iPad with or without cellular

[rui no onna]

Perhaps I’m just ignorant, but this sounds contradictory.

It sounds like you’re saying that there isn’t a monthly fee if you pay the monthly fee.

I believe @kipwheeler meant that any monthly fee (regardless of whether for data or line access) wasn’t worth it for his use case. I could be wrong though.

No. He's saying with prepaid, you don't have to pay a monthly fee if you don't need continuous cellular data on your iPad. You can just sign up and buy data on demand (via Settings - Cellular).

My main iPad is on my regular mobile share plan for $10/month. My backup iPad, I have on the $10/5GB/150 day pass on T-Mobile.

 

[Shirasaki]

Perhaps I’m just ignorant, but this sounds contradictory.

It sounds like you’re saying that there isn’t a monthly fee if you pay the monthly fee.

I believe @kipwheeler meant that any monthly fee (regardless of whether for data or line access) wasn’t worth it for his use case. I could be wrong though.

If what he means is strictly “monthly plan” which you need to pay a fee each month to maintain a cellular service for iPad, then his claim of “not worth it” makes sense.

 

[Khedron]

Perhaps I’m just ignorant, but this sounds contradictory.

It sounds like you’re saying that there isn’t a monthly fee if you pay the monthly fee.

I believe @kipwheeler meant that any monthly fee (regardless of whether for data or line access) wasn’t worth it for his use case. I could be wrong though.

I think they mean prepaid vs monthly. You can have an LTE iPad and not have any monthly data plan. Then you go travelling or whatever so you pick up a prepaid SIM to have LTE for your travels. Then back to pay nothing.

You can also sign up with the eSIM for prepaid but those rates tend to be abysmal.

 

[Shadowbech]

Perhaps I’m just ignorant, but this sounds contradictory.

It sounds like you’re saying that there isn’t a monthly fee if you pay the monthly fee.

I believe @kipwheeler meant that any monthly fee (regardless of whether for data or line access) wasn’t worth it for his use case. I could be wrong though.

I guess it depends? I thought that poster meant as of the cost for having a line open.

 

[RickTaylor]

I have the iPad mini with cellular, because I.have an awful sense of direction and use it as a GPS. I could use my phone instead, but the mini gives a larger map while still being a fairly compact device. If it weren't for the GPS I wouldn't bother with it; I'd just use the phone for a wifi hotspot on those unusual occasions when I need to.

 

[Ericshoot]

I think I finally settled on a 12.9 cellular iPad Pro. Initially ordered the 11 WiFi only iPad Pro but returned it for a 12.9 WiFi only iPad Pro, only to change my mind again and returned it for a 12.9 cellular iPad Pro. Signed up for the T-Mobile $10 for 150 days pass and now I’m a happy camper!

 

[scottrods]

I always Bought the Cellular version and NO data plan.... back in early times, you could buy a Data plan for one month if you wanted to have cellular on a trip or something, and mostly otherwise were at home. That's how they offered it originally. Buy as you need. Now you can't buy a Cellular version without a plan of some sort. So I still buy the Cell model and get the cheapest plan to add on to a family plan... sharing our data hasn't been a problem. My wife and I do not LIVE on our phones or tablets, but enjoy the convenience and fun of having some things handy everywhere we go. We often leave our cell phones at home and do stuff as well. or just take one phone or even take just one of the iPads. It does cost a bit more to purchase, and the justification for "not" is all about money... We just don't run our lives that close to the bone any more, so we can enjoy some perks nowadays. We both have had a lot of times in our lives where we didn't have that option, so we actually just decide whether it's worth it to enjoy the connectivity or not, and lately it's just nice to own our lives in this way. If it came to down to paying the bills or having the iPad at all, we'd pay our bills first.

 

[scottrods]

I am still grandfathered in on the original AT&T unlimited data plan for the ipad, so i always get the cellular version and just transfer the plan to every new ipad i buy. But even if i wasn’t grandfathered in, i’d still get the cellular version cause I travel a lot, and prefer to always be connected. My 11” ipad pro is my main computing device.

I finally gave up my Original Unlimited Data plan this year. Looking at my usage and my wife's, we decided to let it go. If you truly use enough data per month to make it worthwhile, it's definitely a great thing to stick with. However, Our case got a $50 a month savings to move over to a more appropriate plan for us. An occasional penalty (extra charge for overage) has not occurred yet, and we generally have a lot of room to spare on our data. the Extra charge would be a one time deal if we do get one... or might be worth it if we are on Vacation traveling or something and require more data. I went over on my iPad data one time and spent a whopping 15 bucks extra, and it was not on the same plan at the time... but now all of our devices are on the same plan and we don't get close to using up our data, especially since we have the rollover feature again... with data instead of talk time now.

 

[Melcali82]

Its good convenience to always have data on the ipad but i have a small mifi device that i pay $60/month for unlimited data instead . A good thing about it is that i can connect multiple devices to it instead of just data being restricted to my ipad. That along with my phones hotspot which i have 15gb/month when i really need it

 

[rui no onna]

I always Bought the Cellular version and NO data plan.... back in early times, you could buy a Data plan for one month if you wanted to have cellular on a trip or something, and mostly otherwise were at home. That's how they offered it originally. Buy as you need. Now you can't buy a Cellular version without a plan of some sort.

