Hi all, I've been researching the acquisition of an ipad for all the obvious reasons. Fellow listee jim donelly educated me to the fact that you can change the micro-sim card and possibly access a different cell phone network. In my case (PNW) I need Verizon on the US side of the border and Telus on the Canadian side of the border. I have also learned that the cellular chip's antenna is tuned to the freq. of the provider so changing the micro-sim may not be all that's necessary. Does anybody know for certain the operating frequencies of the Verizon (in the san juan islands) and Telus (Coastal british columbia) networks? Does anybody have direct experience doing a micro-sim swap? Ipad micro-sims are available in Canada at the networks retail stores (not apple). Thanks, Jim Slocomb Friday Harbor, WA

Jim If I can provide an example with my own case, here it is. I have an Ipad and and iphone, both linked to Canadian providers. I CAN'T buy a simcard for my iPhone if I go to US or Europe because it's not unlock yet. I have to wait another 2 years to legally ask FIDO (the provider) to unlock it. If not, I have to go the pirate route. So, actually there are no legal solution for the iPhone route. Now, the iPads are not locked because they're not really considered telephone. It's been very easy in my case to buy a simcard last December in Newport, RI with T-Mobile. For 10$ for a week, I had enough airtime to send a few e-mails, but it was very slow, only 2G (T-Mobile said they could not provide a better speed for a buy-and-go simcard). And last month in Portugal, I bought a simcard from Vodaphone for the iPad (100 euros for unlimited for a month). It worked perfectly and I did use it a lot. Now I need to figure how to create a virtual network between my iPad and my laptop Powerbook so I could work from the laptop and share the internet connection from the iPad while on the road. If not, I have to buy a USB card for the laptop. It gets expensive and complicated. While abroad, I use the iPad as a telephone, thanks to some VoIp softwares. I use primarely BRIA (from www.counterpath.com) or VoiPCheap (and its "mobileVOiP" app), Truphone (for calls from Europe to Europe) and Skype, of course. I did not have any specific configurations to apply to the iPad. I buy the simcard, put it in, and it works. Maybe I should start a rental cell phone business in Canada for US boaters ? So many of you guys seem to have trouble to have a proper phone for a few weeks while on the loop... And we have the same problem when we visit you in the US... Bryan > Hi all, > I've been researching the acquisition of an ipad for all the obvious > reasons. Fellow listee jim donelly educated me to the fact that you can > change the micro-sim card and possibly access a different cell phone > network. > > In my case (PNW) I need Verizon on the US side of the border and Telus on > the Canadian side of the border.