best ipad prepaid data plan?

[GeorgeC]

My data needs are modest; in the first month of service for my new old phone, I've sent 2M and received 20M.

Are there any reasonable prepaid data plans for the ipad, that is, $X for Y GB that doesn't expire? At the above burn rate, a gigabyte per year should cover it.

 

[Wheels]

T-Mobile offers 200MB a month for free. If you don't use much data you can't beat that.

 

[BigBadLou]

If you are getting an iPad, for crying out loud do not get the AT&T model. iOS8 f***ed up something on the cell chip so now I cannot get a decent signal in the middle of a freaking metropole. cr-Apple claims it is not their problem. AT&T says they didn't change anything and it's not their problem either.

 

[Henning]

My data needs are modest; in the first month of service for my new old phone, I've sent 2M and received 20M.

Are there any reasonable prepaid data plans for the ipad, that is, $X for Y GB that doesn't expire? At the above burn rate, a gigabyte per year should cover it.

I hotspot to my T-Mo phone, it's a better deal than doing it any other way. If I need a lot of bandwidth on the road I use a third party unlimited hotspot. Of the ways of getting direct cell data, all are considerably more costly.

 

[NoHeat]

I hotspot to my T-Mo phone, it's a better deal than doing it any other way.

For cost, this is probably the best way to do it, assuming you have a smart phone. It is no additional cost over what you're paying for the phone's plan.

 

[GeorgeC]

T-Mobile offers 200MB a month for free. If you don't use much data you can't beat that.

While free anything usually makes me think "you are not the customer, you are the product", I'll have to check out the tmo option, as they cut you off after 200MB rather than defaulting to charging you overages. Ideally, they'd degrade the speed, or more ideally, I'd just pay for unlimited low speed for a smaller dollar amount.

I hotspot to my T-Mo phone, it's a better deal than doing it any other way. If I need a lot of bandwidth on the road I use a third party unlimited hotspot. Of the ways of getting direct cell data, all are considerably more costly.

This is what I currently do.

 

[Wheels]

At the end of the 200M T-Mobile cuts you off and offers to sell you more data. I have set this plan up on 3 IPads and T-Mobile doesn't have my credit card number or any other way to charge me. I don't have any other kind of account with T-Mobile. I bought a $5 T-Mobile SIM card on Amazon (on my AIR2 I used the Apple SIM, I bought new SIMs for 1st and 3rd generation AT&T IPads) and set the service up. If you call customer service for assistance setting it up they will try to sell you another plan but you can do it all online without their assistance. The only info I gave them was my name, email, and I set up a password.

 

[CT4ME]

I just added my iPad to a small Verizon group of phones. for $10 /month I mooch off the data pool, and have virtually no affect on it.
(also use the free 200M thing from t-mob on my android tablet)

 

[denverpilot]

Adding my iPads to the unlimited data plan phones on TMo was $10/per and they give us 5 GB/mo on each iPad.

 

[TheGolfPilot]

for $10 a month my ipad eats off of my family cell phone plan

 

[Henning]

While free anything usually makes me think "you are not the customer, you are the product", I'll have to check out the tmo option, as they cut you off after 200MB rather than defaulting to charging you overages. Ideally, they'd degrade the speed, or more ideally, I'd just pay for unlimited low speed for a smaller dollar amount.



This is what I currently do.

Yeah, no, they don't offer anything that makes useful sense, at least not to me. I've worked around a 200MB limit before, not worth it. For another data plan, I'm better off buying a Hotspot device. I tried to help her sell me a data package and couldn't get it done, so I ended up staying with a wifi unit and saving that money.