So FaceTime will cost to be used by cellular?

Hankster said:
Come on people, lets be realistic. Everyone knows FaceTime uses a lot of bandwidth, there is no way cell phone companies can maintain that bandwidth for no additional cost. While I understand people don't want to pay more, people have to realize newer technology will equal higher prices.

Consumers need to stop with the notion that everything should be free. Everything has a cost. Besides, most people I've seen only use FaceTime at home or at the office where there is WiFi.
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Carriers haven't charged for Tango, Skype, and every other VoIP client that allows video chat. Why would they just now choose to start charging for FaceTime only?
 
groupersandwich said:
That's code for "we haven't figured out how much we can charge and the proper way to market it without of our customers pushing back. Once hit the sweet spot of where our profits are maximized, we'll let you know.":D
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Right on the money there... I separated from parents phone plan when I went to college... switching to AT&T from Sprint for the original iPhone (so 2007). I now have a FAN discount of 21% and AT&T even has LTE already in my area...

YET, if they plan to charge for FaceTime, I will find a way to switch. Maybe I can convince Verizon to give me some kind of a deal to get my business. Even if it costs me a little more, oh well. If they can get it close. I will be saying "GOOD BYE AT&T" if I can find a way for it to make sense both financially and in terms of quality of network.

I cannot see this being a smart decision, especially if no other carrier does it...
 
Um, I hope that's a joke. Nobody's expecting to use extra bandwidth at an additional cost. If I'm paying $30 for 2GB a month & I use 1GB for general data & .5GB for Facetime, that's not maintaining bandwidth, that's me using 1.5 GB of the 2GB i'm paying for.

There should be no extra cost to use Facetime as it uses YOUR DATA that you area ALREADY PAYING FOR.

Hankster said:
Come on people, lets be realistic. Everyone knows FaceTime uses a lot of bandwidth, there is no way cell phone companies can maintain that bandwidth for no additional cost. While I understand people don't want to pay more, people have to realize newer technology will equal higher prices.

Consumers need to stop with the notion that everything should be free. Everything has a cost. Besides, most people I've seen only use FaceTime at home or at the office where there is WiFi.
Click to expand...
 
Hankster said:
Come on people, lets be realistic. Everyone knows FaceTime uses a lot of bandwidth, there is no way cell phone companies can maintain that bandwidth for no additional cost. While I understand people don't want to pay more, people have to realize newer technology will equal higher prices.

Consumers need to stop with the notion that everything should be free. Everything has a cost. Besides, most people I've seen only use FaceTime at home or at the office where there is WiFi.
Click to expand...

That's nonsense.
I can use up way more bandwidth watching a movie on netflix, or listening to pandora all day or a bunch of videos on youtube etc...
Where does it end? I pay for a set amount of data 2GB for example and I cant use that data for whatever I want? What difference does it make if its facetime, siriusXM, youtube, sling player etc?
Start charging seperate now for facetime then later start charging for youtube videos, then for netflix, then seperate charge for facebook access use.
Consumers are not sheep, and if you like to get treated unfair and donate your money to make the carriers billions per year go for it. But dont act like its right or even legal.
 
This is the result of lack of competition and regulation in the wireless telecom industry...

Glad to be picking the lesser of two evils right now—Verizon. However, their switch to the Share Everything Plan left a bad taste in my mouth. Now I don't know where to switch seeing that both carriers are equally devoid of ethics. But I guess there is no room in business for ethics.
 
Apple should take FaceTime one step further by making it possible for the person on the other end of the call to see what you are doing on your screen. For example, if i wanted to show someone a full conversation during text, I can FaceTime him/her and easily navigate through the desired parts of the conversation. It seems like that would come in handy when needing to showing something to someone instead of taking multiple screen shots and having to send them all.
 
MRxRoman said:
Apple should take FaceTime one step further by making it possible for the person on the other end of the call to see what you are doing on your screen. For example, if i wanted to show someone a full conversation during text, I can FaceTime him/her and easily navigate through the desired parts of the conversation. It seems like that would come in handy when needing to showing something to someone instead of taking multiple screen shots and having to send them all.
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What does this have to do with the topic of this thread?
 
Hankster said:
Come on people, lets be realistic. Everyone knows FaceTime uses a lot of bandwidth, there is no way cell phone companies can maintain that bandwidth for no additional cost. While I understand people don't want to pay more, people have to realize newer technology will equal higher prices.

Consumers need to stop with the notion that everything should be free. Everything has a cost. Besides, most people I've seen only use FaceTime at home or at the office where there is WiFi.
Click to expand...

Data is data. Doesn't matter how it's used. Any extra charges is just a money grab.
 
MRxRoman said:
Apple should take FaceTime one step further by making it possible for the person on the other end of the call to see what you are doing on your screen. For example, if i wanted to show someone a full conversation during text, I can FaceTime him/her and easily navigate through the desired parts of the conversation. It seems like that would come in handy when needing to showing something to someone instead of taking multiple screen shots and having to send them all.
Click to expand...

Hold the phone up to an imirror, problem solved.

Back on topic, I don't believe they will charge for people on tiered plans. If you look at the history, they waited to roll out (approved) tethering until they had the tiered plans, then as they finish getting most users on tiered, they stop charging for tethering. Also, there are quite a few other services that already allow two way video over cellular. None look as good as facetime imho, but that's another story.
 
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Cougarcat said:
In time, I'm sure Verizon will follow AT&T's lead.
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Without a doubt Verizon will as well.

The only reason Sprint is saying that they won't is because they are trying to gain back all those customers that they lost in 2007 when the first iPhone was launched. There were rumors that Sprint would go under because they lost so many.
 
robopath said:
Hold the phone up to an imirror, problem solved.

Back on topic, I don't believe they will charge for people on tiered plans. If you look at the history, they waited to roll out (approved) tethering until they had the tiered plans, then as they finish getting most users on tiered, they stop charging for tethering. Also, there quite a few other services that already allow two way video over cellular. None look as good as facetime imho, but that's another story.
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Umm no. Once leaving the screen it pauses it on the other side, so no that wont work, and its not like people walk around with mirrors. Smart ass.
 
Eh, I use Skype since it is on every single platform. I would be super pissed if this happens and I was a FaceTime user, however.
 
NewAnger said:
Without a doubt Verizon will as well.

The only reason Sprint is saying that they won't is because they are trying to gain back all those customers that they lost in 2007 when the first iPhone was launched. There were rumors that Sprint would go under because they lost so many.
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Whatever it takes. I'll be going over to Sprint. :D
 
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