{"id":248331,"date":"2010-01-29T12:53:18","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T17:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"Gizmodo-5459770"},"modified":"2010-01-29T12:53:18","modified_gmt":"2010-01-29T17:53:18","slug":"which-ipad-3g-data-plan-should-you-buy-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/248331","title":{"rendered":"Which iPad 3G Data Plan Should You Buy? [Apple]"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>When Apple’s iPad<\/a> 3G ships in April, U.S. wireless partner AT&T will offer two data plans for the gadget<\/a>, with different costs and monthly download allotments.<\/p>\n

Specifically, AT&T will offer a $14.99 monthly plan that allows for 250 MB of data consumed, and a $29.99 monthly plan that allows for unlimited Internet consumption.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Which should you buy? That depends on how you’ll be using the device on a 3G network, of course. (We think most people will buy the cheaper iPad without 3G service, but many will buy the 3G model, too.)<\/p>\n

For an idea of what the cheaper plan offers, here’s what 250 MB translates to:<\/p>\n

* About 35 minutes of YouTube video at standard-definition
\n* OR about 8-10 minutes of YouTube or iTunes video at 720p hi-definition
\n* OR about 70 songs from iTunes
\n* OR a few thousand Web pages and typical email usage
\n* OR more than 4,000 Facebook photos<\/p>\n

So, if you think a month’s worth of 3G access looks like this, then you should be fine with the 250 MB plan:<\/p>\n

* Browsing a few dozen Web pages a day and typical email usage (without downloading big attachments)
\n* Looking at a few dozen Facebook photos a day
\n* Watching a few minutes of YouTube video a week
\n* Downloading a few songs and podcasts from iTunes per month
\n* Downloading a few small iPhone or iPad apps per month, light app usage<\/p>\n

If you think you’ll be using more bandwidth than that over 3G, you may consider the $29.99 plan. Remember that you can cancel anytime, change plans on a monthly basis, or turn service off and on, because there is no contract. (And no “activation fee” was disclosed during Steve Jobs’ presentation.)<\/p>\n

Remember, using the iPad in a wi-fi zone doesn’t count toward this limit. So if you’re going to be using the iPad primarily at home—the best use case<\/a>—or at the office, or anywhere there’s wi-fi, you won’t need to worry about hitting the 250 MB cap. AT&T is also including free access to its wi-fi networks in its 3G plans, which includes Starbucks locations.<\/p>\n

What happens if you go over 250 MB? Will AT&T stick you with unreasonable overage charges?<\/p>\n

The company won’t say.<\/p>\n

But our hunch, because this is prepaid service — no contract or credit check required — is that once your 250 MB are up, AT&T’s network meter will simply require you to upgrade to the $29.99 plan to continue using the Internet.<\/p>\n

This seems the more consumer-friendly, responsible thing to do, and eliminates AT&T’s risk of offering you credit. But AT&T refuses to immediately give more information than what Jobs said in his presentation. So we can’t be sure.<\/p>\n



\n

\n\"\"<\/a>
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Apple’s iPad 3G ships in April, U.S. wireless partner AT&T will offer two data plans for the gadget, with different costs and monthly download allotments. Specifically, AT&T will offer a $14.99 monthly plan that allows for 250 MB of data consumed, and a $29.99 monthly plan that allows for unlimited Internet consumption. Which should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2862,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2862"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}