FaceTime Audio, free long distance. Will the carriers limit this to wi-fi only?

I am 100% certain it'll be available on 3G/LTE, especially if you have a shared data plan.

 

Apple announced it as wifi only... I guess they did it to keep the carriers happy. Stupid that video and audio can happen over cellular but not just audio.

 

Which just shows we need to get over this idea that the cellphone network is ANYTHING but just data.

Capacity of a cell site, of the local network is all based upon how much data it can carry. SMS is basically free, Voice calls use very little, watching a movie a lot.

We should just get to buy the amount of data we need and be allowed to burn through that data as we see fit. Voice call, Facetime video call, watching Netflix. It matters little to the network provider except for the fact that

SMS charge/kb is huge
Voice call charge/kb is high

Charge per Mb of plain data is actually quite low.

Makes no sense except they have conditioned us to accept it.

 

Absolutely agreed. To really turn cell networks into dumb / data only pipes we need to get past the notion of a phone number. But we'd need a standard of some sort or just go voip for traditional phone number based calls.

 

At the same time let's can POTS and just roll out fat data pipes in their place....Holding my breath for that one. Better call an ambulance for me.