will AT&T Ipad work for Canada LTE?

I travel between the States and Canada a lot with my Original iPad and switching ATT and Rogers sim cards for local 3G has worked great for 2 years.

In Trying to work out how this is going to,work with the new iPad and the “data plans”, I was told by a Rogers phone rep last night tha the pre paid plans are not available for LTE, and even If I purchase and activate a Rogers LTE sim card with a montly data plan, it will not work in an ATT new iPad while in Canada, Nor will the Rogers iPad work in the States with a local ATT LTE sim … this seems contradictory to EVERYTHING I have read online from apple about using local Sim cards in the new iPad

I asked him 3 times and he repeated the same thing. Said they are not compatible products or networks. What gives?

OK.. after a 2nd call to Rogers this morning and working my way up the customer support helpline... this is what I found out.

1- Any Canadian LTE sim card will work in an unlocked USA new iPad (which I believe they all are now).

2- In order to purchase and activate that LTE Canadian sim card you will likely need to stop into the telecom store you wish to utilize (Rogers, Telus, Bell) and then set up an account with them (they need numbers off the iPad, etc)..

3- They will run a credit check and you will need proper ID (drivers license, credit card, bank account etc) to do that.

4- This will be a month-by-month plan (see their websites for prices).

5- You will need to 'de-activate' when you are no longer using it, meaning for the casual user (visiting Canada for example- once a year ) you will be charged a activation fee when you re-activate it OR if you are in Canada more frequently as I am every two weeks for a couple weeks at a time...you will need to pay the monthly fee each month to maintain the plan and avoid the activation fee.

I will be trying this out (Rogers LTE sim in an ATT newiPad (unlocked) by the first of April and post my results.

putian wrote:

maybe we need wait a official answer from Apple? 🙂

http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/ clearly states that the 4G LTE works in the US and Canada.

The question isn't if an iPad that is activated on a Canadian LTE WILL work in Canada or the US... it is how does one access it so there is usable data? It is clear that the specs will allow it.. however.. the new iPad needs the appropriate local sim.

Currently an ATT-3G sim installed on my iPad orginal will not access a Rogers 3-G network, I have to remove my ATT one and install a Rogers 3G sim. Similarly, you can not access the Rogers LTE network with an ATT LTE sim.

With the 3G, you can just order one or stop by the appropriate kiosk and pick it up, stick it in and acativate it on your iPad oringal or ipad2.

At this time that is not an option with the Rogers (Not sure about Telus or Bell) LTE sim cards.

So.. 'technically' yes it is possible, an ATT new iPad will work for the Canadian LTE.. it is just difficult to set up given Rogers & possibly the Canadian telecom's limtations they are placing on acquiring and activating those LTE SIM cards.

I would contact ATT and ask if the iPad is unlocked. If it is it will work. All the iPads up here are unlocked.

Reconsidered and thought better of it.

Was curious if you'd actually had a chance to test this out yet. I'm heading into Vancouver in May and was hoping to pick up a Rogers LTE sim and for my iPad 3. If you have, how much of a hassel was it to activate service? I'm thinking the credit check might be a thing if you're from the US.

-m

Hi,

I have activated a Rogers LTE sim card for my ATT new iPad. It was a pain. I started at 2pm in a store getting the SIM card and credit check done there...and finished at 9 or so that evening by finalizing it all on the phone. Probably 2.5 hours in total

No one in the store (a large Rogers retailer in a large, urban mall) knew how to do activate it correctly or could provide answers to questions ("I want to sign up for data on your flex plan" Answer: what flex plan?)

I ended up buying the SIM at the store, they ran the credit check - fortunately I hae a Canadian credit card & mailing address so it was quick. I needed my US passport, a credit card, a Canadian address, and phone number. You will be starting an account with them.

When I asked what they would do for activating an account for an American without a canadian credit history, he first said they wouldn't do it, but then changed his answer and said, that in addition to your passport & credit card, have an address of where you are staying in Canada (hotel address is fine), along with a Canadian phone number (again use the hotel number). He was not sure of how long it would take to get a credit check back on an American however.

Once I had bought the SIM card & the credit check was done, because the store personnel were uneducated as to how to actviate a plan for the new iPad, I left the store and and called Rogers 800 to activate and fully set up the account.

The store had given me a temporary account # to refer the phone CSR to.

However, there is no quick way to get to 'activate your new iPad sim card" going through Rogers automated menu on the phone..... it took me 3 attempts and 90 minutes of waiting, being put on hold, transferred, re-explaining the situation, tranferred & put on hold again.. wash, rinse, repeat)

Once I got a rep who knew what to do.. (I had to be very specific with the first few as they tried to tell me to "just activate it on your iPad" that is when I would ask for someone else) .... it was very quick (under 15 minutes).

