AT&T has finally released the long awaited statement describing who will be allowed to use FaceTime over cellular when iOS 6 is released this Fall. It turns out that only those who are on the new Mobile Share plan will have access to Facetime without Wi-Fi, and those people will not be charged any extra fees for using the service.
This is somewhat of a relief for AT&T customers because it originally appeared that everyone would be charged for Facetime over 3G because the iOS 6 beta build blocks AT&T users from Facetiming over a cellular network by default.
Though this move will upset some iPhone users on AT&T, it is certainly better that they at least have an option to upgrade to the Mobile Share plan so they can use FaceTime over AT&T’s cellular network without being charged extra money.
This entire thing doesn’t seem like too big of a deal to me, considering that Wi-Fi networks are readily available nearly everywhere these days, and iPhone users will still be able to FaceTime over Wi-Fi.
Customers who are not currently on AT&T’s Mobile Share plan (which will launch next week) will be able to call customer service, or go online to change their plan if they wish to have access to FaceTime over AT&T’s cellular network.
Here is the official quote from AT&T concerning the usage of FaceTime over HSPA+:
“AT&T will offer FaceTime over Cellular as an added benefit of our new Mobile Share data plans, which were created to meet customers’ growing data needs at a great value. With Mobile Share, the more data you use, the more you save. FaceTime will continue to be available over Wi-Fi for all our customers.”
What do you At&t users think about this? Mad that you have to have Mobile Share, or happy that you won’t be charged? Let us know in the comments section.
