MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - iPad Air with LTE tip: You can switch carrier SIMs at will

judojorge · 11-24-2013, 04:20 AM

I bought a t-mobile ipad mini retina and also had a hard time at a verizon store. I was told it couldn't be done. I ended up returning my mini for a larger storage size and verizon ready. Today I went to att and they were happy to set me up with service so now I have att and verizon LTE service

however, the att service isn't quite the same as advertised on the apple site, there were different tiers of data and pricing and there is a 10 dollar fee above it every month. It's actually not a prepaid plan but a postpaid, yet there is no contract (kind of odd I think). My ATT plan is called Mobile Share 4GB and costs $30 a month plus the $10 plus there was an activation fee. I was just too impatient to wait but I'm thinking if you buy a ATT nano sim off of ebay or amazon you could probably just activate ATT service on the iPad thereby saving money on activation and the extra 10$ monthly fee. Could somebody please verify this?

When I returned my t-mobile mini I kept the t-mobile sim. I signed up for the free 200 MB to see what the LTE speeds on t-mobile were like. For some reason it has not been working for me on my new mini which is a real shame because I was getting better speeds at home with t-mobile. I went to t-mobile after I was done with ATT and spent 2 hours troubleshooting the problem with a friendly t-mobile rep. She called corporate and was on the phone for almost the entire time trying to get the t-mobile service to work. After all of that the issue still wasn't resolved and they wrote up a ticket (whatever that means) and said the engineers would take a look at the issue. She said it should be working in under 48 hours, I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

The reason I have 3 different sims activated is really to test the networks out for one month. After that time, I'll choose the best network suited for my usual commute. Plus hopefully keep the other sims handy for when I travel or move(plan on moving within six months). Another question, does anybody know if I can just stop paying my Verizon prepaid service for a few months and just come back to it whenever I want? Would I have to get a new sim or could I just stick the same SIM card and pick up where I left off?

One last question, in case my T-mobile service never gets re-established, could I just buy a brand new T-Mobile nano sim off ebay or amazon and setup new service directly on my iPad?

Thanks for your time and sorry for the long post guys!

11-24-2013, 04:20 AM	#27
judojorge Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2013 Device: iPad mini Retina	I bought a t-mobile ipad mini retina and also had a hard time at a verizon store. I was told it couldn't be done. I ended up returning my mini for a larger storage size and verizon ready. Today I went to att and they were happy to set me up with service so now I have att and verizon LTE service however, the att service isn't quite the same as advertised on the apple site, there were different tiers of data and pricing and there is a 10 dollar fee above it every month. It's actually not a prepaid plan but a postpaid, yet there is no contract (kind of odd I think). My ATT plan is called Mobile Share 4GB and costs $30 a month plus the $10 plus there was an activation fee. I was just too impatient to wait but I'm thinking if you buy a ATT nano sim off of ebay or amazon you could probably just activate ATT service on the iPad thereby saving money on activation and the extra 10$ monthly fee. Could somebody please verify this? When I returned my t-mobile mini I kept the t-mobile sim. I signed up for the free 200 MB to see what the LTE speeds on t-mobile were like. For some reason it has not been working for me on my new mini which is a real shame because I was getting better speeds at home with t-mobile. I went to t-mobile after I was done with ATT and spent 2 hours troubleshooting the problem with a friendly t-mobile rep. She called corporate and was on the phone for almost the entire time trying to get the t-mobile service to work. After all of that the issue still wasn't resolved and they wrote up a ticket (whatever that means) and said the engineers would take a look at the issue. She said it should be working in under 48 hours, I guess I'll just have to wait and see. The reason I have 3 different sims activated is really to test the networks out for one month. After that time, I'll choose the best network suited for my usual commute. Plus hopefully keep the other sims handy for when I travel or move(plan on moving within six months). Another question, does anybody know if I can just stop paying my Verizon prepaid service for a few months and just come back to it whenever I want? Would I have to get a new sim or could I just stick the same SIM card and pick up where I left off? One last question, in case my T-mobile service never gets re-established, could I just buy a brand new T-Mobile nano sim off ebay or amazon and setup new service directly on my iPad? Thanks for your time and sorry for the long post guys!