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

[Dominicanyor]

I don't even use FaceTime that often and when I do its used only on WIFI where there is no ambient noise. If they think they are going to charge me to use it on my own DATA plan they are crazy. Apple should do what Steve Jobs was planning to make their own Apple cellphone network.

That will be cool.

----------

punks! Skype works just fine over 3G....im not giving you a penny more!

I will have to tried Skype.

----------

Do we really have to update to the iOS 6??

 

[JohnDoe98]

You can FaceTime without video? How?

Turn off the screen it'll become audio only.

 

[Rocketman]

If they charge a FT junk fee it may be as simple as a fee that can reliably target premium Apple customers since the carrier had to pay fees to apple for hardware and these users simply use more data generally.

It's backhanded, but most of the fees they charge are. If they had honest pricing, it would be a network access fee and a network usage fee with no surprise fees if you go over and no base fees if you go under.

We know from family plans the network access fee all-in with a profit is $10 and data usage fees all-in with a large profit are $10/2GB. That can easily support data, voip, mms, and several others seamlessly.

No junk voice or text fees, no associated taxes and no overages or minimums. Two phones cost me about $140. Under this they would cost me $40 and have better terms as well.

Rocketman

 

[dnguyen]

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.)

The thing is you are already paying for it if you're paying for data...

 

[geekscott]

FaceTime Plan Thresholds

I generally agree with everyone that data is data. They already have built in reminders and fees for going over data. If ATT decides to throw a pop-up reminding folks of these, I wholeheartedly agree with that.

However, charging more for a feature that Apple or an App has, should be beyond their scope and is not something they should assume customers will be happy with....especially Apple users.

That all said, I do agree with ATT requiring more than the 300mb plan simply to reduce the instances where someone on that plan calls in "surprised" that they went over their data so quickly. (quicker than the email reminder might be sent). A simple rule to say that 3gb plan required, makes sense. (5gb would be overexagerating on ATT's part)

Disclaimer: my oppinion and feelings only. I reserve the right to take any and all feedback personally.

 

[Small White Car]

The thing is you are already paying for it if you're paying for data...

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/15265147/

 

[3282868]

As an ex-AT&T user, I really hope every single suscriber in America would dump that company at the same time.

What we really need is another company to compete with VZW and AT&T, get away from this two-year contract non-sense that only North America seems privy to and adapt to what other nations do with using SIM cards to carry their minutes to which ever phone they have. Locking phone's to contracts, ETF's, and all this non-sense needs to go. I wouldn't mind paying for a non-subsidized phone at full price, using it unlocked and allowing me to use SIM cards from any carrier and pay by the minutes/data used without a contract.

 

[thekeyring]

It goes to show just how insufficient their network is. They have no confidence in it.

Exactly! They should not sell a product they can't deliver. "We'll see everyone unlimited data plans because most people won't use very much date. Apple are doing what? ****."

 

[Spectrum Abuser]

Today[for a small fee] you'll be able to Facetime all the ones you love; on the nations fastest and [most?] dependable 3G/4G network!

Facetime fee slated at $9.99 per billing cycle. Added on to existing data plan. TOS apply.

 

[tbrinkma]

Well, if customers are stupid enough to break through their data cap every month, yes. Then network traffic is higher, but also the revenue they can reinvest in the network.

If customers are aware of both their data cap and FaceTime data consumption, the overall FaceTime traffic should be evently distributed over the month, because there is a limited amount of time you can spend using FaceTime and I don't see why everyone would be FaceTiming at the same time (except for maybe Christmas and New Years, but that is already an issue). This is even more likely when customers have different bill dates on which their monthly data cap is reset.

My point wasn't related to data use over the span of a week/month/year compared to your data cap. It was related to the network's moment-to-moment capacity. Just like the electrical grid, a data network has vast capacity over long periods of time, but limited capacity over very short periods of time.

To bring it down to a smaller, easier to grasp, scale, let's pretend I've got a portable 5Kw generator. As long as I keep it fed with fuel, I have essentially unlimited energy over the long term. Over the short-term, however, I can only utilize 5Kw at once. My computer uses 85w, my lights use 500w, my TV uses 90w, etc. (numbers pulled out of my ). I can keep adding things that run off that generator well beyond the 5Kw it can provide at once, and everything is good so long as I keep the moment-to-moment draw *below* 5Kw. I can run *hundreds* of low-draw devices at the same time with no problem all off this one generator.

If, on the other hand, I try to run eleven 500w appliances at the same time, I'm going to have problems.

 

[Spectrum Abuser]

see, this is where verizon actually made a smart move. By preceeding iOS6 with their plan changes and being the first movers, they stuck their necks out there to something that all carriers are going to probably go to eventually anyway but at the same time, gave the consumer a well-laid-out path. There's no question on Verizon. you pay $40 per phone and you pay for a data plan to be shared. Period.

And on AT&T you pay $10 per phone to be added to the Family Plan and buy a data plan. Period.

 

[winston1236]

all i can say is my att contract is down to 24 days and the end cant come soon enough! after 7 years from cingular to att always wanting more money for sub par service its time to head back to verizon!

 

[Macboy Pro]

Interesting presumptions you've made there. Did you miss the screenshot and countless reports showing a message nearly identical to the one associated with wifi hotspot activation? You know, that "service" AT&T charges extra for. Shocking we would think this is indicative of the same thing happening with facetime.

You mean, "shocking we would ASSume" Because that is what you are doing? Its beta code, might be a default screen??

You proved my point by pointing out the ASSumptions being made.

