After an hour long conversation with AT&T and Apple, as well as an hour at the AT&T store (first of which, wasn’t the right store because they just sold phones), I am finally ready for the 3G on the iPad. I picked up a refurb 1st gen for $350 a couple days ago. (Super cheap, some crazy fire… sale at AT&T’s site.)
When I got it, I couldn’t access the Cellular Data tab in Settings to see if I could sign up for it. Kept giving me an error: “Your account type does not support the view account feature (H5006).”
So here’s the interesting info. The 1st generation iPads would come with completely blank micro SIM cards. The 2nd generations, however, come with a phone number already attached to it. Someone shipped my iPad with a micro SIM card with a phone number on it, and so the 1st gen couldn’t start the sign up process because there was already a number assigned to it.
You can’t just ask for a new SIM card if you have this error: You have to ask for a completely blank one.
Conspiracy Theory
Okay, so here comes my hatred/fear of the telecoms: When I signed up through the less-than-perfect AT&T site, I had to pick a data plan. Now, as you may know, I love love love the fact that on the 3G iPads, I don’t have to muck around with the pipe provider. You sign up for 30 days of X amount of data, and you’re done. No contract. No calling in to customer support, hammering at the 0, saying no to every single question. No bullcrap. But when I bought this iPad, I felt like I was entering into a contract with AT&T, telling them that I’d be giving them money regardless of if I used the 3G feature (which I normally wouldn’t).
Does the fact that the 3G iPad 2 comes with the phone number already attached to it say anything about the vendor/telecom relationship between Apple and AT&T/Verizon? Will there be a subsidized iPad in the future? Don’t know, but don’t sign me up on it.
Now to enjoy yet another addition to my ever-revolving set of gadget loadouts. Hooray.