of iPad work on the 4G network of say Europe or Asia ?
Hi. I am out of contract on my IPad 4 How I can get PIN/PUK from you.