iPad with cellular

No data and you have a smart phone? That makes no sense? Do you use the smart phone or is it now a dumb phone? Wifi enabled tablets have a use, but personally I see no need for it. Both our smart phones can become a wifi hotspot as necessary, so our tablets can connect to the internet via a phone.

To answer your question, yes. We have a baby pad 2 that is used for travel only, in the truck.

If we have unused gigs on it a couple days before our plan ends, we use it as a hotspot, and stream a couple of movies on our Apple TV, just to use up the gigs.

I have ST phone service, which is not supposed to be used as a hot spot, so we use the baby pad.

I use Vz on the baby pad.

I have a Verizon iPad mini and I love it for camping. I could use my phone as a hotspot but it was worth the extra $10 a month to me for the convenience of using my iPad as a stand alone device. The campgrounds we stay at usually have wifi but as many know campground wifi is often not the best.

We have an iPad 2 with 4G through ATT. Our phones are dumb, cheap TracPhones. I usually get 3GB , at $30 for a month when we leave in the camper. Has worked well except at Grand Canyon campground. The phones worked there, though. We don't do any video streaming and I usually have at least a gig left after a couple of weeks. A lot depends on the weather and whether we're stuck inside for any length of time.

Even if you decide to tether the iPad or use a MiFi, etc., buy an iPad WITH the capibility to add a cellular contract later. Reason: the GPS is part of the cellular connect chipset. If you buy a WiFi only iPad, you also lose the capibility to use it for any app that uses GPS. And there are allot of them over and above navagation maps.

Question: if someone does go this route using iPad with cellular is the contract for all states or you have to buy for each state ex: bought in NY and went to NC do I have to pay for another contract?

It will be a nationwide data plan

We got an ipad2 with 3G four years ago and have an AT&T domestic plan, $25 for 2GB every 30 days. It also can be used alternately with wifi when you have a good signal by just changing the setting (5 seconds.)

I believe the 3G tablet to be one of the most useful inventions of my lifetime. I use it throughout every day.

Streaming movies or TV gobbles up a lot of data fast, however, so we don't use the 3G service that way. Maybe if you had unlimited data and a strong signal...

Our phones are el cheapos that are only for making calls.

Aside from the unreliability of campground wifi, the 3G ipad is great in an RV for the copilot to use surfing the net even while riding down the highway to check email, maps, Gas Buddy prices nearby, find campgrounds etc. Yes, there are some dead zones, but fewer as the years go by.

My suggestion would be to upgrade your phone to an iPhone then get a regular iPad. You can the use either device to access the Internet, make phone calls anywhere you can get cell and data services. I can make calls or use apps access the web from my iPad using a connection thru my iPhone.

My iPad has 4G, cellular capability, and so do our smartphones. My husband also brings along his laptop, so we have to be very prudent with our 10 GB. While on the road the cellular capability is very convenient, with the iPad or the smartphones.