Verizon Will Sell iPad+MiFi Bundles, Starting Oct 28th

wiredmikey quotes from today's much-anticipated announcement from Apple that Verizon is joining the iPad club, which means that: "iPad will be available at over 2,000 Verizon Wireless Stores nationwide beginning Thursday, October 28. Verizon Wireless will offer three bundles, all featuring an iPad Wi-Fi model and a Verizon MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot, for a suggested retail price of $629.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 16GB + MiFi, $729.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 32GB + MiFi and $829.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 64GB + MiFi. Verizon Wireless is offering a monthly access plan to iPad customers of up to 1GB of data for just $20 a month. In addition, Verizon Wireless will also offer all three iPad Wi-Fi models on a stand-alone basis." Since the Verizon bundles don't seem to offer the kind of subsidy that many phone purchases do, it would make sense to shop around for the same functionality (Wi-Fi iPad + 3G service) from other carriers. For instance, if you live within Sprint's city-centric 3G footprint, and want more than 1GB of data, Virgin Mobile's branded MiFi offers unlimited transfer (within the limit of the network — it's no FiOS, but I've used it with Skype and Google Voice) for $40/month.

The problem with wifi-only iPad

[microbee]

is that it does not have a GPS chip. This makes all the location services not working. Would it work with +myfi?

Somehow Apple did not stress this point in feature difference when it released the iPads. I only found it out a while after I bought the wifi version.

Re:Nothing you cannot already get.

[AndrewNeo]

I'm not really sure how much of a change they would have to make, considering there was an article earlier this year on how someone removed the 3G unit from their iPad and replaced it with the insides of an.. wait, you guessed it, a MiFi. (article [hackaday.com]) My point being the 3G unit is modular in the iPad (unlike a phone's, which is integrated with the radio which is deeply involved with the phone's operation) and they could probably make a CDMA version.

Re:Nothing you cannot already get.

[ThermalRunaway]

.. the 3G unit is modular in the iPad (unlike a phone's, which is integrated with the radio)...

The 3G module IS a radio. The iPad #G baseband chip is the Infineon X-Gold 608, according to the data sheet it supports HSDPA, WCDMA, and EDGE. This is the same chip that could be used in a phone to make calls.

There is not "probably" about making a CDMA version. You just need a CDMA chipset instead of the X-GOLD 608 and you would need different drivers in iOS to support the different chip. But I would suspect there is a very clean interface in the code that makes this easy. The dialer app isnt making calls directly to the radio or something. Look at how Android's telephony stack is setup. And look at how they have phones on CDMA and UMTS networks... this isn't difficult....

The good thing: a no-contract $20 data plan

[Jon_S]

What intrigued me is the no-contract $20 data plan. I got a spot in the boonies that has no DSL or cable access, but can get VZW (but no other carriers). I don't want to spend $60/month for a MiFi device with a 2-yr commitment. If I read the reports right, this comes with a $20 data plan, and no committments, so perhaps one can turn it on an off as needed. Hoepfully I read that right.

Yeah, Yeah, I know - 1 GB/mo. But that's 1 GB/mo. more than what I got now.

So I'm saying I would buy it for the MiFi and the plan, not for the iPad. Of course the money I save would be eaten up by the iPad cost, but I could sell that on e-bay.

Or did I read one of them there internet articles wrong?

Re:Tag article SLASHVERTISEMENT

[tooyoung]

For real? People have speculated for years now about the iPhone moving to Verizon. There have been countless stories on slashdot based on mere rumors. Now we see the first evidence of this potentially happening, and this isn't worthy of making it onto slashdot?