First, we have to look at the elephant in the room: T-Mobile's absolutely
free plan, which gets you 200 MB of high-speed data for life. If you really
want to save money, this is really the only option — it even makes that
extra $130 for the cellular iPad seem reasonable. For that matter, there's
no need to even buy a new iPad — you can bring in any compatible tablet and
T-Mobile will activate it gratis.
If, however, you want to do more than check email, download some books and
apps and browse Wikipedia, you'll need more that 200 MB of data, and for
that you must pay.
Getting cellular data with your iPad can be done in two ways: add the iPad
to your existing plan, or sign up for an iPad-specific one.
If you're already paying for unlimited data for your smartphone, it might be
best to take door number one and pay whatever it costs to let your iPad
share that connection. On AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, it'll cost you $10 to
add a tablet to your plan; at Sprint, you'll have to pay $15 for a tablet
plan, but it adds 2 GB to your limit (and their unlimited plans are cheaper
to begin with).
plans
Apple
But if you'd like to be able to switch the cellular data on your iPad on and
off month by month, you'll want to get one of the special iPad plans. The
goal of these plans is maximum mobility and a decent amount of data; if 200
MB isn't enough, 1 gig probably isn't, either. But who wants to pay an extra
$50 a month?
The $30-a-month plans offer the most basic and flexible value, then, and of
those we recommend AT&T's for the following reasons:
•You're not bound by contracts, so you can jump on and off at will (
unlike AT&T's ordinary tablet plans)
•Verizon offers less data for $30, and on top of that their and Sprint
's network hardware isn't as compatible internationally
•AT&T generally has better coverage than Sprint or T-Mobile
But wait. Here's the best part. After you activate with AT&T, stop by T-
Mobile and start an account with them, too! T-Mobile told NBC News before
that an AT&T iPad (and many other phones and tablets) should work fine on
their network and vice versa. We haven't tested it out (yet), but there's no
technical reason it shouldn't work like a charm. And the price is right.
That way, you can subsist on the free plan during months when you just need
to check email on the train — but can reactivate your $30 AT&T plan quickly
and easily should you want to stream music during a day at the park. All
you need to to is pop open the SIM slot (you may need a paper clip) and swap
cards. The rest should take care of itself, since there's no hardware
difference between T-Mobile and AT&T iPads.
The same advice should apply to the new iPad Mini whenever it comes out, and
also for other iPads and tablets that support both AT&T and T-Mobile.
