03 Mar 2010, Posted by Takashi Doscher in Articles,General, 0 Comments

AT&T’s Thoughts on the 3G iPad

One of our members, Susana, has already weighed in on her opinions on the new device from Apple.  I’ve been planning to write my own take on the device, but in the meantime, I thought it might be useful to hear AT&T’s opinion (AT&T is the sole 3G data provider). Apparently, they are not planning on a significant increase in traffic to their network.  I hope another iPhone data debacle is not on the horizon.  Here is an excerpt from the Reuters.com article:

AT&T Inc expects users of Apple Inc’s iPad to connect to the Internet mostly using short-range Wi-Fi networks rather than AT&T’s cellular network, the chief executive of AT&T said on Tuesday. While AT&T has agreed to provide wireless connections to the iPad tablet computer, Randall Stephenson said he does not expect the device to result in many new service subscriptions for AT&T as consumers will instead use Wi-Fi or prepaid services, where they do not subscribe to a service contract. “My expectation is that there’s not going to be a lot of people out there looking for another subscription,” he said during a webcast of an investor conference, adding that the device would be a mainly “Wi-Fi driven product.” Many consumers have their own Wi-Fi networks at home or go to coffee shops where they can avail of free Wi-Fi.

Popular Apple rumors website 9to5mac has a full poll that shows just the opposite.  What do you think?  If you are planning to buy an iPad do you want to use it on a 3G network?