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Computerworld - If the iPad is truly going to be "magical," as Apple claims it will be, a lot rides on AT&T's networks, especially its much-derided 3G performance for the iPhone.

So, it's fair to ask what a user can realistically expect after unboxing an iPad, when the first Wi-Fi-only versions are released Saturday, and later in April when versions with 3G are released.

AT&T is pretty cocky about its readiness. "We are absolutely ready," spokesman Mark Siegel said today. "The iPad is already figured into our planning for this year. It's worth noting that people are likely to use the iPad a lot on Wi-Fi."

Analysts believe that the Wi-Fi experience with the iPad will almost certainly be the same as with a laptop or an iPhone, but bigger questions remain regarding wide-area cellular performance from AT&T when 3G/Wi-Fi iPads begin shipping sometime in late April.

The Wi-Fi-only iPad

While there are many home and business Wi-Fi networks to use with the iPad, AT&T also supports at least 20,000 hot spots, 11,000 of which provide free service at McDonald's restaurants.

AT&T will offer a special data plan for the iPad 3G/Wi-Fi version that will cost $15 or $30 per month (with no long-term commitment) and will also provide free Wi-Fi access at all of AT&T's hot spots in the U.S. The $15 plan provides a limit of 250MB per month, and the $30 plan offers unlimited data service.

The iPad supports fast 802.11n Wi-Fi, but that much speed might be irrelevant. As analysts note, the slowest link in any network is what matters, and while a home, restaurant or airport might support fast Wi-Fi, it could be the size of the pipe from the location to the switching office of the Internet carrier that matters, as well as the number of users on a single Wi-Fi access point.

If a user is getting an average speed of 1Mbit to 3Mbit/sec. to the home via a DSL or a cable modem connection and has a fast Wi-Fi router (theoretically, a router that could be 540Mbit/sec. with 802.11nm although much lower in reality), that will be fine for most iPad functions, analysts note.

The iPad is widely seen first as a multimedia device and an e-reader, among its other functions. Some users may notice problems with real-time streaming video over Wi-Fi, depending on the size of the video image and its resolution. This might present a problem for some video clips embedded in a New York Times story, for example, but would probably be no different than what users could expect from a small video clip via a typical laptop over Wi-Fi.