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facetime without Verizon network

spatlese44

spatlese44

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 13, 2007
472
120
Milwaukee
I'm wondering if iPhone 4 will do FaceTime without cellular service using Wi-Fi only. Yes, I've seen all the threads about facetime over 3G and how to work around that, but I've got the opposite situation. My girlfriend and I just purchased Verizon iPhones, which work great here, but she's going to England for a week and won't be able to call using it. She will have wifi, so if she brings her laptop, we could do FaceTime, but she wants to leave it home and take her iPad and iPhone instead. Seems to me, rather than an AIM address, FaceTime is using the phone number to resolve who you are tring to contact. I'm afraid without access to Verizon's network, the phone won't know what to do. Any ideas? A definitive answer would be much better than finding out once she gets there. Is there something I should configure in our contact information?
 
spatlese44 said:
I'm wondering if iPhone 4 will do FaceTime without cellular service using Wi-Fi only. Yes, I've seen all the threads about facetime over 3G and how to work around that, but I've got the opposite situation. My girlfriend and I just purchased Verizon iPhones, which work great here, but she's going to England for a week and won't be able to call using it. She will have wifi, so if she brings her laptop, we could do FaceTime, but she wants to leave it home and take her iPad and iPhone instead. Seems to me, rather than an AIM address, FaceTime is using the phone number to resolve who you are tring to contact. I'm afraid without access to Verizon's network, the phone won't know what to do. Any ideas? A definitive answer would be much better than finding out once she gets there. Is there something I should configure in our contact information?
Click to expand...

It should work, since it only operates over wi-fi anyway, just use her AppleID Email Address and it should work, just like the iPod Touch.

TEG
 
spatlese44 said:
Any ideas? A definitive answer would be much better than finding out once she gets there. Is there something I should configure in our contact information?
Click to expand...

Turn on 'Airplane Mode' on her phone. While that's on, turn on her Wifi.

There you go, instant "in England simulation mode."

Give it a try and see if it works.
 
Hope it works but I have my doubts that it will.
If you remove the sim from a GSM iphone 4 Facetime and the "phone" section in settings is grayed out and not activated any more and without that no facetime calls will go thru.
A newer ipod touch works different and wont have a problem, with iphones they're setup more complicated when activating facetime and hope they correct it in the future.
 
Last edited:
Small White Car said:
Turn on 'Airplane Mode' on her phone. While that's on, turn on her Wifi.

There you go, instant "in England simulation mode."

Give it a try and see if it works.
Click to expand...

Funny, just after posting that idea came to me as well. I'll give it a try.

Also helpful is the post on removing the sim card. Maybe that won't be the case as I'm not removing the card. She'll just be "unable to find service".
 
yahoo messenger has great video chat options and they work over 3G and/or wifi...I was able to video chat with my friend in the Philippines with no problem she was on wifi and I on 3G
 
update:

Just tried putting the phone into airplane mode and got interesting results. When you turn airplane mode "on" it turns Wi-Fi "off" for some reason. I guess the idea is to reduce radio traffic so the plane doesn't crash. Anyhow, I promptly turned Wi-Fi back on and airplane mode stayed on; success?

Now for the odd part. I went to the phone icon, selected someone from favorites and it displays:

"You must disable airplane mode to place a call."

<Cancel> <Disable>

At that point I thought I was done, but I hit cancel and then the arrow to get to the contact information and from there was able to select FaceTime. I don't have any Wi-Fi where I am right now, but I'll try again when I do. And yes, put it into airplane mode before leaving and it would have no idea it left the country, so if it works here it, it should work anywhere.
 
Just use Skype. It's free and it's multiplatform. It works over cellular data and Wi-fi. You can talk from the Phone to a Notebook or Desktop also. You can also use it as an IM chat application. It's just a much better Application in every aspect.
 
I might be wrong ( And most likely am ) But doesn't the iPhone sends something out before the FaceTime call? I think I saw somewhere it sends out some kind of text message to create the connection... Not sure if I remember right, but I figure I would say something...
 
romeo.xk said:
I might be wrong ( And most likely am ) But doesn't the iPhone sends something out before the FaceTime call? I think I saw somewhere it sends out some kind of text message to create the connection... Not sure if I remember right, but I figure I would say something...
Click to expand...

From my understanding of how FaceTime works is that it does indeed send a text to associate the phone number with your iPhone 4 to allow apples server to know where to direct the facetime call. This only happens the first time you use facetime and so after you've used it once it shouldn't need to resend that...
 
Bro I don't think it will work. Just download skype and use that. It will most definitely work!
 
treyjustice said:
Bro I don't think it will work. Just download skype and use that. It will most definitely work!
Click to expand...

Thanks for everyone's help. Yes, I've downloaded skype as all my attempts have failed. Interesting that facetime to a computer works. I'll need to try that.

Won't I have to leave skype "running", or does it have some sort of background presence that will notify me of a incoming call? I have no idea when she's going to want to call.

Apple should "fix" this as it makes people leave their microcosom. There would need to be some distinction to seperate your appleID from your iPhone facetime ID.

MEappleID_iPhone ?
 
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