Just bought a 3G iPad... Couple of questions.

A question for all of you with 3G iPads... Today I was in the mall I stopped in the Apple store and they happen to have a couple 16GB 3G iPads in stock, So I picked one up. My question is how does the At&t data plan work? Do I need to go to At&t store and pay every month? Also which data plan do most of you use?

Thanks

Ha ha...the Apple Store "sucked" you in with those in-stock iPads!

Hello monthly 3G bills! Just kidding! According to the Apple web page...you can just sign up for a month at a time:

"Best of all, there’s no long-term contract. So if you have a business trip or vacation approaching, just sign up for the month you’ll be traveling and cancel when you get back."

http://www.apple.com/ipad/3g/

Have fun,

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Ha ha...the Apple Store "sucked" you in with those in-stock iPads!

Hello monthly 3G bills! Just kidding! According to the Apple web page...you can just sign up for a month at a time:

Apple - iPad - Stay connected everywhere you go.

Have fun,

- Nick

Click to expand...

LOL... I know the 3G models are never in stock, I walked and asked if they had any, Luckily they had a few 16GB 3G left.

bargsbeer said:

LOL... I know the 3G models are never in stock, I walked and asked if they had any, Luckily they had a few 16GB 3G left.

Click to expand...

I'm still trying to decide if a 16gig model is going to be enough. My wife has a 16gig iPod Touch...and she seems to be doing fine with her storage space. But I think apps for the iPad may be larger than for the "Touch"...plus if you want to store a few movies at a time on the iPad...I wonder if 16gig will be enough.

I'm not the sort of person to store a bunch of unnecessary stuff (too many mp3's, too many movies, too many unused apps, etc.)...so I think I'll be fine.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

I'm still trying to decide if a 16gig model is going to be enough. My wife has a 16gig iPod Touch...and she seems to be doing fine with her storage space. But I think apps for the iPad may be larger than for the "Touch"...plus if you want to store a few movies at a time on the iPad...I wonder if 16gig will be enough.

I'm not the sort of person to store a bunch of unnecessary stuff (too many mp3's, too many movies, too many unused apps, etc.)...so I think I'll be fine.

- Nick

Click to expand...

You know if you get MobileMe I think you get an extra 10Gigs of space in the cloud. I just activated it, The data plan was simple everything done through the iPad no need to call At&t.

I just did a speed test pretty good results.

bargsbeer said:

I just did a speed test pretty good results.

Click to expand...

Are those speeds the 3G speed...or your home wireless internet speed? Oops..I see it's the 3G speed...saw the little AT&T label in the upper left corner of the photo.

Just for comparison...what sort of speeds do you get on the iPad on your home wireless network?

Thanks,

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Are those speeds the 3G speed...or your home wireless internet speed? Oops..I see it's the 3G speed...saw the little AT&T label in the upper left corner of the photo.

Just for comparison...what sort of speeds do you get on the iPad on your home wireless network?

Thanks,

- Nick

Click to expand...

This is what I got with just wifi at the house. To be honest the 3G is much faster than I thought it would be, It's faster than the 3G on my Nexus One. Were going to see relatives today about an hour north of here, I'm gonna take it with me and do a couple SpeedTest on the way, But so far I'm pretty much sold on At&t 3G.

bargsbeer said:

This is what I got with just wifi at the house. To be honest the 3G is much faster than I thought it would be, It's faster than the 3G on my Nexus One. Were going to see relatives today about an hour north of here, I'm gonna take it with me and do a couple SpeedTest on the way, But so far I'm pretty much sold on At&t 3G.

Click to expand...

Enjoy your trip...sounds like a fun experiment! I for one would definitely be interested in hearing the results.

- Nick

As far as the data plans, while there is no longer term contract required, here's the "Gotcha!"



If you only want one month, you have to tell them BEFORE the current month is up or you will be dinged for another month automatically whether you wanted it or not!

