While the world (or at least people in America with poor AT&T reception) wait with baited breath for Verizon or any other wireless carrier to start offering the iPhone, the mobile phone company has a related announcement that’s a little bit out of left field: Starting in two weeks you’ll be able ot pick up the Apple iPad from Verizon stores around the US.

Here’s where it gets interesting: Verizon uses a different 3G mobile broadband technology than AT&T, but rather than retool the internal workings of the iPad to work on Verizon’s network Verizon will offer the WiFi version of the iPad plus a MiFi 2200 mobile wireless hotspot. That means you’ll need to turn on the MiFi in order to get online with the iPad when you’re not near a WiFi access point. But it also means that you can use the the MiFi with the iPad, a laptop, a smartphone, or another mobile wireless device.

Verizon will offer the 16GB version of the iPad with a MiFi for $629.99. A 32GB model will set you back $729.99 and the 64GB model will run $829.99.

You can also purchase the iPad without a MiFi from Verizon, but you’ll only get the WiFi models which run between $499.99 and $699.99.

Monthly data plans start at $20 per month for 1GB of data.$35 per month will get you 3GB, and the top plan runs $50 per month for 5GB of data. The contracts are month to month, with no annual commitment.

Verizon has put up a web site for the iPad, but its probably getting hammered with traffic because I had to hit refresh a number of times to get it to load properly.

Verizon is also expected to offer the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 inch Android tablet later this year, as well as a number of other slates running Google Android and other operating systems.

AT&T is also expected to start offering the iPad in retail stores on October 28th. Right now it’s only available in the US through Apple.

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6 replies on “Verizon to start selling the Apple iPad October 28th”

  1. “Monthly data plans start at $20 per month for 1GB of data.$35 per month will get you 3GB, and the top plan runs $50 per month for 5GB of data. The contracts are month to month, with no annual commitment.”

    I suppose that is better than the current MiFi offerings.

    Since the Galaxy Tab is a 3G device, I wonder if they will offer a different data plan price structure.

  2. Wow. Samsung cannot be happy about this development. Not happy at all.

  3. Somone (ZDnet?) said that only around 15% of iPads sold have a 3G contract. This includes the grandfathered iPads which had an unlimited data plan.

    It’ll be interesting to see how many iPads Verizon will sell, considering
    the above statistic. Verizon’s bundling a Wifi hosspot hardware device
    obfuscates the issue, since the hotspot device can be used by other
    devices as well.

    But I’m betting that the 5 GB cap will sting. It doesn’t take too many
    streamed shows before one hits that cap. And the overage charges
    can be onerous.

    By the same token, LTE with a 5 GB cap sounds like an oxymoron.

  4. “Verizon will offer the 16GB version of the iPad with a MiFi for $269.99.”

    $269.99 ?

    give me two, please

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