AT&T to Restrict or Charge for FaceTime Over 3G/4G in iOS 6? [Updated With AT&T Statement]

God AT&T sucks. Wish I could change providers.

b166er said:

the only thing worse than this.....


.... will be reading ATT's excuse as to why they are doing it.


Deplorable. I pay for unlimited data. I rarely hit 2 gigs. Not a chance they will dime me for facetime, as it is not their feature.

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They would dime you for FaceTime while Skype, Oovoo and others are free? What the heck is going on? It's time for the DoJ to step in and put give them what they deserve!

Also, WTH is Apple allowing this? Screw AT&T and give the chance to another carrier who's not a greedy bastard.

Gen said:

(this is why we need the down-vote button back)

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For?

AT&T is cRaZy

So I can Skype, Fring, uStream and who knows what else, but I can't FaceTime? We pay for our data. Who cares what they want?

Is this one of those things that can get me out of my contract?

Gary

Hey that's my picture up there

Also, I've been a defendant of AT&T for a while but this is just too much. It's one thing to charge for hotspot (connecting an external device to use the iPhone data makes a bit of sense) but to use a built in functionality ON THE PHONE ITSELF and have to pay extra for it is very un-Apple like. And bonehead. Carriers are evil!

Just one more reason to switch to Verizon. Peace out, Ma-Bell.

Small White Car said:

Honestly I kind of LIKE having this broken out so I have the chance to not pay for it.

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You honestly think AT&T will give you some sort of discount if you are an iPhone user and don't use Facetime on their network? You will continue paying the same amount...what's not to like!?

Bottom line is this isn't AT&T's feature. To charge for it is borderline illegal.

Now if they said "you can disable Facetime over 3/4G and receive a $5 discount" that would be more palatable. To simply charge an above and beyond fee for Apple's feature is seriously shady.

JrJ 15 said:

It's my data, I pay for it, let me use in anyway that I choose!

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RIGHT!!!!! But At&t seem to not see it that way....SMH

arn said:

try resetting network settings
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/15263082/

if you don't mind losing the ability.

arn

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Haha well... I do kinda like it, so maybe I'll hold off. But if that does it, then AT&T is making a bad move. I think I'll send an email to Randall and tell him that it's not okay.

I'm in Canada so I do not have AT&T but if this is true all I can say is "go **** yourself AT&T."

- From your friendly neighbors up north.

garylapointe said:

So I can Skype, Fring, uStream and who knows what else, but I can't FaceTime? We pay for our data. Who cares what they want?

Is this one of those things that can get me out of my contract?

Gary

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Probably... Just wait for any change in their Terms of Service and you may have a way out of it.

It's screwed up how these companies try to keep customers from using the full amount of data they paid for. If we paid for something we should be able to use it how we want. If we go over we'll pay the charges. Simple as that.

Seeing as this is a core function of iOS, why are Apple letting carriers interfere in such a way?

Doesn't make sense.

What if....

Apple bought out T-Mo?

Small White Car said:

Honestly I kind of LIKE having this broken out so I have the chance to not pay for it.

The fact that Verizon now makes you pay for unlimited voice and texts no matter what you want makes them a non-starter for me. I kind of like the idea of a carrier that lets me not pay for certain things. (And this certainly is one of those things that I wouldn't pay for.)

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What it is that you smoke so I stay away from it???

Hahahahahahaha because I'm totally going to pay for that.

I'm leaving Att for Verizon data family share and LTE when the new iPhone comes out so it won't phase me. I am done with them, Verizon is even including tethering.

larrylaffer said:

Are there any third-party video chat apps for iOS yet? If so, do they work over 3G?

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Umm yeah.. Tango. Works great.

Man

The DoJ needs to step into this to fix this.

pbush25 said:

I posted the same thing on the 9to5 forums; as soon as they posted that story, I attempted to make FaceTime calls with my iPhone that was updated to beta 3 today. I had no issues placing and receiving 4 separate FaceTime calls over 4G this evening. Maybe it's just my phone, I don't know. But it worked fine for me.

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Works fine for me too.. Maybe unlimited data plans are exempt from this?

I wish this was more of a shock to me, but it's just business as usual on AT&T.

My contract is up this year and I'm switching to Verizon. This alone isn't enough to get me to switch, but I've dealt with terrible service in NYC on AT&T for the past 4 years and I've had enough.

And people wonder why Apple waited this long to add 3G FaceTime.

MacUser4_20 said:

Works fine for me too.. Maybe unlimited data plans are exempt from this?

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I would think those would be targeted first. I have a 5 gig plan I pay $50 for. Tell me again why I can't use 5 gigs of Facetime data?

I'll hang up and take the answer on-air.

It's crazy that I pay AT&T for tethering for my iPhone and I could in theory use FaceTime on my laptop tethered to my iPhone, but I can't use FaceTime on the iPhone itself (edit: I meant over the cellular connection). If this is still the situation when iOS 6 arrives, that'll be silly.

One more reason to ditch AT&T. I planned to leave when the 4S came out, but I stayed with them solely for my grandfathered unlimited data, which I now regret. I will pay the reduced ETF & jump ship this fall or after the first of the year.