cellular-carrierscellular-dataipad
I have a 2nd generation iPad which has both WiFi and Cellular connection. It is an iPad that I was using during a few years that I was living in Japan and has a Japanese phone company cellular connection.
Even when the iPad was reset, this specific connection would show up in settings. How can I set up the iPad to use in United States, with a US cellular connection?
Turns out the missing VPN switch had nothing to do with which connection was used. What seems to have happened is that all the VPN profiles were deleted. When that happens, the VPN switch seems to disappear. To check for or create a new VPN profile, go to settings->general->network->VPN:
Once you create a VPN profile, the VPN switch reappears in the root of the settings screen:
You need to also turn off background updates, which is where the bulk of the data usage is likely occurring.
Settings> General > Background App Refresh > Background App Refresh Off. Of course, you can choose which apps you wish to turn off individually for background refresh instead.
Don't forget that if you are worried about cell data usage, you can also put your phone in Airplane mode, which turns off all radios, but then manually turn on Wifi. This will force your phone to use only Wifi, as the cell radios are off. Simply turn off Airplane mode when you wish to use the cell radio again.
Best Answer
If you check the Apple Sim page for iPad here (Use Apple SIM with Wi-Fi + Cellular models of iPad), it says that you can use a nano-SIM card in the SIM tray to set up a cellular data plan with a different carrier.