Zach Epstein over at Know Your Cell sits down with an iPad and a hankerin’ for data gluttony to truly see if AT&T’s promise of unlimited 3G connectivity ($30 a month) for the device is real. It’s a fair question, given the wireless industry has a long and sordid history with pretending the word “unlimited” actually means limited. Epstein downloads more than 30 GB of data on the iPad without interruption, but he does note that the usage-tracking software on the device doesn’t seem entirely accurate

In fact, actual data usage is likely a bit higher than the figure shown above, as the iPad seems to have some trouble tracking cellular data usage accurately. I haven’t yet fully investigated the issue, but I did observe at least one instance where the cellular data received counter actually dropped as I used it. To clarify: the received counter was at 28.3 gigabytes and after using the iPad for another hour, the counter was at 26.1 gigabytes.

For whatever reason, Epstein responds to user requests for clarity on how he hit that much usage (porn? P2P? The Ralph Macchio filmography?) by saying he’ll “happily share my methods” – and then proceeding not to. He then just discontinues testing which is unfortunate – given that some ISPs only slap user wrists for “excessive” data usage after they’ve done so for several consecutive months.

Still, it’s refreshing to see that AT&T’s no contract unlimited iPad 3G plan actually is (barring some change) unlimited. Perhaps somebody bought wireless industry executives a dictionary.

Link to the original article…