AT&T has recently made some changes to their standalone tablet plans, affecting those who rely on these plans for their iPads. The good news is that AT&T offers a standalone tablet plan for just $20 per month, which does not require any other lines of service with AT&T, making it a popular option for tablet users.
However, AT&T initially did not code these plans with a hotspot limitation, which means that customers were getting unlimited mobile hotspot use off their tablets. But now, changes have been made, and it is being reported that customers who have these plans are now seeing a 10-gigabyte high-speed mobile hotspot limit.
This is not unexpected, as these are normal limits on AT&T tablet plans, but it’s something you need to pay attention to if you’re using a lot of hotspot data off your iPad on these standalone plans. Once you reach the 10-gigabyte cap, you will be slowed down to 128 kilobits per second, which is extremely slow and will limit what you can do on your tablet.
Despite this new limitation, the standalone tablet plan is still a great option for a tablet plan, especially if you’re doing video conferencing, video streaming, and other high-bandwidth activities on your tablet itself. There are two versions of this plan out there, and if you’re using one of the standalone plans on a tablet, know that this cap now exists, which is a downside to what might have been seen as an unlimited thing.
The first version of the plan came out in September 2020 when AT&T rolled out the unlimited your way plans. The other version says “access for tablet or iPad 4G LTE.” The former now has the 10-gigabyte cap enforced, while the latter still has reports of not seeing that cap implemented yet, but it’s just a matter of time before that rolls back to those even more legacy plans.
If you’re interested in getting a standalone tablet plan from AT&T, it’s important to note that the changes that have been made may affect your usage. Nevertheless, it is still a sweet option for tablets and worth considering if you want to add your iPad to your AT&T plan.