dlwalt

if I buy an IPad 2 with 3G, will it work in South Africa? Can I buy it if not on AT&T or Verizon and is it captable in South Africa?

Dubai Stu

The ATT one will work; the Verizon one will not. ATT uses GSM which is compatible with South Africa. Verizon uses an incompatible technology called CDMA. The GSM iPad is unlocked. You'll need a MicroSIM in South Africa. Vodacom has them, but you may need to go to a company store. At least as of last year, you had to cut a MTN SIM down to work. I bought one of these to open my prepaid options up:

http://www.amazon.com/Cutter-Micro-A...ies/B0045XR5IS

jsnydcsa

As noted above a GSM model (AT&T and NOT Verizon) will work in SA. You'd be "buying" the GSM model and just not signing up for an AT&T plan so it would "not [be] on AT&T" or any other carrier for that matter. Whether you bought an AT&T plan or not, because the iPad 2 is SIM unlocked, you'd be free to insert any telco's SIM in the thing (so long as the telco uses GSM).

Be aware that if you do use AT&T as you're data provider, you'll get hammered (IMHO) on data roaming in SA (and elsewhere for that matter). Stick to Wi-Fi connection and not AT&T data roaming in SA and you will not incur roaming charges.

If you're buying a SA SIM, you'll need to finagle RICA (basically, registering your SIM)
See,
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...th-africa.html
Thread discusses RICA, purchasing a SA telco's SIM/Micro SIM for an iPad for use in SA (with additional discussion re: SIM v. MicroSIM)

dlwalt

Am I required to purchase an AT&T data plan when I buy the iPads? I am actually giving them to someone in South Africa.

Dubai Stu

No. You can buy it cash and carry at an Apple Store, Best Buy, or ATT.

weekilter

You might like to check this website out.

jsnydcsa

What?

Buying them here and bringing them to SA is not a problem. Previous post is correct that you don't need to buy or commit to any data plan when you buy it at Apple, AT&T, etc.

But, keep in mind that your package will contain a US plug charger (rather than a SA plug). Though I've purchased tech items in the US for SA folks (such as hard drives, wi-fi routers, ipods, they've never been as "complicated" as an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch. I'm certainly not an iPad expert, but wouldn't you need to at least rejigger location settings on startup?

Any reason why you couldn't purchase them in SA? In a TIA way, if the gift recipient had issues and needed local support, might a local iDevice seller say something along the lines of "this is a non-SA purchased item, we can't help you."