iPad 2

[wmnoble]

Hi All;

I live in LA area and travel back and forth to Shanghai, Tokyo and back.
I recently purchased iPad2 stock with 3G (AT&T) and WIFI but did not get the service.

When I arrived in Shanghai, I turned on the iPad and China Unicom signal was detected very strongly but did not connect as it requested vpn, account, user name and password. Does anyone know if I can just use the existing sim card that came with the iPad2 with the right account name? Can I get this from China Unicom?

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Most of our Members have found that they need to 'initialise' their iPads first in the USA on AT&T before they can use it overseas. However, using an iPad overseas with the AT&T SIM roaming will be very expensive and most everyone gets a local SIM from the local carrier so that they're just paying local rates to access the Internet.

You had an additional complicating factor in that you were trying to initialise your AT&T SIM in your iPAD on a foreign network. Since it wasn't an AT&T network your iPAD needed to know the APN (I assume you meant this rather than the VPN you mentioned in your post), account name and password.

So my advice would be to initialise your iPAD in the US with the AT&T card and then get a SIM from a local carrier when you're in China. The microSIMs used by the iPad are still relatively rare - most phones and computers use the standard miniSIM - so it might be worth investing in a SIM cutter (check Amazon) that trims the excess plastic off a standard SIM to make it compatible with a microSIM holder.

Tim

 

[wmnoble]

Thanks Tim;

I think I have to go to the local network and get the service per your advice. The thing is the iPad was requesting VPN not APN. I knew it was supposed to be APN like my iPhone, but I couldn't find any reference to APN on my iPad.

William