[Question from a foreigner] FaceTime over cellular / T-Mobile

[denisclc]

Hello everyone

Sorry if this is not the right place to ask this question.

I'm from Brazil, and in 2013 I will be living in the U.S. from january to december. I'm thinking that the most convenient way for me to keep in touch with my family would be FaceTime, so it's important to choose a carrier that would offer me the best FaceTime experience, as I think I will not often be within a Wi-Fi network range.

I did a little research, and there is a T-Mobile plan called "Unlimited Nationwide 4G", that offers unlimited data at HSPA+ speeds. The catch is that you cannot make a mobile hotspot with this plan, but this will not be an issue for me.

My question is: does T-Mobile allow FaceTime over cellular? Because I have read somewhere that not all U.S. carriers allow it.
Also, do you guys have any other carrier/plan suggestions?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Jiftyrealm]

I haven't tried an actual FaceTime call, but I've been able to turn on FaceTime over cellular with my AT&T iPhone 5 so I think it's possible (Can't with AT&T). However, depending on where in the US you are going, you may only get Edge which won't be sufficient for FaceTime.

 

[90miles]

You might want to check coverage in the are you will be staying, I'm pretty sure you can go to T-Mobile's website and take a look at their coverage.

 

[denisclc]

I will stay in Cleveland. According to T-mobile (in this link that 90miles posted) it haves "Excellent" coverage there. So I guess my concern is just if they allow FaceTime over cellular.

 

[Jordan921]

If the area you are going to be staying in hasn't been refarmed to work with the iPhones hspa then FaceTime calls over edge are going to be horrible.

 

[Mr Hill]

Cleveland does have excellent 4G coverage for T-Mobile but their coverage maps only apply for T-Mobile compatible phones. In order to get that 3G/4G data on the iPhone you must be in one of the areas that T-Mobile has refarmed and I do not believe Cleveland has been announced as refarmed yet so you will most likely be stuck with 2G-Edge until they finish doing it in the next few months.

They do allow Facetime over cellular though, once iPhone compatible 3G data is deployed there.

I've never tried Facetime with 2G data but it's probably slow and choppy. Not a good experience.