Surface 4G tablet:
When I first bought my Surface 4G tablet, I was going in completely blind in terms of how the 4G will work. I didn’t know any details, how much it was going to cost me, or how to best set it up. Now that I’ve had a couple of weeks to play with it, I thought I’d pass on a few things I learned that you may find useful. This way you’ll at least know more on what to expect than I did.
Things you should know about the new 4G tablets : AT&T ONLY
Much like the iPhones started out with AT&T only, so does the Surface 4G. AT&T is currently the only provider for the Surface 4G tablets. It’s likely that more carriers will provide service later but it’s unclear when that will be.
Things you should know about the new 4G tablets : Possible international use
Although AT&T is the provider in the US, I was told by one of their representatives that when traveling to other countries, you should be able to purchase a SIM card and use the data with the Surface 4G. This is great news for us because we travel to Latin America quite a bit. We’ll report on how well this works when we travel again.
Things you should know about the new 4G tablets: Plan Price
- $10/mo – to have the Surface added to existing shared plan.
- $14.99/mo – for beginning standalone plans.
- Right now, you also receive an additional $100 credit to your bill for adding a Surface 3G tablet, see AT&T site for details.
Things you should know about the new 4G tablets: Where to find settings
4G can be found in your WiFi settings. In Settings/WiFi, you will see that AT&T (4G LTE) is on the list.
You have two options:
- Turn it ON and OFF
- Or leave it ON at all times
Things you should know about the new 4G tablets: Default Data usage
The Surface will default to WiFi if available, so you can conserve on cellular data usage costs. I have mine turned ON all the time and it only draws on the 4G LTE when there is no WiFi networks in my range – like on a car trip.
Things you should know about the new 4G tablets: Handy AT&T status app
I love the pre-installed AT&T app that tells you how much data you have left. I pinned it to the start and since it’s a live tile, I can always tell at a glance how much data I’ve used on my plan.
I hope this helps you understand what to expect from the Surface 4G tablets.
You may also like my post on my first impressions about the Surface 2 4G LTE.
Joanna-
