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AT&T is likely going to charge iPhone users to FaceTime over cellular

By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012 at 3:22 AM

According to a screenshot that was discovered by 9to5Mac, it looks like the ability to have a FaceTime call over a cellular connection, a feature that’s standard in iOS 6, is going to be switched off by AT&T. They’re either going to disable the feature completely or find some way to nickel and dime you to death to use it. If Steve Jobs were alive, would this have happened? That’s a stupid question, and it was kind of sort of supposed to be a joke, but think about it for a second. AT&T sold 5.5 million smartphones during Q1 2012. Know how many of those were iPhones? 4.3 million. Who do you think is wearing the pants in this relationship? Why didn’t Apple put their foot down and tell AT&T to simply cut the bullshit? Then again, tethering does cost extra on Verizon, so maybe Apple just recognizes that in order to sell phones in the United States they’re going to have to play the rules.

If you live in Europe or Asia, chances are that you’re not going to deal with this “issue”. Why? Because European operators have figured out that it’s better to invest in network quality and customer service than tinkering with the user experience of the devices they sell. Sure, there may be a few exceptions in the UK, but go to Spain, Italy, or Germany and you’re going to have a hard time finding a device that has an operator logo etched on it. Anyway, back to the news at hand. AT&T told 9to5Mac that:

“We’re working closely with Apple on the new developer build of iOS6 and we’ll share more information with our customers as it becomes available.”

Translation: We’re about to experience a shit storm, so let’s brace ourselves, find a way to explain why we’ve come to the discussion we have, and we should prepare to change our stance.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Anonymous

    Does this really surprise anyone?

  • onpoint G

    I can probably speak for a lot of T-mobile user’s when I say I’m happy the merger did not happen, we all know how at&t is and this goes to show you where their head is (MONEY MONEY MONEY or yea and customers) no surprise here