The SIMs usually have a phone number associated with them and I've wondered if the Cellular iPads could do SMS texting using that number (let's leave iMessage and SMS forwarding from iPhones out of the picture).

Everything I found says NO, and sending a text to the iPad's phone number doesn't make anything happen.

BUT... I just flew cross country with my iPad 2 with a free T-Mobile 200MB/mo SIM from years ago still active in it, and I didn't put it in Airplane mode before putting it in my briefcase.

When I landed there was a new TEXT messages notification on the iPad from T-Mobile saying "Welcome to Canada" and telling me the rates.

So somehow T-Mobile is able to send a text to a Cellular iPad but it seems the general public can't.

iPads have unique cellular numbers, so why not?

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sekker
iPads have unique cellular numbers, so why not?

Because they are cellular data only hardware, and SMS is really a cellular voice service.

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GGD

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sekker
iPads have unique cellular numbers, so why not?

Because they are cellular data only hardware, and SMS is really a cellular voice service.

I thought all of the limitations were imposed by cell service providers to try to prevent someone from buying a (cheaper) tablet plan and using it on their phones.

But maybe that's just a Conspiracy Theory.

I have an iPad Pro on T-Mo, and using T-Mo's "Digits" app lets me text to my heart's content to/from any of the three normal 'voice' lines on the account, and as noted, iMessages works for other iPhones in the ecosystem. I vaguely recall doing something with its given SIM number, and it may be in addition to welcome texts and Amber Alerts... looks like some fun homework in store; with the T=Mo Digits app, there's never been a need to distribute the iPad's number, until now.
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