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MIFI or AT&T 3G Service ?
- Thread starter rm2092
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Words to save by, the 250 MB would be a good testing start, if you like it you can pay for the unlimited. By the way from what I have heard AT&T doesn't cap this service where as other vendors ie Verizon do cap.
At&t has a soft cap (5GB) for every other data plan they offer like all the other carriers except for the iphone plan and soon the ipad plan which are true "unlimited" plans as mentioned. I'm pretty sure Apple has a lot to do with forcing At&t to provide unlimited data plans for their products. I live in Northern NJ and have never had an issue with at&t's 3G service with my iphone and I use data literally all the time.
Edit: A soft cap on all of their laptop dataconnect plans I should say. Their Blackberry and PDA data plans are unlimited too.
The iPhone data plan has the cap as well. The iPad data plan is the first "unlimited means unlimited" (as AT&T itself described it) data plan that they've made available via their 3G network.
Is MiFi unlimited traffic for $60 per month, and is the iPad 3G truly unlimited for $30 per month or is it capped at 5 GB of bandwidth?
As with everything else in life, it depends on how portable we want to be and how convenient we want our gadgets to be. I would love to get away with just having an iPad with 3G for unlimited monthly browsing, but then again I love my iPhone and Mac too. So MiFi seems like the best if we want to save money for multiple devices. If we want convenience or only have the iPad for connectivity on the go, AT&T's 3G iPad service seems like a better way to go.
As with everything else in life, it depends on how portable we want to be and how convenient we want our gadgets to be. I would love to get away with just having an iPad with 3G for unlimited monthly browsing, but then again I love my iPhone and Mac too. So MiFi seems like the best if we want to save money for multiple devices. If we want convenience or only have the iPad for connectivity on the go, AT&T's 3G iPad service seems like a better way to go.
I already have a AT&T Option Quicksilver, I ended up buying a PHS-300 from Cradlepoint and I use that to create a hotspot for any device. I can confirm it works great with the iPad, iPhone, MBP/OS X 10.6, touch, PS3, Win 7, Win Vista, and Win XP.
Between 2 iPhones, a regular cell phone, and my 3G USB data card AT&T gets $200 a month from me, I don't want to give them any more money especially for a one device data plan that I can avoid paying.
The Mifi has a 5gb cap, the exception being http://www.millenicom.com/mobilebroadband/index.html which resells Sprint data and has an unlimited $70 plan. The iPad is unlimited but probably has an unwritten soft-cap that you have to constantly exceed more than once. I know on Sprint, grandfathered unlimited data plans have a soft cap somewhere around 20-30gb.
You could always get a palm pre plus from verizon. There hotspot app is free. Works great for me.
that's the route I am taking. Here in Greenville, NC (go pirates!) AT&T has 0 3g... no joke. When I am in my dorm room where wi-fi drops off like like a ball rolling off a table, I use internet sharing on my macbook pro and I have wi-fi in my room.
I get 5 mbps D/L on mytether (it's unlimited, mobile hotspot is 5gb's), I also play xbox live on mythether (bandwith whore...)
Look, virtually all data connect plans with all cell companies come with a 5GB "soft-cap", meaning that you won't get charged for going over, but they will let you know that you're exceeding what they consider to be "normal" usage and eventually they will either start charging you per kilobit or they will just cut your service off. Believe me, I've researched this in-depth because I live out in the country and the only "high-speed" internet options available are cell-based, microwave (which sucks), and satellite (which sucks worse).
AT&T itself confirmed that the iPad 3G plan is truly unlimited:
So if you think you're going to be using the 3G data heavily on your iPad, like I will be, then thirty bucks is worth it.
AT&T itself confirmed that the iPad 3G plan is truly unlimited:
From the article said:
So if you think you're going to be using the 3G data heavily on your iPad, like I will be, then thirty bucks is worth it.
Quit streaming Netflix off 3G. I need some bandwidth, too, ya know
Haha, well I'm using WiFi so I'm trying to help everyone out around me.
No I'm thinking wifi hot spots seem to be growing all over and with the new Iphone coming out I should just buy the wifi Ipad and if a must and there is no wifi at the point of were im at ill just use the iphone for the web. Crap I hate being so undesided
Somewhat off topic... But I purchased an air card 2 years ago with contract because of how much traveling I did on weekend.
Not only did the traveling stop, but I didn't use it nearly as much when I did travel as I thought I would. I would much rather have had a month by month option vs paying $55 a month for the past 2 years only to use it once in awhile.
As far as AT&Ts service is concerned... It is significantly worse in my area than verizons was when I was with them. I still think I would rather deal with a random headache or two and save myself potentially hundreds of dollars.
Not only did the traveling stop, but I didn't use it nearly as much when I did travel as I thought I would. I would much rather have had a month by month option vs paying $55 a month for the past 2 years only to use it once in awhile.
As far as AT&Ts service is concerned... It is significantly worse in my area than verizons was when I was with them. I still think I would rather deal with a random headache or two and save myself potentially hundreds of dollars.
I would try the 3G first if it isn't good then you can exchange the iPad for a WiFi only and get a MIFI. Going the MIFI route first doesn't give you the option to go back.
I actually used this method for my ipad and discountinued service during the 30 days and switched to a MiFi. I am happy with the mifi so far.
I can attest that AT&T 3G blows in Chicago/surrounding area. I honestly get 3-5 dropped calls a day and I seem to be using EDGE more than I am using 3G.