Chris Ziegler, The Verge, on AT&T’s position on Apple’s iOS 6 FaceTime over cellular feature:
AT&T has cleared the air this afternoon on its policies for FaceTime over cellular, saying that a Mobile Share plan will be required to use it — but it won’t incur an extra charge apart from normal data usage.
And AT&T’s actual release:
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.
“Want to make use of a cool new feature that the data you pay for could use? Too bad. Switch to our capped data plans.”
What a crock of shit. Every since AT&T realized offering unlimited data was a mistake, they have been customer-hostile. They take every opportunity to force people off those data plans. This is nothing more than limiting traffic so that those with unlimited data plans cannot use FaceTime over cellular.
I’m sick and tired of AT&T acting like they are doing customers a favor in allowing certain services. Our data is capped. Who the hell cares how it is used? AT&T is certainly the most displeasing company I have the misfortune of using.
</first world problem>