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T-Mobile offering LTE iPads at WiFi-only prices, free data through 2014

A day after it announced cheaper plans with voice and data, T-Mobile is sharing more interesting news of upcoming promotions. Starting April 12th, T-Mobile will begin offering iPads and other tablets with LTE at the price normally offered by WiFi-only tablets. For instance, an iPad Air with only WiFi normally runs $499, while an iPad with WiFi and LTE for connecting to the Internet from anywhere normally runs $629. T-Mobile’s promotion will offer new iPads with LTE for the cost of a WiFi-only model for a limited time (saving you $130 in the iPad’s case).

T-Mobile is also offering customers a free 1GB of data use for the rest of the year. The carrier announced last fall that it already includes 200MB of data for tablet customers and today’s announcement adds to that free data offering. After the 2014 promotion, the 1GB of data usage for tablets will be $10 a month while the 200MB of data will remain free. T-Mobile also announced some news for people using tablets with mobile data from other carriers…

T-Mobile will be extending its offer to pay ETFs, or early termination fees, for customers switching to T-Mobile from other carriers that take advantage of the tablet offer. The tablet offer does require both voice and data plans from T-Mobile, so the switch would mean you move your smartphone plan to T-Mobile as well to take advantage of the tablet deal.

Existing T-Mobile customers can take advantage of the free data for 2014 through a $10 credit, the carrier says. T-Mobile also offers trade-ins for non-LTE tablets for customers interested in taking advantage of the free data offer.

As for how T-Mobile’s offer stacks up against its competitors, GTIG Research has presented the data:

 

You can read T-Mobile’s full press release here and see more about the offer on its website.

Update: Verizon has responded with an extra 1GB of data of its own

[tweet https://twitter.com/VZWnews/status/454326336668987392]

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Comments

  1. zacharykolk - 10 years ago

    The catch, you won’t actually have service anywhere and you’ll still be looking for wifi everywhere. Depends on your city though, I’m in Wilmington, NC.

  2. David Fernandes - 10 years ago

    T-Mo is also improving its LTE network and now I can get rid of my old iPad 2… great offer….. http://www.telecomvibe.com

  3. PMZanetti - 10 years ago

    Sounds great as long as you can get reliable T-Mobile LTE wherever you go. From what I understand, their coverage is good….but not as good as the bigger players.

  4. Sonia Roy - 10 years ago

    Yes, T-Mobile bring a latest and affordable iPads and other tablets with LTE and it also comes with free 1GB of data use for the rest of the year which really gives benefits for data users..
    Thanks For Sharing

  5. pantherv5 - 10 years ago

    What is the catch? is the device carrier locked? what prevents one from this cheap cellular model and jump to another carrier?

    • iPads are never carrier-locked. This is such a great deal for many reasons: 1. You get an iPad LTE for the price of an iPad Wi-Fi. GPS and cellular capability. 2. You can finance the purchase of the iPad LTE for 24 months at 0%. That beats any financing from any credit card offer at Apple.com or any retailer. 3. If you’re not happy with T-Mobile’s service, you can simply pull the nano-SIM card out and grab a Verizon/AT&T/Sprint card and reboot. and 4. 1.2GB of LTE a month for the next 7 months.

      • iPads are carrier locked on every carrier but Verizon. When Verizon bought the LTE spectrum they agreed to make every LTE Capable device they sell unlocked. My iPad 3 w/ LTE on Verizon can be used with my AT&T iPhone sim when installing a provision file. My Dads iPad 3 on AT&T was locked to AT&T, could not be used on Verizon or T-Mobile when he was in Vegas for a Trade show (where AT&T did not have service but T-Mobile and Verizon did). Not sure if T-Mobile will unlock it once you have paid off the entire iPad (that is if you pay for it w/ installments like people do with the phones), but it is ILLEGAL to unlock an iPad without a clear notification from the carrier or the carrier doing it for you in some cases. You used to be able to but once the bill was signed for cell phone unlocking it became illegal to unlock iPads, along with cell phones, but cell phones are not as big of a deal as iPads for some odd reasoning.
        I work for a cell phone repair company where we unlock phones and it was made clear that we can not unlock an iPad bc of legal issues, but we can unlock a phone once the customer fills out a paper saying that we are not responsible for any legal actions from a carrier.

  6. Frustrating. I love TMobile, and their service here is exceptional, but the darn speaker flaw in the iPad mini retina that Apple refuses to do a very necessary recall on will prevent me from taking advantage of this great offer.

    Long frying pan ignorant comment in 3… 2… 1…

  7. Franklin Seldon - 10 years ago

    You can get this same price at AT&T for $329 with LTE

Author

Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.