In the spirit of Dr. Drang’s “outboard memory”, I’m placing this little tidbit here for my own future reference.
I have an iPad that has LTE. I have two SIM cards for it: the Verizon card that it came with, and a T-Mobile SIM that I picked up for the free data late last year. I generally keep the T-Mobile SIM in it, as I don’t often need data, and when I do, it isn’t much.
However, I’m about to embark on my annual pilgrimage, and as such, am likely to want/need to use data on my iPad. It’s quite likely I’ll need more than my 200MB that I get for free. Thus, what should I do? Despite all the kvetching about Verizon lately, I want to make sure I get the best bang for my buck if I am to buy a one-day, one-week, or one-month data pass from either carrier.
So, I crunched the numbers:
Carrier | Plan | Cost | Cost/MB |
---|---|---|---|
T-Mobile | 500MB Day Pass | $5 | $0.01 |
T-Mobile | 1GB Week Pass | $10 | $0.01 |
T-Mobile | 3GB Month Pass | $30 | $0.01 |
T-Mobile | 5GB Month Pass | $40 | $0.008 |
T-Mobile | 7GB Month Pass | $50 | $0.007 |
T-Mobile | 2GB Monthly | $20 | $0.02 |
T-Mobile | 6GB Monthly | $35 | $0.005 |
T-Mobile | 10GB Monthly | $50 | $0.005 |
T-Mobile | 14GB Monthly | $65 | $0.005 |
T-Mobile | 18GB Monthly | $80 | $0.004 |
T-Mobile | 22GB Monthly | $95 | $0.004 |
Verizon | 500MB Week Pass | $15 | $0.03 |
Verizon | 1GB Month Pass | $20 | $0.02 |
Verizon | 2GB 2-Month Pass | $35 | $0.02 |
Verizon | 6GB 2-Month Pass | $50 | $0.008 |
Verizon | 5GB 2-Month Pass | $60 | $0.01 |
Verizon | 10GB 2-Month Pass | $80 | $0.008 |
Verizon | 2GB Monthly | $20 | $0.01 |
Verizon | 4GB Monthly | $30 | $0.008 |
Verizon | 6GB Monthly | $40 | $0.007 |
Verizon | 8GB Monthly | $50 | $0.006 |
Verizon | 10GB Monthly | $60 | $0.006 |
Some notes about the above:
- “X pass” indicates a non-recurring/one-shot plan.
- “X Monthly” indicates a recurring plan. They must be canceled before the month is up, lest they automatically renew.
- I’m using base-10 representations for data sizes, since the carriers probably do the same. And for easy math.
- The table is sortable, if you click on the headers.
To me, the clear winners are the 1GB week pass on T-Mobile, as well as the 300MB day pass on Verizon. Naturally, depending on the length of your travel and your data needs, your mileage may vary.
UPDATED 29 August 2014 1:30 PM: Changed to reflect new T-Mobile plans.
UPDATED 29 November 2014 7:30 AM: Changed the T-Mobile day pass to reflect the decreased price of $5 (from $10).
UPDATED 6 June 2016 8:00 PM: Updated all prices; added the many new Verizon monthly passes.