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MSM Hobbes

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 25, 2006
375
0
NE Hoosierana
As the title states, I'm curious if a person while in China can use the FaceTime feature on their Verizon iPhone 4S, when connected to local (China) wifi? Any extra charges, or other concerns / suggestions? Shanghai and Tongling (central interior) would be the two main cities. According to this older thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/981672/ it should be… right?
 

Mrbobb

macrumors 603
Aug 27, 2012
5,009
209
WIFI has nothing to do with what cell carrier the phone belongs or subscribes to. Thankfully as AppleJuice says, WIFI is WIFI no matter ur are on Earth or on the Moon.
 

Clint1583

macrumors regular
Mar 4, 2011
155
9
My wife travels for business to different parts of the world and we have found that video chatting/FaceTime works poorly in most country's outside the US. Not sure if its the distance or just poor wi-fi in other country's. I know it shouldn't matter but it does.
 

RevTEG

macrumors 65816
Oct 28, 2012
1,347
1,192
San Jose, Ca
FaceTime over wifi is free and works great as long as your connection is good. I travel to many countries and use FaceTime all time when my wife and kids are not with me. Works great. Free!

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And yes it works in China. I've used FaceTime between many places in Asia and the States.
 

MSM Hobbes

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 25, 2006
375
0
NE Hoosierana
Thanks for the replies / help… just wanted to make sure, as this is my first time to China, and want to be able to connect with my family.
 

Mrbobb

macrumors 603
Aug 27, 2012
5,009
209
My wife travels for business to different parts of the world and we have found that video chatting/FaceTime works poorly in most country's outside the US. Not sure if its the distance or just poor wi-fi in other country's. I know it shouldn't matter but it does.


Despite massive investment on world wide telecommunication infrastructure, the on-going problem is, IS NEVER ENOUGH. FaceTime (video) takes bandwidth, more than voice, and certainly more than text.

Not too long ago, making simple voice-to-voice international calls gets you echos and seconds delays, it has gotten a lot better. But of course now that we take voice comm for granted, we throw in video.

The problem is exacerbated when u go through WIFI. Do you know the WIFI bandwidth available on either end? Unless you own both WIFI you don't really know. Then VOIP (Voice Over IP or Video Over IP) hopefully goes through a QOS path. (QOS=assign voice and video traffic high priority) Currently I do not think ISPs have standardized QOS for public video transmission across international boundaries.
 
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