I’m finding a significant number of customers who have unwittingly purchased tablet computers with costly cell plans, both iPad and Android, (LG, Samsung, etc.), while buying new cell phones.

This is a problem for many reasons.

1. Customers have unknowingly purchased additional cell plans, not realizing that the tablet computer has a cell phone built into it. This can become even more expensive if you decide to stream music or video and don’t realize that cell data charges might apply.

2. Tablet computers with built-in cell phones cost more than just plain tablets because of the extra circuit boards, etc. While it might be great to have Internet on your tablet while on the road, you pay a premium to have this extra hardware feature.

3. Tablet computers can have their free voice or texting services shut down arbitrarily by either the cable companies or cell carriers if competitive issues arise, etc. This appears to have happened recently when Xfinity dropped *free* voice and texting services on iPads using just Verizon (cell network) internet services, apparently to help Verizon *sell* these services instead in addition to the $10 Verizon-iPad internet cell connection.

I’ve seen many customers who were swayed into buying phones because they were offered “free” tablet computers that turned out to not be so free. Unless you really need to have internet on your tablet while traveling, I recommend you steer clear of deals like this.

Steve