----------

all i can say is my att contract is down to 24 days and the end cant come soon enough! after 7 years from cingular to att always wanting more money for sub par service its time to head back to verizon!

good luck! on their antiquated network for the iPhone.

 

[Pontavignon]

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

I have been using both Fring and Skype apps for 3G video calls via Bell in Canada on my iPad 2 for the past year. That usage has been treated just like all my other data usage, with no surcharges. I buy data, and if I go over the limit I have chosen, I pay extra. Straightforward, and that's it.
The industry fooled the general public once, treating SMS as a special charge, and we accepted that, all the while knowing there was no justification because SMS is just data. Charging for FaceTime on 3 or 4G would be fooling us twice, and shame on us.

 

[tbrinkma]

Exactly! They should not sell a product they can't deliver. "We'll see everyone unlimited data plans because most people won't use very much date. Apple are doing what? ****."

As has been pointed out in just about *every* thread on the topic...

Back when the unlimited data plans were unveiled, the top 5% of data users plowed through a whopping total of 20-30MB in a month. When the iPhone came onto the scene, those numbers suddenly changed. Less than a year in, AT&T was discovering that among iPhone users, 100MB in a month was the *bottom* 25% or so. The top 5% were using 3-5GB in a month (and it wasn't even 3G yet).

It's like having a 10baseT network and all of a sudden having people trying to swap raw blue-ray movie rips over it all day long.

The bureaucratic lead-time to get new wireless infrastructure built (that's the parts of the process out of the control of the wireless network providers) runs in multiple *years* (often more than 6). We're still well within 6 years from the introduction of the iPhone, and the wireless networks are building new infrastructure and upgrading existing infrastructure as fast as they can. (Literally.)

It'd be nice if they could simply flip a switch or bit somewhere and suddenly have 100x the bandwidth available, but that's not how things work out there in the real world.

 

[kdarling]

Didn't I say this earlier? Maybe not as eloquently though

You did, and others did. My fault for not reading the entire thread first

You're a smart guy but you're first statement is BS. Netflix has been the main killer of any network including cellular. Facetime would be a blip on the radar since it only works with other Apple devices. It's not as if Google or MS has blocked Skype or Google Talk because of this.

I agree with you. I'm not defending AT&T. I was simply joining others in trying to explain why all data usage is not equal, whether the bandwidth hog is Netflix (as it is in my neighborhood in the summer) or Skype or Facetime or torrents.

In fact, I pointed out the deal that AT&T made with Apple to have control over VoIP apps. (Verizon, on the other hand, has publicly said that they realize VoIP is the future. It's just not going to switch overnight.)

Throttling during, and only during, peak network congestion times strikes me as the appropriate response to this problem.

+1. Verizon does that. They only throttle during the time period necessary to share limited bandwidth between all users on that cell tower. Seems fair.

 

[the1payday]

FaceTime and Tethering - to me are to different beasts. One is basically an App like skype and tango which lets you chat with video (and audio).

Tethering allows one more more devices (not under contract) to use the same data plan that is tied to a device.

We can argue all day whether or not it's fair - but I think it's also fair to see how FT and tethering are different categories...

I would agree with your point on tethering...if everyone was still on unlimited data plans. With the introduction of tiered data plans, it's invalid. If I want to tether 10 computers at a time to my iPhone and burn through my monthly data cap in 5 minutes, I should be free to do so. AT&T would even make more money off of people who do this, if tethering was totally free for everyone.

 

[dialed1]

I would never pay for that. Greedy chumps

 

[diamond.g]

I have been using both Fring and Skype apps for 3G video calls via Bell in Canada on my iPad 2 for the past year. That usage has been treated just like all my other data usage, with no surcharges. I buy data, and if I go over the limit I have chosen, I pay extra. Straightforward, and that's it.
The industry fooled the general public once, treating SMS as a special charge, and we accepted that, all the while knowing there was no justification because SMS is just data. Charging for FaceTime on 3 or 4G would be fooling us twice, and shame on us.

Except is isn't treated as data. This should have been evident to everyone in the DC Metro area last year when we had the earthquake and no one could make phone calls. You couldn't connect to data services either, yet low and behold SMS worked... (all on AT&T)

 

[segfaultdotorg]

AT&T announces new data plans:

100 MB/month: $10
50 GB/month: $400
FaceTime support: $10/month

An AT&T spokesperson was quoted as saying that the new, improved 50 GB plan offers users more data per dollar than the previous, $30/3 GB plan.

 

[quietstormSD]

That is just silly if they charge customers extra to use Facetime over 3G. I guess they figure, users can use facetime instead of their minutes when making phone calls?

I don't use Facetime personally or any other video calling service.. Because honestly, I don't really care for someone seeing my face or me seeing theirs when speaking on the phone with them. If they want to see my face or if I want to see theirs, then I'll see them in person.

 

[Leonard1818]

And on AT&T you pay $10 per phone to be added to the Family Plan and buy a data plan. Period.

...for now. You really think it's going to stay that way? wow.

 

[Daveoc64]

...Apple has always let AT&T influence what they do,

Excellent post.

While carriers might do things on other platforms that are bad, the things that iOS allows them to do are quite unique (i.e. per-subscriber disabling of features).

 

[Spectrum Abuser]

...for now. You really think it's going to stay that way? wow.

I don't care what it becomes three months from now. The fact of the matter is that at the present and for the foreseeable future AT&T is not gouging the consumer just to have a phone activated on the network.

 

[michealwillard]

It would be awesome if Apple threw some of the $100 billion at a nationwide Wi-Fi system. That coupled with the long-standing Apple TV expansion would allow me to cancel Comcast and AT&T. It would be fantastic to pay for just one service.