What is a 3G plan?

Question

I bought an iPad with wi-fi and 3G. I am not sure, or say, I don't know why I bought this one over just wi-fi..
My husband asked me and I don't know the answer. Please explain the difference as you see, the apple sales person did not make it clear enough to me to know why I purchased this one.

Answer 1

tytbody wrote:
so, I could have gotten the other model. ???
If you are always within Wi-FI range and you don't need the GPS, then yes.
I was thinking of using when i went to the park for a walk or something. I could surf as I do on my iphone. (when seated of course)
But this would be when you want 3G, unless you're one of the lucky people with Wi-Fi in the park.
I have wireless at home..hum.. Me thinks I may not have really needed this if I'm not going to use that feature daily right? but, it's there if I do decide to hook up when I get to go on Vacation.
Yes, not needed at home, but on vacation, you now have a "large screen TomTom."
but you know, do you really take something this expensive to the beach?
Yes, I do. I used to take my laptop, read some news, etc. Not directly on the sand, but in grassy areas.
I have wi-fi at work but it would not connect. Do you think if I had the AT&T it would have found that server? or if it's weak at work, no server is going to go through?
Having (or not having) 3G would not have mattered with your work Wi-Fi. All iPads have Wi-Fi. So any iPad would have the same capability to connect to your work Wi-Fi. Likely your work Wi-Fi has encryption enabled so you need to ask your network administrator what settings to use.
A lot of people can't get on their cell phones throughout the hospital, in different locations. Could that be what was going on there also? Just not able to connect for some reason?
The iPad's 3G is the same cellular data network as AT&T cellular phones. So if your area has good AT&T coverage, then you probably would have been able to connect your iPad over 3G (if you had subscribed.) But if AT&T phone have poor reception, then your iPad would have had poor reception, so having the 3G model would not have helped. And to be perfectly clear, "a lot of people can't get on their cell phones" is very broad. If they were all T-Mobile phones, then that doesn't necessarily say anything about AT&T coverage. The webpage I linked to in the previous post has a link to AT&T's coverage map, so you can check to see if you're in a poor area or not. And a "good" area isn't a guarantee that 3G will work, as building materials & geography can affect cellular signals. Particularly a hospital, where many of the rooms may be shielded to protect against X-Ray machines, etc.
So my advice is that you keep the iPad you have. You may find a use for the GPS that you hadn't thought about or you may find that you'll want to use the iPad outside of the house (i.e.: in the park) more often. Otherwise, if you're within the return period for where ever you bought, you could return / exchange it for the Wi-Fi only model. (Or sell yours on eBay/Craigslist, then buy a Wi-Fi only iPad.) But I specifically bought my 3G iPad to get the GPS even though I don't need to use the 3G that much.