AT&T iPad Hotspot available??

bergman

Well-known member
Jun 10, 2008
457
5
18
Visit site
Someplace I read a mention from an ipad user indicating that they thought they saw an enabled option to use their AT&T iPad as a hotspot (tether to a wifi device(s)). Can any current AT&T iPad users confirm or refute this information? The hotspot feature clearly differentiates between the Verizon and AT&T, but Verizon is about $10- more per month on the data plans so I'm torn as to which to buy. I'm an AT&T mobile customer.
 

mrnserv

Well-known member
Sep 24, 2012
59
0
6
Visit site
I have an iPad 2 on AT&T with 3G cellular pay as you go and I've never had or seen that option on mine. That's why I went with Verizon for the iPad 4. I would have considered staying with AT&T on iPad if they offered it.
 

bergman

Well-known member
Jun 10, 2008
457
5
18
Visit site
I have an iPad 2 on AT&T with 3G cellular pay as you go and I've never had or seen that option on mine. That's why I went with Verizon for the iPad 4. I would have considered staying with AT&T on iPad if they offered it.
Having now used both AT&T and Verizon on an iPad, do you have any regrets about going to Verizon? do you see any major coverage improvements? If so, how much travel do you do? I find that it's easy to bash AT&T. it happens that where I live, ATT is ahead of Verizon in coverage so I've been an AT&T loyalist. Until LTE, GSM was just the more logical standard and easier to use worldwide if one had an unlocked phone.
 

bergman

Well-known member
Jun 10, 2008
457
5
18
Visit site
I got the answer from AT&T:
"AT&T Mobile Hotspot (Personal Hotspot) for iPhone and iPad enables users to share an Internet connection with secondary devices in several different ways. Internet sharing capabilities are dependent on the iPhone device type. AT&T Mobile Hotspot requires a supporting data plan. Only iPad capable of being Hotspot is newest iPad version.

Qualifying Data Plans:

iPad:

Mobile Share
5GB Postpaid Data Plan
5GB Prepaid (Session Based) Data Plan "

Stupid that they limit the hotspot to only the most costly data plans. it seems to me that if you pay for the data, you should be allowed to use it as needed, but it's just another backward policy that Verizon doesn't have!
 

mrnserv

Well-known member
Sep 24, 2012
59
0
6
Visit site
Bergman,

I've only had the iPad 4 with Verizon for a day and although I did activate the Verizon data, I have only run a speedtest at home and have yet to try it in the real world. My phone is AT&T, my internet AT&T, my iPad 2 AT&T, etc. so I have been happy with AT&T and it works well most of the time in my area. I was going to get an AT&T iPad 4 but I will be traveling for a few day to an area that in the past was lucky to get AT&T voice as it is very rural. I have a Virgin Mobile MiFi (Sprint) 3G pay as you go and it many times works in areas where AT&T is spotty, but I was looking for the 4G speeds and so I was looking at Verizon pay as you go or biting the bullet and getting a 2 year contract with Verizon for a MiFi for times when AT&T data doesn't work. The pay as you go seemed to have limitations with the Verizon MiFi and old equipment but I only need it 1/3 of the year, so the contract was hard to bite. I am on unlimited data on AT&T and so I don't want to go to shared plan and there have just been times when AT&T is not available that the Virgin Mobile was and others said they were getting coverage with Verizon too. I think for some areas, Verizon has the advantage, especially in the rural areas. When I found out Verizon had hotspot sharing on the new iPad as pay as you go, I figured that would give me the most options as a MiFi and integrated device if I needed it or AT&T wasn't available. I will have a good chance to test it in next couple days, so I will let you know how it works.

Having now used both AT&T and Verizon on an iPad, do you have any regrets about going to Verizon? do you see any major coverage improvements? If so, how much travel do you do? I find that it's easy to bash AT&T. it happens that where I live, ATT is ahead of Verizon in coverage so I've been an AT&T loyalist. Until LTE, GSM was just the more logical standard and easier to use worldwide if one had an unlocked phone.
 

mrnserv

Well-known member
Sep 24, 2012
59
0
6
Visit site
FYI, this was my speedtest result using iPad with Verizon Data vs my AT&T DSL

As reference my speedtest with my iPad 2 on AT&T 3G was 6.12Mbps down, 0.72Mbps up, 99ms ping, but that's a 3G device
 

Attachments

  • photo.JPG
    photo.JPG
    313.2 KB · Views: 26

mrnserv

Well-known member
Sep 24, 2012
59
0
6
Visit site
It looks like new iPad 4 and iPad mini do offer hotspot tethering on AT&T where older iPad 2 did not. May still need to be supported by the data plan but the option is there.

iPad mini AT&T

ImageUploadedByTapatalk HD1354166473.797339.jpg


Older iPad 2 AT&T

ImageUploadedByTapatalk HD1354166688.305102.jpg



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 

Trending Posts

Forum statistics

Threads
260,011
Messages
1,765,304
Members
441,220
Latest member
waeriyadh