You have 2 plan options- (see their website for details)

Just a caution you will more than likely be paying your account by using a US credit card, so be prepared for your bank to hit you with foreign transaction fees, and currency conversions issues.

Options

1- A one-year contract starting at $5 minimum/month for 10MB of data that flexes up as you use more ... if you cancel you pay a hefty per month for each month left on the contract.

This is probably the best if you are back & forth a lot, are in Canada more than in the US and just don't want to keep reactivating the 2nd option as it's $35 each time you do versus $5/month to leave it alone when you are not using it.

2- Month by month post-paid. There is an activation fee $35 and if you cancel it you can not reactivate again for 90 days... but there is no penalty. Minimum price is $21/500MB data.

You also have to give them 30 days notice to cancel which means if you go this route and only need if for a short time (under 30 days) you have to tell them when you activate it that you want to cancel it in 30 days.

This is probably the best option if you are only going to be here one time every 6 months or so.

I went with this 2nd option even though I am in Canada 20 out of 30 days a month, since there have been rumours that there may be more plans coming out in the near future as the Canadian telcoms get their act together in regards to this... I wanted flexibilty and no 'contract'. I guess time will tell how that works for me.

I don't know what the roaming charge from ATT or Verizon is for international data, but it may be more economical just to go that route & use Wi-Fi as much as possible when in Canada. Instead of all the hassle that there is to set up an account to get 'cheap' data. Because it will be a hassle.

Also, the speed is a joke. Direct from the last CSR..there are only about 10 places (as in cities/suburbs) in all of canada where it is LTE speeds.. there a few more where it is 4G. Right now in Manitoba.. there is no LTE, supposedly coming by the end of 2012.

As to the rumour that you can put an ATT 3G sim into a Verizon new iPad and have it work so therefore a Rogers 3G sim (also GSM) & prepaid) should work in a Verizon new iPad as well, is busted.. I personally tried it.. I took the still active and working Rogers 3G sim from my origial iPad, put it into a friends Verizon new iPad and it did not work.

It recognized that there was a sim card, but pulled up "no service". Perhaps it needed to be linked to that iPad, but the fairly knowledgeable CSR on the phone had no idea if that was the case or not.

That was my experience... the Canadian telcoms IMHO are making it exceedlingly difficult for non-Canadians to get data plans on their new iPads. Hopefully, this changes soon.

Hope that is helpful
If I left something out, let me know & I will do my best to answer it.

cheers!

.

Wow. That seems like a lot more effort than I'd be willing to make. I'm usually just in Canada for a about four weeks of the year. I'm wondering now if i'd be easier to just pick up a MiFi device and a Pay As You Go sim and call it a day. As much as I'd rather not add another device to my walking around kit, it seems like the most straight forward solution and it'll give me data service for both my iPhone and iPad. Do you (or anyone else) forsee any trouble with this approach?

Actually, does anyone know if you can take a 3G micro-sim and activate service on the new iPad? On my previous trips, I used my iPad 2 with a Rogers micro-sim. Could I just pop that into the new iPad, or will it only recognize an LTE sim?

In Canada there are no pay as you go sims for the new iPad, to just "pick up" That is the problem as I see it.

A Canadian 3-G micro-sim works and can be activated and deactivated with no additional fees, but ONLY on the ATT version of the original and iPad2.

That is not the case on the new iPad.

Every CSR I talked to at Rogers, says this will be a big problem for visitors to Canada with their new iPad looking for data. So hopefully, they (Canadian telecoms) will address it soon because from what I see, with their post-paid only data plans, they are preventing it from working as Apple advertised (when you visit another country you just pick up a pay as you sim to "pop in"..) even for 3G service.

I tried my Rogers 3G micro-sim (from my original ATT iPad) in both ATT & Verizon new iPads and it didn't work in either while I was in Canada.... based on my experience the new iPads only seem to recognize and activate service with the LTE sim.

I personally dont know how the mi-fi device works or what Verizon would charge you for international data, but it might be worth looking into. I can tell you in my experience in Canada, there are very few 'free wi-fi' locations. I would say 1 out of 100 are unlocked, I find it much more accessible in the States.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info. I'm going to look a little further into a MiFi device. Amazon seems to have an unlocked one for about $50. I'm hoping I can just pick up a standard PAYG sim from Rogers, activate it and use it in the MiFi and I'll have a mobile hotspot for my iPad and iPhone.

Any updates on this, now that it's July?

I leave for BC today for 8 days. Thinking to try to "live with" just wifi, but if the Canadian telecoms have gotten their act together in the past couple months, I'd consider getting a prepaid (ideally, or a turn on for a month, en off again 8 days later) data plan for my new (iPad 3) iPad.