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Apple Confirms FaceTime Video Calling Will Not Use Cellular Minutes

From what I understand, the call is initiated on a cellular network and then transferred over to Wi-Fi once the other person accepts the FaceTime call. But then what if I don't have a cellular signal? Will the call still be able to be initiated just solely on Wi-Fi? And doesn't a cellular minute allotment get deducted 1 minute per call regardless if the person answers or not? (assuming that the person isn't mobile-to-mobile or free nights and weekends etc.)

What if I'm in another country and I am no longer using AT&T; will I still be able to place the call without international fees for placing the call?

I just don't understand considering the call is initiated using cellular networks.
 
Seriously

nsayer said:
People are quick to trot out this little canard, but where, exactly would Apple go? Verizon? Do you honestly think that Verizon wouldn't have had exactly as much (or more) problems on their network had they gotten the iPhone exclusivity? And if Apple had made a Verizon iPhone, then they would have had to make a different SKU phone (GSM/GPRS/UMTS) for the rest of the world - as opposed to the One True phone they have now that works on all their supported carriers.

I can pretty regularly get 2-3 MB/sec now with AT&T. The best you can do with Verizon is not quite a third of that.
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Did I mention Verizon in my post? No, I didn't it. Any other carrier will do.

If Apple wants to increse their sales, the smartest thing to do is release it on another carrier. Thus make more customers happy.
 
cvaldes said:
Deductive reasoning and common sense are two attributes notably absent in many MacRumors readers.
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right, that's CRAZY, right?

like if ATT would CHARGE you for sending your calls out through YOUR OWN INTERNET CONNECTION.

oh... right. THEY DO. how's that for common sense?

and you're complaining that OTHER PEOPLE lack common sense? ah, irony!
 
re:

even if it did go against your minutes, facetime would be iphone to iphone which means at&t to at&t, which means free. unless at&t has a new policy for it in the future.
 
Does anyone know if you can make a facetime call without a cellular network?

In other words, will facetime have an option to set up a video call thru wifi only without the initial cell phone call?

That would be better for me as I have broadband internet but no cell coverage at my home.
 
That's good but I'm interested to see how they handle facetime over 3G especially with no more unlimited plans for new customers, but I'm grandfathered in so hopefully they don't charge some new fee just for facetime. Also, they have the time to confirm this, now Apple how about some news on the White iPhone 4 !?
 
digitalbiker said:
Does anyone know if you can make a facetime call without a cellular network?

In other words, will facetime have an option to set up a video call thru wifi only without the initial cell phone call?

That would be better for me as I have broadband internet but no cell coverage at my home.
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Yes, from the contacts you can initiate a facetime call.
 
It's a shame that MacRumors already considers that data consumption for FaceTime would be billed as new category for the traditional carriers...Or even worse counted against your voice minutes.

It is like people are used to stand behind a line for service, even many other 'customer service representatives' are available. People seem to prefer what they are used to get, even they are been screwed or paying for something they shouldn't.

Data is data, and how we use should be our issue.

Paying tolls on data usage is stupid.

When will we really be in charge of the market? We don't control or have enough influence on demand and supply. Unfortunately even in the so called 'free world' we are limited with few choices, or those choices are always in sync to charge whatever they consider because all their competitors are or will be doing the same for crippled services.
 
adrian.oconnor said:
This Daring Fireball post is very insightful: http://daringfireball.net/2010/06/first

Apple aren't the first to do video chat, but they are the first to do it right. Regular consumers will be able to use FaceTime without needing help from a geeky teenage relative.
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In Sweden you don't need a geeky relative to do video chat, you just dial the number/select the contact/ hit speed dial number or whatever method of your chioce to get to the person you want to video chat with, and then you hit video call instead of call, it usually right next to it.
 
Data is Data - I agree with that, McGiord.

But, c'mon, carriers want to avoid the "everything is data so let's charge as an internet connection" model as much as possible. I too hope for a future where data (voice,video,everything) is really data according to the carriers. :)


Understand that this is not new for most of the rest of the world. US residents are dealing with it now but there are business models for this already.

Understand that many carriers outside the US have dealt with the subject for quite some time (a decade, maybe) and they bill video calls as... well, video calls — a new category. I guess that's why MacRumors considers that FaceTime calls will be billed as such.

Video calls aren't new and what makes them not that much used in countries that have had them for years is basically the expensive price.

But this really bugs me:
— why do you have to start a voice call to get to the video call ???

