iPad with cell connection

[RetireBy90]

DW has an older iPad mini she wants to replace this year. We travel some and on occasion have to pair with phone hotspot for a connection. So, I’m wondering if any have the iPad with cell and what you think about it.
Questions
1) We have Verizon for cell, can we have the cell as a second device on the same number? We don’t really need another number.
2) Have any problems using such ? Reception same as phone?
3) do we need to consider one with 5G ? We often buy one gen back on such devices.

Thanks for any experiences

 

[TheWizard]

I don't have a tablet anymore but if I did, I'd ask the question: do you ever have your tablet somewhere but not your smartphone?
If not then just do the hotspot thing...

 

[JackJester]

I don't have Verizon, so can't help there, but I can tell you my experience with T-Mobile 5G on my iPad. T-Mobile assigns a separate cell # for the iPad. So it's not like it is a 2nd cell phone in which I can receive calls. I have a plan that is 500MB high speed per month for $7.00. After I reach 500MB I get an alert that "speed may be slower". And it is very easy to hit that 500MB limit. We signed up so that we could do Prime and Netflix streaming if need be while on travel, or just have internet access on a bigger screen than the iPhones. It turns out that the speed is much lower after 500MB limit and really not worth using. Streaming any video is impossible. And if searching the Internet its best to just to use the iPhone at full speed 5G vs struggling through the low speed iPad. When we are under that 500MB limit speed is great. So, I recommend you think about how you plan to use that iPad/Tablet and what limits a Verizon plan might have. I think about dropping the iPad from 5G but right now $7 per month isn't affecting my FIRE success, and I'm lazy.

 

[RetireBy90]

We started using the hot spot about 3 or 4 years ago. We had Wi-Fi that wasn’t very fast and I normally watch CNBC on market mornings. Turns out after I exceeded my limit with Verizon the reduced speed still allowed me to watch streaming without noticing any degradation. Good reason to stick with hot spot I guess. Only issue I’ve had so far is it tends to eat iPhone battery life faster.
I guess I’m ordering if anyone has cell on tab and happy to have it,

 

[audreyh1]

DW has an older iPad mini she wants to replace this year. We travel some and on occasion have to pair with phone hotspot for a connection. So, I’m wondering if any have the iPad with cell and what you think about it.
Questions
1) We have Verizon for cell, can we have the cell as a second device on the same number? We don’t really need another number.
2) Have any problems using such ? Reception same as phone?
3) do we need to consider one with 5G ? We often buy one gen back on such devices.

Thanks for any experiences

After my first iPad which I owned for several years I dropped having the cellphone connection as it was no longer essential. Saved $$$. Originally we had a AT&T grandfathered plan $30/month. Separate carrier from our cellphone plan.

In practice I use the iPad mostly at home with WiFi and when traveling usually with WiFi. We have an excellent hotspot on our cellphones now and that’s just fine for the few periods when we don’t have WiFi. I always have my phone with me leaving the house via car. Adding a cell capable iPad to our existing cellphone plan would be at least $15+tax a month I think, not worth it to us.

A cellphone iPad will have its own number. It will be data only.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

My first iPad (bought the first day that the first iPad went on sale) had the cellular. Other than testing it, I never used the cellular feature and discontinued the AT&T service plan as soon as I could.

Most of the time you use an iPad on Wifi. If you need to use your phone's hot-spot now and then, that's good too. It's not worth paying for cellular on your tablet if you have hot-spot capability on your phone, in my opinion, for as often as you use it.

 

[Lorenzo]

My iPad has cellular (T-Mobile), but I never use it. Only laziness keeps me from canceling the line.

 

[ncbill]

iPads with cellular capability cost significantly more than those with only Wi-Fi.

So I'd just use my phone as a hotspot with a cheaper iPad.

 

[Sarah S]

I have a verizon cellular ipad. It shares a phone number with my iphone. It is 10 dollars a month. I use it in cellular mode when I am away from wifi which includes our local rail transit system I use a lot I could use my phone as a hot spot but this is more convenient for me and not that much money.

