SIM card for ipad

SimbaDog

SimbaDog

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Can anyone recommend a payg sim for use in ipad? It's not going to be used much, only for checking emails & the odd weather forecast?
Do all the plans only last for 30 days, ie. if you pay £10 it runs out after the 30 day period???
 
Have you looked into tethering your phone? Apple on the iphone call it Personal Hotspot... You basically switch it on in your phones settings and your mobile becomes the wifi hotspot - one sim, one contract, keeps life simpler and potentially cheaper. I pay £5 extra a month for 1GB 'personal hotspot'. You can purchase it for a single month, then turn it off when you no longer want it (requires a call to your provider to do so).

Alternatively, three will let you buy 1GB (so yes £10) and use that for the month, and then it will time out, and charge it up again when you go sailing... (http://store.three.co.uk/view/searchSimOnly?tariff=3003), and yes, that is generally the model.
 
I didn't have a sim card in my iPad, no need, but I kept getting an annoying message telling me I had no card. I knew!

Went into my local Apple store and they gave me a card with a Gig of data already loaded, the card was valid for 6 months but as soon as it was activated the data was for only a month.

Here is the package from which you can see there are £3, £5 and £10 packs etc:

https://freesim.vodafone.co.uk/tablet-ipad-sim-card?tracker=58f8dj


ps

The £5 data pack looks ideal for you:

"250MB suits a light user. This would allow you to roughly respond to 20 emails, look at 20 web pages and watch a one minute video on YouTube each day"
 
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SimbaDog said:
Can anyone recommend a payg sim for use in ipad? It's not going to be used much, only for checking emails & the odd weather forecast?
Do all the plans only last for 30 days, ie. if you pay £10 it runs out after the 30 day period???
Click to expand...

Arr I researched this a while ago...

Overall I found the best option was 02. the pay as you go sim allows 3 optioned:

1. £2 for 1 day for 200mb
2. £10 for 1gb over 30 days
3. £13 for 2gb over 30 days

The plans can be updated on your ipad itself. The coverage is overall very good compared to others and the 1 day option is great for sailing. Just £2 and it covers you for any amount of browsing providing your not streaming a movie. Although from £2 I can get 1 episode of a series from Netflix out of it! So overall for flexibility and coverage and cost then it has to be O2.

Oh and I have an iphone on 3 so if there is no 02 coverage there is invariably 3 I can tether my ipad to my phone using bluetooth or wifi.
 
Out of interest does one have to "jailbreak" an iPad for use on other networks as one does a phone? I'm monthly on EE and their charges are a bit high for the very odd occasion that I need to use 3G as opposed to wireless.
 
Just read that you are sorted but thought I would mention Giffgaff. Runs on O2 and has different payment plans. Time that you buy has no expiry date but they also have goody bags which last for a month. I pay £7.50 and have as much call time, texts and data as I could possibly need. Then I don't have to worry about running out.
 
I looked at giffgaff when I recently changed my phone. My impression was that they expired after a month. As I don't use anywhere near £10 a month this didn't suit me. I eventually stuck with O2 but their default is to convert topups into a package which expires in a month so I have to contact them to stop this happening - a pain! I don't think them believe that anyone can survive on so little use.
 
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What I've always seen in threads of this nature is 'which is going to be cheapest' - now in the Solent or more popular areas they may be more or less the same - but here off the Welsh coast there is a massive difference between networks when it comes to coverage so that is far more important than the actual cost of it - especially when it may inly be an extra £5month which in the grand scheme of things is FA. Incidentally we've used Three and Orange (EE) and three was better from Neyland around to Bristol (Kavvanagh Quay) - I don' think we were without coverage through the jaunt which was reassuring in an unknown boat although we had all the toys.
 
EE's 4GEE data only cards are a pretty good deal. You buy one preloaded with 6GB for about £15 (try eBay or even PC World). Once activated they last for 90 days or until the 6GB has been used up. The 3G version is a pound or two cheaper.

Rather than topup I just get a new SIM card.
 
SimbaDog said:
Can anyone recommend a payg sim for use in ipad? It's not going to be used much, only for checking emails & the odd weather forecast?
Do all the plans only last for 30 days, ie. if you pay £10 it runs out after the 30 day period???
Click to expand...

The best of all right now is "3" Three. 1p per megabyte, no expiration, can use in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and several other EU countries at same price!
 
Giblets said:
Out of interest does one have to "jailbreak" an iPad for use on other networks as one does a phone? I'm monthly on EE and their charges are a bit high for the very odd occasion that I need to use 3G as opposed to wireless.
Click to expand...
Jailbreaking is different from network (un)locking.

Apple have decided that you can't just download any app from random sites on the internet (this is how PCs get viruses) so you can only install apps from their official App Store, apps they've approved.

Apple have a reputation for prudery, rejecting apps and books which show nudity or alternative lifestyles.

Jailbreaking is an unapproved hack which allows you to install unofficial and pirate apps. It may allow you to unlock certain other restricted features and do other things with your phone that Apple disapprove of (e.g. tethering).
​

Network Locking

Also known as "carrier restriction" this is when a phone bought from a cellular carrier (O2, Three, Vodafone &c) won't work with a SIM issued by another carrier.

Yes, a tablet which has the capacity for 3G/ 4G / cellular data can be network locked. It looks like Apple discourage this, but some providers still do it, anyway.

Whether or not your iPad is locked will depend upon where you bought it - if you bought it from Apple, John Lewis or Amazon then it's unlikely to be locked. If you bought it from a mobile phone shop and got a deal with a cheap upfront cost, then you're financing that by monthly payments, and the iPad may well be network locked.

In the EU mobile phone carriers are required by law to unlock your phone (or tablet) when your contract has expired - I think sometimes you might have to pay a £5 or £10 unlocking fee, but you just have to phone them up and ask them.

The best way to check if your phone or tablet is network locked is to ask a friend who's on a different network if you can borrow their SIM. The easiest way to ensure that it's connecting over the mobile phone network is to unplug your home broadband router (HomeHub, Sky Hub, whatever) - this proves to you it's not connecting over wifi.
​


Jailbreaking may allow you to remove a network lock without the carrier's permission, but they are two different things.

I apologise if you already knew all this - I felt obliged to explain because I thought a shorter answer might've been received as snotty.

There's no longer any need to tolerate network locking. There are loads of cheap 4" and 5" Android mobile phones on the market for £100 outright, larger tablets for less than £200. You can get SIM-only deals for £10 a month.

When you get a phone or a tablet "on a contract", what you're really doing is financing it over a year or two; it'll be a name-brand item and you'll pay more for it over the period. You'll pay a lot more if you forget to cancel the contract, and remain on the higher rate.
 
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For very occasional use, giffgaff is 20p/day for up to 20MB then 20p/MB above that.
3 is 1p/MB. Easy choice.

Neither website makes it obvious that you don't have to buy a bundle or goodybag to use data, or that you can buy one out of existing credit.

With 3 I couldn't use my phone PAYG SIM (Pink-edged packet) in my Android tablet (I've not tried in an iPad.) I got an error: "you can't move a phone SIM into a tablet" (This is a commercial not a technical limitation BTW.) I had to buy a PAYG data SIM (blue packet). The 3 months data on the latter has expired and I think I can just top it up and use it on a daily basis, but I haven't tried yet and again the website isn't clear. Anybody done that?
 
Strolls, very many thanks for your comprehensive reply. :encouragement: I will get the hang of these mobile devices in due course! :o

My iPad is with EE but now out of contract and I only really need 3G when away from a wireless connection so I think that I will get it unlocked and look for a good SIM-only deal.

Thanks again.
 
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