Tethering to iPhone vs iPad cellular

[iMore Question]

I have an iPad 2 with cellular service available. I also have an iPhone 5. Both are on at&t service provider. My question is; what is the difference (cost and abilities) between tethering my iPad to my iPhone or just activating the cellular service on the iPad?

 

[rdiddy_25]

Tethering your ipad to your iPhone will use the iPhones data. If you put a data plan on the ipad, then you have service anywhere you have a signal. Easy on the tethering as it can cause an overage in data use.

 

[anon(4698833)]

I have an iPad 2 with cellular service available. I also have an iPhone 5. Both are on at&t service provider. My question is; what is the difference (cost and abilities) between tethering my iPad to my iPhone or just activating the cellular service on the iPad?

A few bits of info about this, since this is the conversation me and my wife had before she chose a cellular model retina Mini this past month...

- If you tether your iPad and you receive a phone call or a large amount of data usage in a download or SMS/MMS...your iPad will stop tethering, will be interrupted and sometimes, this can cause little annoying freeze ups (especially within movie/music streaming services, which like playing nice when a connection is consistent).
- If you tether your iPad, you will be using data from your cellular service plan, and depending on the kind of activities you do, you can really eat up data quickly using this method.
- Tethering your iPad and using cellular service on a capable iPad provide the same types of usage features...in other words, you don't get anything extra doing it one way or another (as far as features go).

...my wife went with a cellular iPad Mini Retina because she didn't like to have her processes and projects on her iPad interrupted when the iPhone was being used in a way that interrupts tethering (and it happens more often than you would think). What we found was the cost to use a hotspot on her iPhone was about the same amount as it was for a stand alone service on her iPad...around $30 through AT&T. If I remember correctly, she gets 3GB per month for that cost. Her average usage per month was between 2-3GB so it was perfect for her...and she doesn't have to pay for hotspot service anymore.

Hope this helps you with your decision.

 

[Jaguarr40]

Sean I would not use mine for this and decided against cellular usage on my iPad but thank you for sharing this info. All info when like this and coming from you is good and respected info. Thank you my friend.