I need someone who has a lot of information on LTE in Rural America.. this is killing me.

Question

My first problem: I live in an area that Verizon Wireless does not service. It's in an extended 1X area. The local carrier/roaming partner here is Appalachian Wireless. Verizon signed the LTE in Rural America program with this local carrier. I bought a Verizon iPad (4G LTE) and my return window is narrowing and I need to find out an answer, now.  
Question 1: I've heard that if the iPad is not on a post-paid account that it will not roam in an extended network, first problem. I do not have Verizon for cell service considering I only get 1X data here at the moment. So if I keep this iPad and activate it on a pre-paid account, will I be able to roam at all?
Question 2: When this local carrier completes this 4G LTE network on Verizon spectrum (band 13, 700 mhz), will this still be considered roaming even though they signed that agreement? If so, will I still need a post paid account or will a pre-paid account still work?
Question 3: Will this LTE work here on this new iPad or do I just need to go ahead and swap it for an AT&T LTE one while I still have the chance, AT&T has decent 3G here and eventually will have LTE here or around here i'm hoping.
I need answers, asap. I keep getting mixed ones. I contacted Verizon, they said to buy an AT&T one just to be safe. You would think with an agreement that explicity states "Verizon users will be able to use 4G in this area" that someone would know the answer to this

Answer 1

i live in a place that used to be called Rural America (Algonquin, IL, Mchenry County, U.S.A.) but is now considered an extended part of the Chicago Suburbs, and Verizon 4G LTE is now finally available here as well (I just ordered my 4G LTE USB Modem yesterday, so I won't get to try it out until it arrives tomorrow by Fed Ex). i will post back here tomorrow as to weather it does actually connect at 4G LTE or not, and how fast 4G LTE really is assuming that it actually does connect at 4G LTE. I am a little bit skeptical as to weather it will actually connect at 4G LTE, because i have owned one of these 4G LTE USB Modems before and all I got then was 3G and the occasional 3G/4G Flip Flop, but that was before Verizon actually had 4G LTE listed on their map for my Area, so just maybe this time things will be faster than last time. The one thing that I definitely do NOT recommend buying a 4G LTE Device if you only get 3G in your area, because, you will actually get a slower speed than if you still had a 3G Device, the Backwards Compatibility Downgrade to 3G is not all that great most of the time and is usually slower than a 3G Device would be in the same area. Just my previous experience from trying it out once before.