It doesn't make much sense — more info on that issue here.
 
fabianjj said:
In Sweden you don't need a geeky relative to do video chat, you just dial the number/select the contact/ hit speed dial number or whatever method of your chioce to get to the person you want to video chat with, and then you hit video call instead of call, it usually right next to it.
Click to expand...

Yep, we in Europe have done it for quite some time. And we have a dedicated button for it. ;)
 
Louis24x7 said:
Since this isn't using cellular minutes, users will realize that there will be a How-To article that you will need in order to get this working with your router.
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Theoretically, no. That is what most of that alphabet soup of standards Jobs showed on the screen was. Several of them are about negotiation of port connections from a NAT environment between a standard home router.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/08/inside_iphone_4_facetime_video_calling.html


However, if your router doesn't play nice with those then yes you'd have problems.


Kind of like the article for "Back to my Mac", which doesn't work very well.
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Not quite, but similar. There needs to be support for some NAT/forwarding autoconfig like UPnP or something similar. However, "Back to my Mac" needs to open up (punch a hole through the firewall) a static port to the outside world to just sit and listen on. Face Time however, can use to "outgoing" initiated ports when it comes time to establish connection. Most firewalls will allow ports open if the devices on the inside open them up first and immediately connect. Just opening a port and just sitting there waiting for some other side to come along is poking a more permanent hole in the firewall. That shouldn't happen "automatically" without user knowledge.
 
cmaier said:
Yes, from the contacts you can initiate a facetime call.
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But technically it is perhaps no. Face time comes up with some user ID automagically. Pretty good chance it is using the phone number. So while not actively leveraging the cell network to send data, it is taking a property assigned by the cell network to establish the connections. (so a device without any cell network association would have problems. ...... perhaps why this only works on iPhone).
 
I just can't wait to start using FaceTime within my house. I'll not only be able to hear my wife yell at me when she needs something, but I'll see exactly how mad she really is (all w/in the confines of our LAN)! :p
 
M-5 said:
From what I understand, the call is initiated on a cellular network and then transferred over to Wi-Fi once the other person accepts the FaceTime call.
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No. You can flip ( close/open transparently) from a cell call to a Face Time call, but there are just two different connections. You do not "have to" flip. You can just start a Face Time call from the start if want. Pretty sure there is a way to transition back to cell call from FaceTime.

This is also a feature that has been delivered in other countries with varying degrees of success. Go to post #90 a couple posts above for a link. That article hits on some of the stumbling blocks..... which Face Time is not entirely immune from either (e.g., what are two users on Wifi 'b' going to see/hear. )


The large "new" part of Face Time appears that it is internet based and not telephony based. It basically skips based many of the industry standards for videoconferencing between phones (telecom) and primarily leverages videoconferencing standards between "computers on the internet". Seems to only be borrowing the phone number as an id as the common denominator between "telecom" and "internet" approaches.


Video calls have failed in part on telecom networks because have been priced high. The other problem was that it tended to be glitchy across carriers. Going with an "all internet" approach is perhaps too 4G for their liking. It just makes it all data traffic. Other than being a mid-heavyweight data traffic, it doesn't really require anything special and should work transparently across carriers (if minor look up directory issues solve... and if not Apple can "end run" them by just doing it themselves for their implementation of Face Time. )
 
well this is good to know, i see that the new ip4 has tethering is at&t supporting this in the states?
 
iMrNiceGuy0023 said:
can you faceTime over 3G on every other network besides AT&T??
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No. Public statements are that Apple is in negotiations with other carriers on the issue. Can't assume they are all going to say yes. Even more so when the amount of data increase isn't particularly well measured yet ( haven't been deployed in large numbers. )

Face Time probably puts a floor underneath the bandwidth will minimally run on. Audio/Video rates have to be high enough for it to turn on. The current videoconference standards will give up some bandwidth to establish a connection. If Face Time is uncompromising then most carriers are going to be initially conservative with this until someone kicks the tires in real world conditions.
 
So is it confirmed there's no way to just start a Face Time call? That does make it mostly pointless. I don't want to have call from my cell phone to another country just to start a Face Time chat. I'll stick to Skype for the time being. :(
 
WilliamG said:
So is it confirmed there's no way to just start a Face Time call? That does make it mostly pointless. I don't want to have call from my cell phone to another country just to start a Face Time chat. I'll stick to Skype for the time being. :(
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According to the photos we have seen it appears you can start a facetime chat directly from your contacts list. Not sure if that starts a phone call first though, will find out on Thursday (hopefully Wednesday).
 
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