iPad wifi+3G as you travel abroad?

We don't know yet as the int'l data plans have not been released or announced yet... We will have to wait and see what partners overseas Apple teams up with to offer plans for travel

in Europe .... No. Europe is not one country.

In individual countries, yes as long as they offer the microSIM, which will vary by country.

One further suggestion - the link below takes you to the relevant iPhone carriers in the world and these may be worth investigating. If they do the iPhone, then they are more likely to offer an iPad scheme. You can search their websites as long as you speak their language 🙂

What you want is PAYG with a microSIM, and thats it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1937

linkycat wrote:
If I buy an iPad wife+3G in the US (where I live) and travel to Germany/Switzerland/Austria for a month, can I purchase a data plan that will work in Europe?

I'm going to be watching this closely too. I live in the US, but I'm in a different European country every two or three days for work. So buying and maintaining individual SIM cards for every EU country simply isn't practical. What I'm hoping for is a MUCH more affordable international roaming offering from ATT than the ones currently offered for iPhone.

Dave

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say 'Yes, you will', but with a point of caution. There are several ways, now, to deal with this on both Smart Phones and regular Cellphones. You can have the different Sim Cards, that's one way. This is what a lot of people do when they go abroad.

You can, however, generally talk to to your provider and get your phone/data plan 'unlocked', which lets you use it abroad. It costs more, but it's definitely doable. I did it for my Iphone when I went to the UK, and it'll most likely be available for the the Ipad too.

linkycat,

Check out T-Mobile, Swisscom and Orange. I'm pretty sure they all have the microSIM. I spend summers in Europe. If you're close to the border, signals travel across so you might get away with a country card. If not, pay attention to the roaming costs and, if they will roam, before you buy a prepaid service. Also, don't be surprised if you're on gprs. The areas you're going into are not all that 3G friendly outside of the cities. I tend to take a pass on 3G and just get the normal gsm plans which are cheap and work fine for my email needs.

I tend to go with a Swisscom or Orange 30 day card (no signup charges) and that works well for limited use even if there's roaming charges.

Dave_K,

Good luck with ATT.

HR-

As a frequent European traveller based in the US, what I've done for several years is used one of the prepaid roaming Global SIM cards. I currently use eKit, which also includes GPRS data at reasonable prices (certainly compared to ATT!). But alas, I don't know of any of the global prepaid SIMs that offer microSIM at this point.

I really haven't heard a good reason that Apple went with microSIM, but I guess it's too late to do anything about it now!

Dave

Dave_K,

Thanks for the eKit suggestion. I'll look into it. GPRS/Edge is fine with me.

If you go with an iPad, you might want to look into cutting down your sim card. There are templates out there and its appears pretty simple. I have not had a need to do this but I may give it a try on a prepaid regular sim once I get the iPad. The carriers will provide a replacement if I mess up.

I think Apple is a bit ahead of the curve with the microSIM, especially in the US where telecom is entrenched and prefers marketing to technology. While available in Europe, its clearly not the norm. I have no issues with T-Mobile, Orange or Swisscom. It available in the UK (forget which carriers) and Italy so its just a matter of time before it becomes the norm. At some point the US will either be left with a pile of carrier specific phones (the carriers love this) or will have to change.

If the international partners offer a similar deal $15 for 250MB, then this is a really good deal for the traveller. I usually visit a country for a few days at a time. So for $15 I get all the Internet connectivity I need. Hotels usually charge that per day.

Let's hope the partners offer this rate to any iPad user, not just ones that have been purchased in that country.

It looks like Skype calls will work over the data plan. If so then phone bill will be a lot less as well.

I want to buy an IPAD and move to another country, other countries have 3G service companies but not AT & T. 3G works with any other company other than AT & T?