<p>In your first post you mention you may also get a smart phone. I had a pretty basic phone for a long time, but then on a trip to San Francisco my phone died( I had earned a replacement), & the salesman talked me into getting a blackberry( before iPhone). The decision was aided by the number of texts that my teenage daughter sent,the blackberry was much easier. When the Blackberry went, I got the iphone4, it is just 3G, but it has unlimited data. I use the Internet access a lot with it & in situations where even if I had my iPad with me, I would use the phone instead as it is less obtrusive.</p>
<p>If your plan allows for an upgrade, I would upgrade to a smartphone & get the iPad w wifi.
(they are selling iphone4 for fairly cheap if you don’t need Siri.)</p>
<p>I have the original IPad with 16G with wifi and 3G and I use it everyday and still have storage space. I also have The IPhone4. Please get the 3G or 4G to be able to get on the web whenever Wifi is not available. It easy and inexpensive enough without a contract.</p>
<p>I go the 3G on my iPad but have never turned it on. When I need to get on the internet with no wifi now I use the hot-spot I have on my iPhone instead to get access. Not paying Verizon more. Wish they had a common data plan so I could use both on the same data plan. I have the hot-spot on the phone so DH can get on with his Kindle Fire when there is no wifi if we are traveling, and I can use it with my computer if I need to when with a client. .</p>
<p>What I heard from Verizon about their data plan for iPad is that indeed there is no contract.
Only a $75 activation fee. So if in may you activate it, you pay $75. Plus whatever data allowance you decide on. Stop it in July, then restart it in September, another $75 activation fee.
Nice huh?</p>
<p>Another salesman told me the fee was $35 - still I bet they are betting on people will just keep the plan going rather than pay for activation again, and again.</p>
<p>Has anyone gotten an activation fee from Verizon? My $20 charge is on my credit card but I never got an activation fee that I am aware of. I guess I had better recheck my bill. </p>
<p>I just checked my credit card bill again; there was no activation fee and I never heard of this.</p>
<p>It seems that Verizon isn’t clear with its sales people.
Doing more research, I found that when the ipad2 was sold with the mi-fi, there was another activation fee when there was a two month gap of service.
But supposedly with the new iPad which does not need a mi-fi, there isn’t supposed to be another fee.</p>