[Brave Ulysses]

So apple announced that FaceTime would finally be available over 3G at the WWDC. Unfortunately in ios 6 beta 3 it now shows that AT&T is going to treat it similar to hotspot functionality and have it as an add on additional fee service. So far there is no sign Verizon or sprint will be doing the same.

I'm getting pretty tired of AT&T (and others) charging us to use the data we already pay significantly for. If I want to use my 3GB allotment for FaceTime that should be my choice.

I also think that apple is failing its customers by not successfully forcing the carriers hands on these issues. It slows adoption of their technologies and it adds confusion and frustration to the user experience.

[Xaqtly]

I'm not sure Apple has any leverage with AT&T any more. What are they going to do, pull the iPhone off AT&T? It's up to the carrier to set policy like that, regardless of how obnoxious it is, since it directly involves the carrier's bandwidth.

They could threaten AT&T with removing the iPhone, but there's no way they would follow through with that.

[Brave Ulysses]

Originally Posted by Xaqtly I'm not sure Apple has any leverage with AT&T any more. What are they going to do, pull the iPhone off AT&T? It's up to the carrier to set policy like that, regardless of how obnoxious it is, since it directly involves the carrier's bandwidth. They could threaten AT&T with removing the iPhone, but there's no way they would follow through with that.

Simple... Play the carriers against each other. Apple sells millions of phones through their own channels and spends millions on their own marketing.... All apple has to do is give more preference to sprint and or Verizon. Give them special features, etc. point out publicly that AT&T is the problem.

[kieran]

It's sad that I've been expecting this since this was announced.

I'll stick with AT&T for family and business reasons, but this stuff does not make me happy.

[Yontsey]

Reminds me of still having the godfathered "unlimited data" that is realistically capped. Granted, I used 4GB last month and I never got that restriction text message they send out.

[kieran]

I got that message two months ago. Such a load of crap. Didn't notice a slow down in speeds though.

[dmegatool]

Don't know if you could jailbreak and use something like 3G unrestrictor. It's working right now for Facetime over 3G but I wonder if AT&T would be able to detect it...

[bassplayinMacFiend]

FaceTime works over ATT/3G for me in the latest iOS beta.

[Brave Ulysses]

Reset your network settings and it won't.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Originally Posted by Brave Ulysses Reset your network settings and it won't.

Then I guess I won't do that!

[screensaver400]

My guess is that AT&T and Verizon will charge extra for users with grandfathered unlimited data plans, but allow it for free for users on tiered data plans.

[Brave Ulysses]

Interesting prediction.

[turtle]

It makes sense really. More push to get people like me off of Unlimited.

I was looking at the new shared plans and it will cost me $40 -$70 more a month to switch to a shared data plan. 4 iPhones is not cheap.

[Maciej]

So if I'm reading you all correctly - the "limited" unlimited plan really turns out to be unlimited despite AT&T's claims that it'll throttle you after 3 gigs?

[Yontsey]

I've gone over 3GB the last 6 months, including 4GB last month and haven't been throttled. I only got the warning text roughly 2 times.