Quandary - Verizon or AT&T iPad2?

Quandary - Verizon or AT%T iPad2?

Here's my quandary: I have two iPhones and an iPad all with AT&T service. The newest iOs revision will allow my iPhone 4 to be a mobile hotspot for an iPad, If I read the announcements correctly. Soooooo, If I pick up a new iPad2 in the wifi and 3G Verizon version, will I be able to use an AT&T iPhone4 as a mobile hotspot for the iPad2 but still be able to use it's native Verizon 3G when I wish?

Decisions, decisions, decisions

Yes, you could.

However also consider that AT&T is now offering a post paid 3G for the iPad that can be combined onto your wireless bill. So if that's something you'd want to do, then get the AT&T 3G version.

you have to get the tethering option activated on you plan to use your phone as a hotspot either way you will have to pay two times. but if you just get the wifi one and activate the option to have a mobile hotspot on your phone you will only have one bill. Just take the extra money you are saving and get the next size up. I wanna get the 64 gig

So for maximum versatility and use of both nertworks

Go with the Verizon iPad2 3G and wifi and tether it with iOs 4.3 to my AT&T iPhone4. Best of all worlds.





"Get online in more places.

On the road, in an airport, at the park — now you can bring Wi-Fi with you wherever you go. Download iOS 4.3 on your iPhone 4, and the next time you find yourself without access to Wi-Fi but in 3G territory, enable Personal Hotspot and share your cellular data connection with your Mac, PC, iPad, or other Wi-Fi-capable device. You can share your connection with up to five devices at once over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB — with up to three of those connections using Wi-Fi.4 Every connection is password protected and secure. And it’s power friendly, too. iPhone detects when your Personal Hotspot is no longer in use and turns it off to save battery life."

Another reason to go ATT if this is true.

Study finds AT&T iPhone downloads twice as fast as Verizon's

Razormac said:

Another reason to go ATT if this is true.

Study finds AT&T iPhone downloads twice as fast as Verizon's

Click to expand...

It is true. GSM 3G is faster than CDMA 3G. This is true anywhere on any carrier.

OK, you are convincing me

It should be an AT&T iPad2 for the data transfer speed and availability. I don't care about the phone ability on an iPad but it has always been adequate on my iPhone 3GS and 4.

So I should not buy the Verizon version. I have a Verizon cell phone though and will be buying the iPhone 5 on Verizon as well. Hmmmm...

I believe I have read quite a few different reports on this ATT is faster.. but you will get service in more places with Verizon.

wolfpuppies3 said:

Go with the Verizon iPad2 3G and wifi and tether it with iOs 4.3 to my AT&T iPhone4. Best of all worlds.





"Get online in more places.

On the road, in an airport, at the park — now you can bring Wi-Fi with you wherever you go. Download iOS 4.3 on your iPhone 4, and the next time you find yourself without access to Wi-Fi but in 3G territory, enable Personal Hotspot and share your cellular data connection with your Mac, PC, iPad, or other Wi-Fi-capable device. You can share your connection with up to five devices at once over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB — with up to three of those connections using Wi-Fi.4 Every connection is password protected and secure. And it’s power friendly, too. iPhone detects when your Personal Hotspot is no longer in use and turns it off to save battery life."

Click to expand...

One more time, the HotSpot option isn't coming to the iPad. It sucks I know. But it was made clear as rain by Jobs in the keynot, also go to Apple - iOS 4.3 Software Update it clearly says HotSpot for iPhone 4 to share the cellular network with your iPad.

Sorry for bursting the bubble.

macwannabe said:

but you will get service in more places with Verizon.

Click to expand...

Not true.

Both carriers have pretty good coverage. There are places that are better for one than the other, but I wouldn't say either has a noticeable advantage in overall coverage area.

Judge which carrier's coverage based on where you'll primarily be using your iPad. Here for example AT&T is great and Verizon is decent but it's spotty. In San Francisco, AT&T is bad, but Verizon is good. Just depends.

I see.. well I am in South Florida.. Coverage on both are pretty strong ( so their coverage maps say ). But since I have Verizon already I think I will stick with them. Let you know how it goes. I had some problems with ATT sometimes in the past with reception like 1 year ago and dont feel like going back to them.

My girl has had Verizon for a years and always has service, and my iPhone 4 was acting stupid ( dropped every other call ) which is why I went back to Verizon reception is great.

For the OP on coverage.
I live in Arkansas but two of my kids went to Virginia Tech. Coverage for ATT was much better here than Verizon, but when we went to visit the kids coverage wasn't nearly as good on our ATT phones. Admittedly this has been a number of years ago (four at least) and things change.
FWIW, longwinded way to say you need to check how the coverage is where you live and operate.

Does anyone know if activating the hotspot feature will allow me to keep my unlimited data plan on my iPhone4, or will I have to step down to a 2GB plan? I also have the unlimited plan on my iPad3G... and I am hesitant to drop my data plan and go with tethering, since I won't be able to go back.

mcbrew said:

Does anyone know if activating the hotspot feature will allow me to keep my unlimited data plan on my iPhone4, or will I have to step down to a 2GB plan? I also have the unlimited plan on my iPad3G... and I am hesitant to drop my data plan and go with tethering, since I won't be able to go back.

Click to expand...

You have to change plans to add tethering or hotspot. So you'll lose your unlimited plan.

schweb said:

You have to change plans to add tethering or hotspot. So you'll lose your unlimited plan.

Click to expand...

That sucks Verizon has unlimited plans.. Just can't surf and be on the phone at the same time until they get the iPhone 5 on LTE, which will have a sim. I hear ATT will got to LTE as well, but they are being stingy with data.

macwannabe said:

That sucks Verizon has unlimited plans.. Just can't surf and be on the phone at the same time until they get the iPhone 5 on LTE, which will have a sim. I hear ATT will got to LTE as well, but they are being stingy with data.

Click to expand...

Verizon does not have an unlimited tethering or hotspot plan.

You seem to have a ton of really bad info trying to put down AT&T in several threads. You may want to fact check.

And actually Verizon is deploying CDMA updates to allow talking and surfing at the same time.

I have an AT&T 3G iPad with the grandfathered unlimited data plan. So I'll probably stick with AT&T to keep that.

I will research more. my apologies... Thanks for the update on the CDMA news

I read that although AT&T has faster download speeds, that didn't really seem to matter for web surfing (which is my main usage for 3G). I'm considering going with the Verizon version to have more coverage, perhaps in places where the AT&T iPhone drops out. That way I'd have 2 networks essentially to get the broadest/best coverage. Thoughts?

Quandary over, decision made

Ordered my white 64 gig WiFi 3g AT&T version this AM. Confirmation from Apple says I should look for it between 18-25 March. Already downloaded the 4.3 iOs to my iPhone 4 but probably won't need that if I am in 3G range anyway. But the hotspot will be fine for my MacBook Pro when the need arises. GSM (AT&T), by all measures is discernibly faster than the older CDMA (Verizon).