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iPad with cellular: why?

Mind u im novice at best to this but every ipad i bought, ive always went wifi plus cellular. Never signed up for one plan regardless. Here we are again with these pros and again the decicion. I will neverpay for anythinmote than the oodles of wifi spots i NYC and LOnGISLAND.
Am i gid hust getting the wiwiwi mode???.?
 
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I have a celular iPad 2 and stopped the celular service. When I upgrade to an iPad Pro, I am not getting the celular model.
 
clunkmess said:
I ended up ordering the iPad Pro 10.5" WITH cellular. The extra cost is mitigated by the peace of mind that i won't have to seek out Wi-Fi in certain situations. Plus, i can add the iPad to my AT&T Unlimited Plus plan.
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I have to travel for work occasionally and I don't always trust the WiFi at the hotels for security reasons so I like always having my phone and an iPad on different networks so I have different options for setting up a hotspot for my laptop depending on how good a network is in the area that I'm staying. My iPad is on T-Mobile and my phone is on Verizon. I find that between the two, I'm rarely left without usable wireless service.

I don't know if anyone else has found this to be true for them, but Verizon and T-Mobile seem to be polar opposites in the places I go. Verizon is more robust across the board to be sure, but in the areas where Verizon is awful, T-Mobile almost always comes through. When I had AT&T and T-Mobile they were often both good or both bad in an area.
 
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smirking said:
I don't know if anyone else has found this to be true for them, but Verizon and T-Mobile seem to be polar opposites in the places I go. Verizon is more robust across the board to be sure, but in the areas where Verizon is awful, T-Mobile almost always comes through.
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This does seem to be the case. Verizon still has the superior network, but when Verizon has low bars, T-Mobile will be at four or five. But we have Verizon because we have had no "no service" messages with Verizon, whereas with T-Mobile we've had a few no-coverage areas.
 
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I use my Mini 4 as a backup for my main GPS when flying, and although I have a Garmin GLO external GPS ( with 10 position sampling per second) I opted for the Cell one in order to have also an embedded GPS ( 1 sample per second ).
Moreover, when linking to a cell, you can have the last Notam/Metar/TAF, and wind correction/ETA prediction.
My Cell plan is 15 GB/month for 10 Euros ( 11$), and just in case, it comes with unlimited calls, once you extract the SIM and put it into a Smartphone.
 
Velin said:
it's great to simply get online without having to also unlock the iPhone, enable hotspot, then link the iPad to the phone.
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There are reasons against using Personal HotSpot, but this ain't one of them: You can enable the Personal HotSpot remotely from the iPad (in the section where you can choose a WiFi network) without having to touch the iPhone.
 
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rui no onna said:
Find My iPad always works since the internet connection is always on. With WiFi-only, it goes offline sometimes. It's also been useful when the internet craps out or if there's a blackout, rare as those may be. :)

Personally, I use my LTE on the iPad intermittently throughout the day. If you don't use LTE a lot, tethering is fine. If you do, reconnecting to the iPhone every single time it goes into power saving mode is a major annoyance that's well worth avoiding for an extra $10/mo.

Mind, my iPhone data usage is typically less than 1GB per month. My iPad? Around 10-15GB.
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This is my case. I was loathe to add an Ipad for years with LTE but finally did it for these reasons.

Plus I gain another 10GB of tethering on it on my AT&T Unlimited plan, which I can use for iOS updates, my MBP, etc.
 
Just ordered a new iPad Pro without cellular. I have a cellular 10.5 but never use the cellular on it. I always think I'll need it but in practice never do....
 
Once you get used to Cellular iPads, especially with a healthy data plan (mine is unlimited), it's borderline impossible to go back.

It's so so SO nice to be always on and connected.
Many times I pick up the iPad and do something and am done before I'd even have gotten connected using tethering.

I would KILL to get a MacBook with Cellular at some point.
 
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I use it for work, as I travel quite a bit. I don’t want to run down the phone battery for internet use. However OP, if you don’t really use it now and you can tether to your phone in the event you do need to use cellular data here or there,and you don’t need the GPS, then I would suggest just getting the WiFi version.
 
