Facetime over 3G would pretty much suck anyway...I really can't imagine trying to FT over 3G...it would be like video conferencing from 1996.
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AT&T Won't Charge for FaceTime Over Cellular, Will Require New Mobile Share Plan
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Facetime over 3G should be quite fine ... outside of the United States.
American mobile operators generally suck.
I'm more or less okay with using AT&T's cellular towers, however I'd never pay their postpaid contract prices. I'm using Straight Talk as a discount MVNO.
American mobile operators generally suck.
I'm more or less okay with using AT&T's cellular towers, however I'd never pay their postpaid contract prices. I'm using Straight Talk as a discount MVNO.
I didn't double-check it, but I suspect your math is fine. Here's where I'll tell you that you might be off...So for $5/month, I can spread 10GB's of data across 4 iPhones, 3 iPads and our MacBook's. Unless my math is off, it seems like a viable option.
Someone tell me (nicely) if my math is off.
Some would argue that your current plan was a rip-off and AT&T was raping you. You're now thinking that you're getting "more for your money" with this new plan that will cost you $5 more. From your perspective, which may be perfectly correct, you're getting a deal. From another perspective, you're getting raped for an extra $5/month, and you're smiling about it.
Your plans, as you state them, are a hodge-podge of things that aren't ideally suited for your needs (e.g., your wife has the unlimited plan, but uses precious little data). You haven't indicated that you've gone over on your phone's data usage, but if you did, I would say that an easy solution would be for you to switch SIMs with your wife so that you get the unlimited plan and she get's the lowest GB plan.
Also, it's quite possible that 10GB will be plenty for all of the users/devices that you describe. Certainly, you've indicated that many of the iPhones are using very little data per month. I'd caution you, though, that adding *2* iPads onto a tethering plan *could* cause a big uptick in data usage. It all depends on when/where you expect to use those iPads connected to the internet. If you travel a lot, you could find that 10GB total to not be as much as you think. If you mainly surf the web at home (using WiFi) but just occasionally want to use your iPad when out and about at the doctor's office or something, then you should be fine. And I will agree that this is where the shared data usage makes sense...
I use my iPhone a lot. I surf the web whenever I'm out of the house, and I stream Pandora or Podcasts while driving. I don't stream video much, though, so my data usage is probably not as bad as it could be. I also don't travel much, though, so I'm seldom in a position where I'd need/want to tether an iPad or my laptop to my iPhone. If I *am* traveling, I'm usually driving, so I'm not going to use those devices then, and when I'm at my destination (a hotel or my brother's house), I'll have access to WiFi. My wife, OTOH, has some different needs. She doesn't travel, either, but she might be a passenger in our car on a vacation and want to surf the web on her iPad. She also works at a Fortune 500 company that has a strict information security policy where she might want to occasionally check her personal email or whatever on her iPad, and needs to use a cellular network for that. OTOH, she *doesn't* use much data on her iPhone (e.g., no Pandora).
Add into the mix our 3rd wheel...our teenage daughter. She's got my hand-me-down iPhone. She's of the generation that likes to watch a lot of crap and listen to music on YouTube. I suspect that eats up a lot of data. And she won't be at all cognizant about how much data she's using. That circles back to a previous point I made which I'll expand on now...if these shared data plans are going to work for me, I think I'd at least need the ability to limit my daughter's data usage. Maybe I'd get a 6GB-10GB plan, but I'd want to make sure that: a) *I* never run out of data, and b) We never get hit with an overage charge. I could possibly make that work by, for example, allocating 4GB to my phone, and 1GB each to my wife and daughter's phone. And it would require that they both get "cut off" when they reach 1GB rather than AT&T "graciously" giving them more data and charging me an overage charge.
ehhh... you wont be happy with it, they say you pay for the quality of service. I left ATT for Sprint and honestly wish I didm;t so a yr later I will be moving back soon.
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Spot on and I'd suggest really looking at your usage. Considering ATT has many hot spots at least here in Socal that a 10 gig plan will work fine for myself, wife and 2 teenage daughters . Combined usage between them and my wife this past yr at it's highest was a little over 2 gigs. Switching back to ATT, will actually be an equal swap price wise since I have been paying an extra 10 bucks a month(40) for all phones for 4G wimax that doesn't exist in my town for the most part.
I should have never left before and will be happy to have a service actually work when we are back on ATT.
Honestly if T-mobile rolls out their 1900mhz band quickly enough, I'll be heading for them. Their monthly plans are fantastic and their HSPA+ network isn't too shabby either. Maybe Apple will announce a penta-band iPhone and it would make my switch even easier. Thanks AT&T.
