Hutchison Austria Announces iPad Data Plans Already

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Just a little over one week has passed since Apple made its iPad official and the first carrier outside the USA that’s going to offer the device has just been revealed. It looks like the company in question is Hutchison Austria and it already has plans to offer the iPad for subsidized pricing. And I do mean the Wi-Fi version.

In case you don’t know what the difference between iPad Wi-Fi and iPad 3G is I’ll be happy to explain while wondering where you have been living this past week. The iPad Wi-Fi, that’s not an official name, but we do have to differentiate them somehow, comes with Wi-Fi support on board only. The Wi-Fi version will be available worldwide at some point late March while the iPad 3G, the tablet that also happens to pack 3G support besides Wi-Fi, will come to us in late April.

In the USA AT&T will take care of your data plans without expecting you to sign any contracts but in this case you won’t get the iPad for a subsidized price.

In other countries things will be a little different. In Austria Hutchison will get you a cheaper iPad Wi-Fi as long as you’re willing to sign a new two-year contract worth €29.90 per month and offering you 5GB of monthly traffic. Naturally you’re going to wonder where the Internet comes from since the Wi-Fi tablet doesn’t have 3G support. Well Hutchison is throwing in a 3G modem for every iPad Wi-Fi sold. The Huawei-made i-Mo modem is basically a wireless Wi-Fi router that’s going to transform that 3G connection into a wireless network. It’s quite a pretty neat trick so if you’re going to get such data plans from Hutchison why not get a subsidized iPad too?

The carrier will offer you a €333 rebate of the iPad’s price, which is a pretty cool deal. Assuming that the cheapest iPad will cost €499 then a subsidized version should only cost you 166. Let’s hear it, Austrians, are you going to get the iPad with a 3G contract or not?