The 3G data plan can be purchased on the iPad itself with a major credit card. There's no need to walk into an AT&T store or anything like that. As others have said, just be sure to cancel the service before your month is up if you don't wish to renew, otherwise you will automatically get charged for another month of service.

Been using it for 24 hours so far, I'm definitely going to need the 2GB Plan.
I will say At&t Data network is excellent I took the iPad on a road trip today I had full bars and 3G the entire way, Only one time did it bounce back to EDGE.

bargsbeer said:

Been using it for 24 hours so far, I'm definitely going to need the 2GB Plan.
I will say At&t Data network is excellent I took the iPad on a road trip today I had full bars and 3G the entire way, Only one time did it bounce back to EDGE.

Click to expand...

So what you're basically saying is...in 24 hours (1 day) you "ate thru" 89.4% of the 250meg data plan.

Do you think this was:

- Just due to the "newness" of the device (since you just got the new "toy")...or can you see yourself continuing this sort of 3G usage going forward?
- Just due to the fact that you took this 1-hour trip north to see your relatives?
- I'm sure when you got to your relatives...you were showing the "new toy" to everyone...and that may have "eaten" thru a bunch of your data plan (assuming you needed to use 3G when there).
- Others have mentioned "conserving" the 3G "data"...by using "WiFi" as much as possible...maybe this will eventually be your strategy as well.

I agree that it does look like you could probably use the 2 gig plan. If you went thru the 89.4% of the 250meg data plan in less than 24hrs...even at a lower usage rate...you would still probably go thru the 250meg in 1-2 weeks easily.

Maybe the 3G data plans thing is still an experiment in progress. After the "newness" wears off...maybe your 3G usage will greatly decrease. Glad to hear you had strong signal as well on your trip...good news for the AT&T network (at least in your part of Florida).

Thanks for posting your experiences,

- Nick

What pigoo said, plus be sure to use WiFi wherever available rather than 3G. Way less expensive in the long (or short, for that matter) run.

I use wifi at the house, I do take the iPad with me where ever I go, I was using it on the road,we were at the store yesterday I was using it. The nice part is all you have to do is log into your At&t account on the iPad and simply modify your plan no need to call At&t.

I gotta say I can't comment on At&t voice quality,But the data connection has been nothing short of astonishingly fast, I have been doing Speedtest all over town it's constantly running 2.50-2.97 Mbs. I always have full bars everywhere I go.

I'm on the unlimited plan . . . but 250MB lasted me approximately 2 weeks at my normal usage rate. This is two weeks at home BTW. I keep my iPad with me everywhere, so it gets a fair amount of off Wifi usage.

I'm going to have to use wifi when ever possible. I think it's fair to say you can't compare data usage on the iPhone to the iPad. That being said I will use the 3G when there is no wifi, does anyone know what happens if you go over the 2GB?

bargsbeer said:

I'm going to have to use wifi when ever possible. I think it's fair to say you can't compare data usage on the iPhone to the iPad.

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Well you can depending on how you use the devices and how much you stream video without WiFi

That being said I will use the 3G when there is no wifi, does anyone know what happens if you go over the 2GB?

Click to expand...

All the details are here:
New Smartphone Data Plans - Wireless from AT&T

pigoo3 said:

Ha ha...the Apple Store "sucked" you in with those in-stock iPads!

Hello monthly 3G bills! Just kidding! According to the Apple web page...you can just sign up for a month at a time:

"Best of all, there’s no long-term contract. So if you have a business trip or vacation approaching, just sign up for the month you’ll be traveling and cancel when you get back."

Apple - iPad - Stay connected everywhere you go.

Have fun,

- Nick

Click to expand...

The only problem with the at&t monthly account is it automatically renews unless you cancel. I would prefer the "fill my account up with minutes/usage" approach.

LGgeek said:

The only problem with the at&t monthly account is it automatically renews unless you cancel. I would prefer the "fill my account up with minutes/usage" approach.

Click to expand...

I agree, that's why I'm not using my regular bank of America CC, I have one of those pre-paid debit cards that I use for purchases like this