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AT&T CEO Acknowledges Rumors of Cellular FaceTime Charges, Says 'Too Early' to Discuss

Meh. I think they'll charge for it but it won't affect me personally seeing as I never use FaceTime.

I'd be interested in seeing how many people actually use FaceTime and how often. The only times I've ever used it was when I was around wifi anyway. It's just another way to waste data and get charged for overages. That'll be the next complaint. How much data it uses and the quality of the experience.
 
Missing the point

The biggest crippling feature of FaceTime is not that it doesn't work over cellular. It's that you can't turn off the video.

For most people video calling is a fringe feature. Maybe once in a while, but most of the time you prefer talking to a disembodied voice before you even consider the bandwidth issues.

If they really want the kudos, Apple should add a little switch to turn off the camera.
 
Stephanos said:
The biggest crippling feature of FaceTime is not that it doesn't work over cellular. It's that you can't turn off the video.

For most people video calling is a fringe feature. Maybe once in a while, but most of the time you prefer talking to a disembodied voice before you even consider the bandwidth issues.

If they really want the kudos, Apple should add a little switch to turn off the camera.
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Actually if you press the Home button it will switch the video off.

My husband works overseas so we use FaceTime or Skype every day. We usually use FaceTime if I'm on wifi but when I'm out of town we use Skype. To be honest if your wifi connection is iffy (and my husband's sometimes is) Skype works better. Last time I was in Vegas we used Skype every day for 5 days, 20-40 mins a day. Because I wasn't sure how much data it would use I kept the video off. All that use resulted in right at 400 mb of data.

Using FaceTime over cellular would be nice but I'm not paying more for the option. Skype works just fine and I'll just continue to use it.
 
The fact that they are even going to be talking about pricing is the problem. AT&T, I have just a few more months left with you.

Once iPhone has LTE then AT&T will have nothing, as speeds will be faster in more places on other carriers.
 
It's an iPhone feature, not an AT&T service. Everyone seems to get that except for AT&T. Even thinking about charging for it or disallowing the feature is intolerable and will hopefully lead to both a quick FCC ruling and a huge loss of customers and profits. I am still surprised that Apple even allows disabling one of the big iOS 6 features software-wise. What's next? AT&T charging you extra for using turn-by-turn navigation?
 
Didn't they delay MMS as well? From what I remember, it was several months after the launch of iPhone OS 2 before AT&T introduced it despite the rest of the world getting it on day 1.
 
just another reason I'm happy to be on android phone and ipad tablet. Unlimited 4G data for all of my devices at $70/month after all fees, taxes, discounts are taken into consideration. Thats for unlimited everything for me.
 
This whole US cellular market of data usage is a bunch of bunk. 1Gb, 3GB or unlimited, it's all irrelevant. The quantity of data a person uses has no affect on the network of AT&T, Verizon, et al. What matters and affects the network and it's users is the number of people on the network at a given time, in a given area and how many it can support. That's where the slow downs occur and congestion takes over. This is true whether a person uses 1MB or 10GB; it's all the same.

Imagine a highway with 2 lanes and 100 cars on it driving 55mph. Traffic should run fairly well. Now triple the amount of cars on the same road and traffic is going to get congested and the speed overall is going to drop significantly. If you widen the same road by 1 or 2 lanes, those 300 cars should be able to drive 55mph again and be fine. This is the same principle of the way the networks work.

The bottom line is the cellular companies are taking us for a ride and not a high speed one. They're cashing in on these "data plans" and restricting us the use of the road. We're only allowed to drive 3 miles on the unlimited length of the road each month. That is without regard to how many lanes are available and the amount of cars on the road. You could be the only car on a 3 lane road, but you're only allowed to drive 3 miles per month, or they're going to penalize you for driving further.

Then there is the text messages. Texting costs them next to nothing to accommodate as they insert that data in between regular telephone calls on the same network. Again, charging us all this money for these plans is uncalled for.

They are bringing in the cash hand over fist, yet their networks lag behind in capacity and speed. What are they doing with all this money? Perhaps they need to streamline their corporate & company structure and become more cost-effective.
 
DTphonehome said:
I would hope MS, Google, and Apple would join up and form an Independent Wireless Consortium. All LTE, data-based packages at reasonable prices (say, $10 per GB), with unlimited texting thrown in, and voice for a little more. It would be as big an industry disruptor as the iPhone was. Those companies have the cash to make it happen.
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That would be EPIC! :D
 
I don't use facetime, but these carriers are going to nickle and dime themselves right out of business, I'll not be extorted, I'll go back to a simple Flip phone if this keeps up.
 
tranceme said:
I agree. Double dipping is what I see here.
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I would love to switch.. But I anywhere from 28-50 bucks a month for top tier service from AT&T... Prices like that, for me, at least. Means I'm staying regardless. Even when I pay 50, Its considerably lower than anyone I know.
 