Huh? You still can. I've bought unlocked iPads from Apple Store and B&H Photo that I just put on the T-Mobile $10/5GB/5 months prepaid pay as you go plan.
[doublepost=1563641006][/doublepost]

Its good convenience to always have data on the ipad but i have a small mifi device that i pay $60/month for unlimited data instead . A good thing about it is that i can connect multiple devices to it instead of just data being restricted to my ipad. That along with my phones hotspot which i have 15gb/month when i really need it

I use the iPad as hotspot for my laptop all the time. With display off, the iPad can actually function as hotspot for 40 hours.

 

[Shirasaki]

I always Bought the Cellular version and NO data plan.... back in early times, you could buy a Data plan for one month if you wanted to have cellular on a trip or something, and mostly otherwise were at home. That's how they offered it originally. Buy as you need. Now you can't buy a Cellular version without a plan of some sort. So I still buy the Cell model and get the cheapest plan to add on to a family plan...

If you buy cellular iPad outright, unlocked, you can get away with any plan, at least that’s what is happening in Sydney. I did that back then to get my iPad Pro.

But, the one-time cost could be extremely high, so I appreciate the decision of buying it on a plan to get an expensive electronics with a little bit more total cost but more manageable payments.

 

[scottrods]

Huh? You still can. I've bought unlocked iPads from Apple Store and B&H Photo that I just put on the T-Mobile $10/5GB/5 months prepaid pay as you go plan.
[doublepost=1563641006][/doublepost]
I use the iPad as hotspot for my laptop all the time. With display off, the iPad can actually function as hotspot for 40 hours.

Yes... I realize that and kind of mis-stated that... I should have mentioned I did buy the iPad from my cell provider on finance plan, and that was part of the deal... If you buy it outright (Which I usually do) then any plan (or no plan) is game. I now have mine paid for, but have been enjoying the fact that I have a single plan shared by 3 devices cellular. I had forgotten I financed that iPad. I don't buy the cheap version of anything I buy. This one was zero interest so why not use someone else's money for free? well I paid 10 bucks a month extra for cellular data... but used it enough to make it worthwhile as well.

 

[littlepud]

My wife and I have 20GB pooled data plans for our cellphones (40GB total to share) that I had gotten for Black Friday last year. The carrier offers a $10/month tablet sharing plan so I got an extra data-only SIM for my Air 3.

 

[Kegs22]

I don’t use cellular often, but it’s nice to have it when you need it. I just signed up for T-Mobile on the iPad Pro 10.5 itself, I was able to purchase a plan for 5 months, 5GB total, $10 total (so $2/month for 1 GB/month, which I’m happy with since I won’t use cellular data very often).
By the way, my iPad Pro 10.5 embedded Apple SIM was locked to AT&T. I was able to get it unlocked after speaking with Apple, who called AT&T on my behalf. I believe AT&T did something on their end, and then I needed to Restore my iPad by tethering to iTunes on my computer. By the way, this was after calling AT&T myself, and going to an AT&T store. They kept saying my iPad was unlocked, and there was nothing else they could do. When I went to the AT&T Unlock website, it also said it was unlocked despite the embedded SIM being locked to AT&T.
So, if anyone else is facing this, you can try to Restore your iPad, and then if that doesn’t work contact AT&T and ask them to unlock the embedded SIM, and hopefully someone can and will do that for you.

 

[rumz]

Can AT&T’s unlimited plan be used with mobile hotspot?

 

[scottrods]

Can AT&T’s unlimited plan be used with mobile hotspot?

The old Grandfathered-in plan will not allow mobile hotspot from the phone to anything. The new Shared unlimited plan, I believe will allow it.

 

[LibbyLA]

Can AT&T’s unlimited plan be used with mobile hotspot?

If you are asking about the $35/month standalone plan, it does not support hotspot use.

 

[scottrods]

This is their cheapest Shown with unlimited Data - It offers no Mobile Hot Spot ($40/Month) currently.

• Unlimited talk, text & data

• SD Streaming (480p DVD quality, max of 1.5Mbps)

• Live TV: 35+ channels, live & on-demand*

• Mexico & Canada – Unlimited talk, text & data included
  
  
  
  This is their Unlimited Data plan with Mobile hot spot, but limited to 9gb a month ($48/month) currently
  

• Unlimited talk, text & data

• HD Streaming: (1080p quality)1

• Mobile Hotspot: 15GB/line2

• Live TV: 35+ channels, live & on-demand*

• Mexico & Canada – Unlimited talk, text & data included

• Premium entertainment - choose 1 on us: HBO®, Cinemax®, SHOWTIME®, STARZ®, VRV®, or Pandora Premium®

If you wait for a Sale time like Black Friday, you may be able to get a better deal with the Mobile hot spot available.