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I process upgrades with unlimited data on LTE phones all the time. Aircards, no. Phones, yes.
$TFU ATT, your ******s and your customers will remember how you time and time screw us over.
Does ATT have a memory that most of us stayed with ATT despite crappy coverage maps because of our loyalty and the unlimited data plan?
I smell a lawsuit, facetime is data and they are essentially limiting data by trying to put the screws to people in this manner.
Why don't they just drop the grandfathered unlimited plans and get it over with. That's what they want to do anyway.
says the person who clearly has not used FT or skype on 3G
Anyways, this is something I expected them to do... They went around the q when they were asked about the latest beta, because they think by having 3G FT will make more people drop their unlimited or individual plans to join their latest scheme of 'saving' w/ a data pool
Dumb AT&T... Right now my cellphone is my third highest utility fee of the month and if prices continue to rise, I will go prepaid w/ a piggyback carrier or another route to save $.Well, customer retention.Why don't they just drop the grandfathered unlimited plans and get it over with. That's what they want to do anyway.
Some of those grandfathered plan subscribers are holding onto cheaper rates or seeing unlimited plans as the only reason why they are still with AT&T. If you read other comments in this thread, there seem to be more than a handful.
Verizon User here, Grandfathered with unlimited using iPhone 4S. I've always wondered what would happen if you went into a Sprint store or AT&T store or a Sprint store and acted like an "Alpha Male" (a guy that doesn't care if he gets the girl or not) and told them "Convince me to switch to your service!"
We have 2 phones and unlimited plans. At this point, we have used facetime ONCE from a phone. I think when 6.0 comes out this will be a non issue for us unless there is a significant drop in the price of the plans. Not overly concerned...yet.
CURRENT
1400 minutes with 5 iPhones: $120
Unlimited text w/unlM2M: $30
iPhone 1 w/5GB data: $50
iPhone 2 w/5GB data: $50
iPhone 3 w/3GB data: $30
iPhone 4 w/300MB data: $20
iPhone 5 w/300MB data: $20
TOTAL: $320
Average TOTAL data usage total per month: 4-6GB
NEW PLAN
10GB data: $120
5 iPhones: $150
TOTAL: $270, ie: $50/month savings
Well... I'm not bothered! Lol. We already pay nearly $200 a month from AT&T for 450 minutes, unlimited texting, and 3GB data for 3 iPhones. After taxes and other fees, we'll barely be paying any more per month with the 6GB plan, and we'll be getting unlimited calling. My mom doesn't even use the 3GB data that she has, and my and my sister never go over 2GB, so 6GB is more than enough.
It's a carrier restriction, not Apple's.
You do realize that there are carriers outside of the United States that support the iPhone and who will likely support Facetime over 3G, yes?
That's probably why there are eleven pages of responses without this discussion.
My bad, I was reading Apple's USA page for iOS 6, which says that the iphone 4S and new iPad will get facetime over 3G, and the iphone 4 will not get facetime over 3G. I didn't realized other countries will have facetime over 3G on the iphone 4....
Does anyone on Straight talk get facetime over 3G on an iphone 4?
Thanks.
Does anyone on Straight talk get facetime over 3G on an iphone 4?
Thanks.
No, no connection fees for iPads or MacBooks. They are wifi devices. You only add connection fees for devices connecting through an internal 3G/4G radio.
I also find it funny that people are bitching so much about these shared plans. I've had customers asking for shared data nearly daily for the 3 years I've worked for AT&T. They've also been complaining that they have more than 5 people in their families and want to add more users to an account without having 2 separate calling plans. Now they will have it with AT&T or Verizon. You've got to remember that not everyone is a single 20/30-something. If these plans don't work for you then don't change. Simple as that.
I wonder if they are pissed I still have my unlimited data plan and I wonder how pissed they will be when I have an unlimited data plan on 4G LTE on the next iPhone
Sorry but the way I understood this when I called them today is if you move to LTE you will lose the unlimited data plan.
That's what I was told when checking my upgrade options on several phones including the soon to com iPhone 5.
No one knows since Straight Talk has not revealed anything.
My guess is that many AT&T MVNOs may end up verbally forbidding this network traffic without setting up any widespread technical monitoring.
Straight Talk explicitly forbids things like streaming video (e.g., YouTube) and tethering, yet some people get away with it without having their service terminated.
Setting up additional network monitoring systems takes time/people/money, and Straight Talk is definitely a discount service. They probably don't want to spend the bucks to track this. In the same way, they don't bother setting up a Visual Voicemail system for iPhones.