i PAD ON THE ROAD.

[Kelvin12]

G'Day knowledgeable ones,

Getting "special fantastic deals never to be repeated, but wait there is more....by Telstra", Also getting complicated information from others. Do we need a 4G network i Pad on the road, does it give access to email and internet, "full or most of the time ????", WITHOUT having to pull up to Bunnings/Mackas etc. for WiFi. Is the i Pad any better than an i phone or Samsung galaxy with the "hot spot modem thing" ???? (God help me what in the hell does that do, mind boggles, eh). Do we still need the home Telstra connection for the i Pad even though we are on the road. Don't fancy paying the $90/mth odd connection fee with T box etc. when we are planning on renting the property. Do we just go with what we have at the moment, normal connection and disconnect when we go.

Hope this is not to complicated as it sounds but imagine it from this end.

Dirk

[graynomad]

I think nextG is still the ducks guts on the road, if 4G is the same as 3G then it's only good in the towns AFAIK, and maybe just large towns.

Apart from that the deciding factor when it comes to selecting hardware is "Can it use and external aerial?" If the answer is no then forget it and that will include anything with an "i" at the start of the name and just about anything with a touch screen. An external aerial is worth it's weight in gold on the road.

If you must have a smart phone last I looked Telstra have the only one with an external aerial socket.

Do we still need the home Telstra connection

I don't see why, we've only had phones for internet connection for 15 years now, unless you really need a huge data plan there's no need for anything else IMO.

These days we have a modem (for data) and a phone (for voice) because having them both in the same device is a drama when it dies.

_____
Rob

[Swisslulu]

We travel with a Telstra Elite router, wifi only iPad, iPhone 4S (plus a couple of other toys irrelevant to this discussion). We have a 3G aerial and cradle for the iPhone on/in the tow vehicle (which also aids phone reception) plus a 3G aerial on the van with a patch lead to the router. When travelling I can use the iPad attached to the iPhone's hotspot and when parked up we can connect to the router wirelessly. Telstra is really the only choice if travelling even vaguely remotely. With the Telstra router one can opt for prepaid (I think $180 for 12 Gb which has a 12 month life) or, if heavy users as we are, there are various plans available. I also have 1 Gb data included on my phone plan which I try to use each month as well.

Hope that helps and happy to give any further detail.

[Kelvin12]

Thanks crew for the replies. Food for thought. Definitely will go with the external aerial for sure.

Thanks again for the assistance.

Dirk