Macboy Pro said:
The unlimited plans were 4 years ago and even at throttled (not capped), they are honoring the contract AND they are providing a much faster data speed.

Sick of the entitlement mentality of the "unlimited" whiners on this forum. I am not saying you are one, I am just sick of hearing people whine about it like they are entitled to free services from telecoms.

Bottom line.... If people don't like AT&T, move to Verizon... (and buy two phones so you can multitask). If people want unlimited data, move to Sprint... (and good luck with your network speed but its "free") Quit the complaining about AT&T but never having the nerves to jump ship. JUMP! Go see what your missing (or figure out the good thing you had).

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Bingo. All this whining about a non event. T hasn't said yet how it will handle charges, if any. It will have to address grandfathered unlimited plans as well as existing unlimited free calls between T customers and switching between calls and FaceTime.
 
Now do you see what I mean when I say Verizon was actually AHEAD of things by coming out with their "share everything" pricing well before the next iPhone? At least Verizon customers and potential Verizon customers know EXACTLY what they're going to be charged. Sure it is "more expensive" to add a line but Verizon has always been expensive and at least I know for sure what I'm getting into.

Good job AT&T. How many customers will your indecisiveness cost you?
 
Spectrum Abuser said:
Wether AT&T decides to charge or not is yet to be determined, but if they do that will not make them an 'evil' company. Traditional voice and texting services are more rapidly being replaced and it's vital for AT&T and other carriers to innovate in order to protect their business. Data service revenue is what's going up. That's where the money is.
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If that's correct, then they should stop charging us for texting/voice because they *are* evil by raising the costs in a crappy economy. That's why people are switching to Verizon/Sprint and pay-as-you-go (even with iPhone).
 
I wonder if Apple is pissed about this. And if they aren't, they should be.

AT&T is undermining FaceTime with this.
 
"oh crap, people are using the data we are selling them, and using more than we thought. we need to do something."

"how about we charge them more for certain types of data or for data used by certain apps? I know we are charging once already for data but we can call this a new service and charge them again."

"brilliant! it'll be an other upsell to those grandfathered into the unlimited data plans, and just another add-on service for everyone else. this is just like Texting plans, people are already paying more for that anyway."



A$$holes
 
Spectrum Abuser said:
Traditional voice and texting services are more rapidly being replaced and it's vital for AT&T and other carriers to innovate in order to protect their business.
Click to expand...

How is charging AGAIN, for something that is already being paid for, just because they want to classify it differently "innovation"?

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Stephanos said:
The biggest crippling feature of FaceTime is not that it doesn't work over cellular. It's that you can't turn off the video.
Click to expand...

FACEtime. Just sayin'
 
Most pubicly held companies are neither immoral or moral, they are amoral (this includes AT&T and Apple). It is funny to see the wailing and gnashing of teeth regarding the evil AT&T when they are pursuing a strategy to perform their primary function, which is maximizing the utility of their shareholders, not you. I am not saying this in defense of the policy, it may well backfire. If you don't like it, vote with your wallet, as that is the language they speak. I will.
 
FaceTime works over cellular with tethered data package

My FaceTime works over cellular with iOS 6 beta 3, with my At&t Data Pro 4GB with tethering data plan.
 
Spectrum Abuser said:
Don't turn this around. Voice/Texting revenue has been on the decline and unless they adapt as a company to find new ways of profit then the business entity will fail. If home internet providers were threatened by a new product that somehow cut their revenue they would be sure to initiate new forms of cash flows.
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Yet corporate profits are at an all-time high. What you really mean is they have to find new ways to fleece consumers while continuing to offer subpar service on outdated networks.

Where is the Bureau of Consumer Protection in all this? Oh wait, they're doing the same thing the DoJ and SEC are doing: sweet **** all to protect normal people from predatory companies and Wall Street grifters.
 
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"Technology to stabilize"... what kind of BS is this? Do they think we are stupid?

3g, 4g, serial cable, ethernet, wifi, token ring, carrier pigeon, doesn't make one bit of difference to "FaceTime" the app. The technology is completely stabilized. The network layer below can change to be completely different, yet FaceTime remains identical in _every single way_. Apple doesn't need to change a line of code for things to work on 3g.

The only "technology" they need to fix are the artificial limitations added, and now they need to stabilize adding the cost code to it. This is just garbage.

No, I'm not leaving just AT&T if this happens, I'll go back to using Android phones. Screw FaceTime...
 
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