It has worked fine for me and I do not have 5G

 

[braumeister]

At home there is no need for cellular on the iPad, only wifi.
When traveling, I find that wifi for it is available most of the time. When it's not, I just use my phone's hotspot and that has always been good enough.

 

[Ready]

I have the latest IPad Pro with Verizon service. It only cost $20 per month to add the line. My phone is with T-Mobile. I like having the choice of carriers when we travel since some locations only have good service with one of the two carriers.

 

[OldShooter]

Google Fi includes with its basic subscription two data-only SIM cards. So I have cell data in my Fujitsu tablet at no extra cost except the standard Fi data charge of $10/gig. I am on WiFi with that tablet at least 99% of the time, but the data comes in handy once in a while. Presumably a Fi data SIM would work in an iThing too.

 

[tutan]

I have a verizon cellular ipad. It shares a phone number with my iphone. It is 10 dollars a month. I use it in cellular mode when I am away from wifi which includes our local rail transit system I use a lot I could use my phone as a hot spot but this is more convenient for me and not that much money.

It has worked fine for me and I do not have 5G

So can you use the IPad to make calls? Does the phone app work on IPad? My understanding is that you cannot use the IPad stand alone as a phone, i.e. don’t need to own a iPhone? Thanks

 

[tulak]

I looked at Google Fi and it’s a pricey option if you like to use data. I average around 8-10GB/month.

I have a cellphone plan that includes hotspot data and use that to connect my iPad when needed. I get 10GB/month of hotspot data and it works fine in cases where wifi isn’t available.

 

[frank05]

Ipad with wifi only. Setup my iphone for wifi calling and calls on other devices. When home I receive and make all my calls via the ipad. On the ipad under Setup Facetime you need turn on “Calls from iphone”

 

[OldShooter]

I looked at Google Fi and it’s a pricey option if you like to use data. I average around 8-10GB/month.

Yes. Our data usage is literally just a few dollars a month unless we are traveling. So its an excellent deal for us. We don't stream anything, even where we are on free WiFi. Just don't have any interest.

 

[tulak]

I don’t stream video, only music/podcasts, and if I need to update an app, I don’t wait for wifi to save data. But most of my usage is photos, which go to the cloud once taken (iCloud Photos). I could cut back, but don’t see the point since data is cheap. $22.50/month for 35GB premium with 10GB hotspot. Prior to that I was with T-Mobile and it was unlimited, so why not use it?

I disable photos and music/podcasts when traveling. Last trip to Switzerland I blew through half a gig and ran out because I wasn’t paying attention while using Apple Music.

 

[youbet]

I use a non-cellular Ipad and an Iphone. When we're out on long camping trips (6 - 8 weeks for our winter Florida trip for example), we do a lot of streaming on the Ipad. We find wifi generally non-existent in public campgrounds and very poor in most private campgrounds, so we use the phone as a hotspot and it works great.

While camping, we use as much as 25Gb of data a month since we use the Ipad for everything: maybe a movie in the evening, CNBC in the morning, music anytime, Bears games on Sunday afternoon, checking Schwab at market close, etc., etc. We have unlimited data with unlimited hotspot on the phone plan so no worries about limits.

It would be somewhat more convenient if the Ipad could be connected to the Internet without having to have the phone in hotspot mode nearby, but so far the arrangement we're using is working out ok. DW connects to the hotspot with her Kindle and laptop as well.

 

[Jeb-NY]

I can see I'm in a minority here but My wife and I both have iPads with cellular service. The HotSpot worked well enough on previous iPads but when we needed the service the most we also didn't have easy access to recharging so now we had two devices running down their batteries. We had Verizon for a long time and it wasn't that much more to add iPads to our plan with shared data. For the last two years we have used a Verizon reseller. More data for a little less money. Could we do without, yes but it is one of those luxuries we don't mind spending money on for the convince when we need it.

 

[FlaGator]

Maybe a minority, but not a minority of one.

My iPad w/cell service has often been used a laptop replacement for trips up to 7-10 days. And it's convenient to not worry about tethering when I'm somewhere with sketchy guest wifi. I look at it as insurance and convenience for a reasonable cost.