AT&T Cheap Data Plans Won Apple’s iPad Deal? Rumors Say Verizon’s iPad Data Offer Was Higher than AT&T’s

A week after the iPad s official release and we re still talking about
the device and what it means to the mobile industry. This time around we
re not going to analyze the lack of Flash support or, more importantly,
the lack of multitasking. But we re going to take another look at
Verizon s missed iPad deal.
We talked about it before and the general impression seems to be that
Apple was not able to offer an iPad deal to Verizon as long as it is
tied to AT T. The later has an iPhone exclusivity deal that binds them
to Apple until later this year.
Today we hear another peculiar rumor which basically says that Verizon
wasn t willing to boldly go where AT T went in terms of iPad 3G plans
pricing. The iPad brought some very interesting 3G broadband solutions.
First off all, the device comes unlocked from the beginning and it will
never be tied to AT T in a contract. Furthermore pricing varies from
$14.99 for 250MB monthly traffic to $29.99 for unlimited access. Add to
that free access to AT T s hotspots and you get a very sweet deal.
The report says that AT T outbid Verizon with these prices and that s
how AT T managed to become the sole iPad carrier in the USA. Couple that
with the iPhone exclusivity and you end up with a carrier that s sitting
on an even bigger goldmine. The problem is, of course, AT T s network
which can t handle so many 3G-enabled Apple gadgets.
Verizon is said to still be in talks with Apple. Their goal apparently
is to offer both a CDMA iPhone and iPad this year. But Verizon will
probably wait for AT T to end its exclusivity deal before announcing any
CDMA iPhone and iPad plans.
The iPhone 4G coming this summer might go to both AT T and Verizon. That
s a speculation we ve heard before and we could see it happen in just a
few months. On the same occasion Steve Jobs could also announce a CDMA
iPad version too. The question is, will Verizon come up with similar
data prices for the iPad?