AT&T Cheap Data Plans Won Apple’s iPad Deal?

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A week after the iPad’s official release and we’re still talking about the device and what it means to the mobile industry. This time around we’re not going to analyze the lack of Flash support or, more importantly, the lack of multitasking. But we’re going to take another look at Verizon’s missed iPad deal.

We talked about it before and the general impression seems to be that Apple was not able to offer an iPad deal to Verizon as long as it is tied to AT&T. The later has an iPhone exclusivity deal that binds them to Apple until later this year.

Today we hear another peculiar rumor which basically says that Verizon wasn’t willing to boldly go where AT&T went in terms of iPad 3G plans pricing. The iPad brought some very interesting 3G broadband solutions. First off all, the device comes unlocked from the beginning and it will never be tied to AT&T in a contract. Furthermore pricing varies from $14.99 for 250MB monthly traffic to $29.99 for unlimited access. Add to that free access to AT&T’s hotspots and you get a very sweet deal.

The report says that AT&T outbid Verizon with these prices and that’s how AT&T managed to become the sole iPad carrier in the USA. Couple that with the iPhone exclusivity and you end up with a carrier that’s sitting on an even bigger goldmine. The problem is, of course, AT&T’s network which can’t handle so many 3G-enabled Apple gadgets.

Verizon is said to still be in talks with Apple. Their goal apparently is to offer both a CDMA iPhone and iPad this year. But Verizon will probably wait for AT&T to end its exclusivity deal before announcing any CDMA iPhone and iPad plans.

The iPhone 4G coming this summer might go to both AT&T and Verizon. That’s a speculation we’ve heard before and we could see it happen in just a few months. On the same occasion Steve Jobs could also announce a CDMA iPad version too. The question is, will Verizon come up with similar data prices for the iPad?