I’ve noticed that when I travel, my fancy Verizon Wireless LTE iPad has trouble getting a signal. I don’t travel often so I attributed this to bad luck. But the last time it happened I posted this on Twitter:

I don't travel much, but so far when I do my iPad's Verizon connection has been useless or nearly so. My AT&T phone always connects.

— Steve Crooks (@scrooks) November 21, 2012

I got a reply from one of my followers that my PRL might be out of date, and fixing that when I got back in a Verizon zone would probably help things out. Later, when back home, I tried his suggestion and found that the PRL did not update. I queried him and he told me he’d double check things. A few days later he replied:

@scrooks Your PRL is up to date if you use the prepaid on the iPad. The only way to get a better signal is add it to a monthly statement.

— Jaymes Sorensen 🐝 (@JaymesRS) December 10, 2012

@scrooks Verizon has fewer partner towers that you get access to on prepaid accounts,that’s why you have a worse signal than a VZW iPhone.

— Jaymes Sorensen 🐝 (@JaymesRS) December 10, 2012

This guy seems to know what he’s talking about and frankly, that stinks. You want the good Verizon service? Sign up for a monthly plan, sucker. Unfortunately for me, our family has AT&T iPhones.

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29 October 2013 update:

@scrooks Hey… that’s me! One correction. You’re not losing out on ANY VZW towers, just liscenced partner towers (think sprint et al)

— Jaymes Sorensen 🐝 (@JaymesRS) October 29, 2013

I still think they should make this more clear. I now have the AT&T Mobile Share plan, so I’ll be getting an AT&T iPad regardless.