 

[rumz]

If you are asking about the $35/month standalone plan, it does not support hotspot use.

Yeah— the Domestic DataConnect Pass Auto Renew Plan — Unlimited MB for 30 days ($35). No hotspot then? Fair enough (too bad).

A number of people have mentioned using their iPad as a hotspot rather than their phone. Wasn’t sure what data plans supports it.
[doublepost=1564333255][/doublepost]

This is their cheapest Shown with unlimited Data - It offers no Mobile Hot Spot ($40/Month) currently.

• Unlimited talk, text & data

• SD Streaming (480p DVD quality, max of 1.5Mbps)

• Live TV: 35+ channels, live & on-demand*

• Mexico & Canada – Unlimited talk, text & data included
  
  
  
  This is their Unlimited Data plan with Mobile hot spot, but limited to 9gb a month ($48/month) currently

• Unlimited talk, text & data

• HD Streaming: (1080p quality)1

• Mobile Hotspot: 15GB/line2

• Live TV: 35+ channels, live & on-demand*

• Mexico & Canada – Unlimited talk, text & data included

• Premium entertainment - choose 1 on us: HBO®, Cinemax®, SHOWTIME®, STARZ®, VRV®, or Pandora Premium®

If you wait for a Sale time like Black Friday, you may be able to get a better deal with the Mobile hot spot available.

These sound like phone plans— tablets don’t have a talk/text component, no?

 

[Michael CM1]

I get cellular models. I travel enough for work to know that hotel WiFi often sucks so badly as to be nearly useless. Having cellular backup on my iPad has been worth the price for me.

The phone’s hotspot works ok, but it’s not the same as being always connected.

And, since the iPad has its own cell connection, I can remotely find it or disable/wipe it if it’s ever stolen.

My iPad (and MacBook Pro) was just stolen. WiFi model. It pains me that they were "smart" enough to turn it off or something. As soon as I saw that my car window had been broken, the second thing I did after calling 911 was go to a friend's phone and use Find My iPhone. But I still haven't found them and they haven't been put in a position to locate.

I'm fairly confident in Apple's security considering this was just a smash and grab and they had no clue what was in my backpack -- and since they didn't even touch the empty iPhone case on my seat that could've had a phone in it without looking closely. I also tried to reset my sister's iPad mini after she forgot her Apple password and I CANNOT GET INTO THAT THING. So good luck to those crooks. Also my data is going to wipe as soon as they get online, so either by them trying to wipe or it doing it itself, the data seems to be secure.

But dammit I wish they had continual updates on location because I would track them down and use my particular set of skills. I was also without my iPhone that day due to a repair, so had my iPad been cellular I likely would've had it with me or just been able to track/not been without a damn method of communication. So I may replace it at some point with a cellular model. The WiFi connection where I work right now is horrible because of the location in the building, so if that continues I may choose it for that reason.

 

[camedenliving]

Without lte, but with hotspot from Ting

 

[rumz]

My iPad (and MacBook Pro) was just stolen. WiFi model. It pains me that they were "smart" enough to turn it off or something. As soon as I saw that my car window had been broken, the second thing I did after calling 911 was go to a friend's phone and use Find My iPhone. But I still haven't found them and they haven't been put in a position to locate.

That sucks, man. And not too long before the Find My app would have enabled locating through other means than just WiFi and LTE. (Not that it’s a guarantee, but it seems like the odds would go up).

 

[Momof9]

I decided to get a 11" WiFi only. Got it for half of the cost it would have been for LTE version, when you include cost of the $20 line cost per month on Verizon. I will buy a apple fast charger and 2 long cords for my iPad and iPhone. Way cheaper using my iphone as a hotspot.

 

[scottrods]

These sound like phone plans— tablets don’t have a talk/text component, no?

Yeah... those are Phone plans. I felt like that was the answer to the question, and was also using the fact that the OP was deciding whether or no to get the cellular model iPad... kinda mades sense to me the question was for phone plans... I really hadn't explored the plans for iPads to find out about tethering *from* the iPad... but that could be an approach worthwhile if you wanted a tablet and wanted to use it (due to battery capabilities) to tether a Laptop. I may have missed the point originally, but find this as an absolutely fine option as well... as long as the plans allow it. My iPad shows it has the hot spot available on it as well, so it won't take much to get there either way.

 

[rui no onna]

Yeah— the Domestic DataConnect Pass Auto Renew Plan — Unlimited MB for 30 days ($35). No hotspot then? Fair enough (too bad).

A number of people have mentioned using their iPad as a hotspot rather than their phone. Wasn’t sure what data plans supports it.

I'm grandfathered to a Mobile Share 20GB plan ($100 20GB + $15*4 phones + $10 tablet).

I think we use around 15GB a month (normal web use, music streaming, laptop and wifi-only iPad tethering but little video streaming). Funnily enough, back then, mobile hotspot was $20/mo while tablet was just $10/mo so I opted for the tablet.

I do have iPads on the $10/5GB/150 day T-Mobile Prepaid Pay As You Go plan and surprisingly, it supports hotspot.