I’m still grandfathered in on the original AT&T unlimited data plan for the iPad, so it’s a no brained for me. I’ve transferred it to every iPad i’ve owned since 2010. It really does come in handy when on the road and away from home.
 
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turbineseaplane said:
Once you get used to Cellular iPads, especially with a healthy data plan (mine is unlimited), it's borderline impossible to go back.

It's so so SO nice to be always on and connected.
Many times I pick up the iPad and do something and am done before I'd even have gotten connected using tethering.

I would KILL to get a MacBook with Cellular at some point.
Click to expand...

Same here. I've had unlimited cell data since the first iPad, and it's wonderful to be always connected. Reliable wifi is few and far between for me except at home. I'd love to have a MacBook Pro with a built in LTE.

When I tried an iPad without cellular, it seemed like it was a useless product almost everywhere because wifi was so sparse for me.
 
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This is my first cellular iPad. I have good access to wifi when I’m at home or work, but not at our camp or my parents’ house.

I have a Verizon wifi hotspot, but reception isn’t the best at either the camp or my parents’ house. At the camp, we even have an external antenna on the roof of the barn our camper is under and sometimes reception is still awful.

Most months I don’t use all that much data, but in November, December, and January (when we are at the camp a lot), I use a lot of data. I don’t have a Verizon unlimited plan and don’t want one, but have to switch to it a couple of months. That’s annoying when service is so poor and the cost is a lot higher than the 8G plan for something that I can’t take full advantage of because of lousy signal.

AT&T seems to have better service at our camp so I’m thinking that the $30/month AT&T unlimited plan will be great for the month when we are at the camp a lot. I can use my Verizon data (up to 8 GB is cheap) and the wifi hotspot for all the electronic devices I use to monitor photos from our cellular game cameras and use the iPad for web surfing, email, etc.

I don’t know whether there is T-Mobile signal at our camp or at my parents’ house, but I’m willing to gamble $10 for the 5G/$150 day plan. If there is signal at either or both of those places, the T-Mobile plan will work for most of the year. It’s almost like having rollover data because it doesn’t go away at the end of the month. I’ll just buy another plan when I run out of data.
 
Ordered the WiFi only iPad Pro. Trying to be sensible and realistic. After getting my 10.5 Pro on launch day I've used the cellular no more than 3 to 5 times. Just don't need it where I go. Use Wifi at home, work and my usual hotel that I use occasionally has super fast WiFi. So just going with the WiFi model. Save the money I would of spent on the cellular version on the Folio case.
 
Dave Meadows said:
Ordered the WiFi only iPad Pro. Trying to be sensible and realistic. After getting my 10.5 Pro on launch day I've used the cellular no more than 3 to 5 times. Just don't need it where I go. Use Wifi at home, work and my usual hotel that I use occasionally has super fast WiFi. So just going with the WiFi model. Save the money I would of spent on the cellular version on the Folio case.
Click to expand...

I am SO unpredictable! Just cancelled WiFi only order and ordered a cellular. I know if I don't I'll regret it. Hopefully it'll reflect in the resale price in a couple of years. Anyway, FINAL ANSWER/DECISION!
 
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I am on a shared data plan at Verizon and it’s $10 a month for the iPad so it isn’t a huge expense and is very handy when I am in a spot with spotty WiFi.
 
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As I’ve said earlier on Macrumors, I have a free unlimited tablet plan via T-Mobile which is on the eSIM and a $10 - 1GB plan through Verizon each month on the Nano SIM. For me, it’s a no brained to use cellular. I’m also convinced that it’s not for everyone.
 
Bought three iPads with cellular prior to getting the current 12.9 Pro. Found the cellular handy with the first two I owned because I was doing a lot more driving and working in places with little to no wifi. With the last iPad, I found I pretty much never used cellular and access to WiFi has been better based on where I tend to use it. So the new iPad is the first WiFi only model I’ve owned, and I feel fine with that.
 
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