Apple's iPhone 4 won't have FaceTime at launch in the Middle East

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Customers in the Middle East who purchase an iPhone 4 will not have FaceTime video chat functionality, as the feature is "currently unavailable" in the region.



As noted Friday by TUAW, du, the official iPhone carrier in United Arab Emirates, revealed that the iPhone 4 will not be able to make FaceTime calls at launch. The handset is set to debut in the country on Saturday.



"Our iPhone 4 customers won't be able to make Facetime calls, as this feature is currently unavailable in the UAE," the company wrote on its official Twitter account.



Users who wrote to the carrier on Twitter were met with the response: "It's not in our hands and we'll keep you posted of any further updates." No further details were given.



Graphics for the iPhone 4 on Apple's official websites for United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen and other countries in the region were also modified earlier this week to remove a graphic showing FaceTime in action.



In the west, Apple has had a different kind of issue with FaceTime: The service currently only works over Wi-Fi, as wireless carriers who offer the iPhone 4 will not allow the video chat feature over their 3G networks. When he unveiled the iPhone in June, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said his company needs to "work a bit" with the cellular providers.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 75
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,192member
    No FaceTime is the iPhone version of a burqa.
  • Reply 2 of 75
    Or more like - What good is FaceTime when the face is behind the Burqa.
  • Reply 3 of 75
    Anyhow - When are they going to fix the FaceTime between Wi-Fi and Cell users? I would love to do FaceTime with my kids with their latest iPod Touches while I am on road with my iPhone 4 over my cell Data plan.
  • Reply 4 of 75
    I wonder if this is similar to the blackberry issue where certain services (facetime servers) take place overseas and thus they won't allow it.
  • Reply 5 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by radster360 View Post


    Anyhow - When are they going to fix the FaceTime between Wi-Fi and Cell users? I would love to do FaceTime with my kids with their latest iPod Touches while I am on road with my iPhone 4 over my cell Data plan.



    Jobs said they have a bit of work to do with the carriers so FaceTime is wifi only for 2010.. So my guess is 2011..
  • Reply 6 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by clickmyface View Post


    I wonder if this is similar to the blackberry issue where certain services (facetime servers) take place overseas and thus they won't allow it.



    I doubt it. Apple doesn't operate like RIM. It's the whole conservatism of their governments more than likely. They're afraid their people would use it for live phone sex. I don't know..
  • Reply 7 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by clickmyface View Post


    I wonder if this is similar to the blackberry issue where certain services (facetime servers) take place overseas and thus they won't allow it.



    BB messages all go back to Canada... Facetime is point to point. Slightly different problem, although they use BB's Canadian servers to be the 'face' of the problem. actually the BB stuff is compounded by their encryption being 'quite good' and very hard (impossible?) crack it on the fly. I'm curious if the encryption/compression of facetime is the same issue, making it hard to wiretap on the fly at the carrier's office.
  • Reply 8 of 75
    Gee, what a surprise.



    Not.
  • Reply 9 of 75
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cpsro View Post


    No FaceTime is the iPhone version of a burqa.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by radster360 View Post


    Or more like - What good is FaceTime when the face is behind the Burqa.



    Really? I didn?t think the burqa jokes would start up this quickly? and I had hoped not at all.



    Anyway, pedantically speaking it?s the niqab, or face veil, that would make a FaceTime call less effective, not the burqa. Note that the head veil is called a hijab.



    Also, when I was is in UAE these garments were certainly not required, women were not scorned for not wearing this traditional dress and from what I understand the proactive nearly gone from the modern generations. I can?t speak for the other nations listed and my experiences are anecdotal. Hopefully a more well traveled poster will educate us.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by radster360 View Post


    Anyhow - When are they going to fix the FaceTime between Wi-Fi and Cell users? I would love to do FaceTime with my kids with their latest iPod Touches while I am on road with my iPhone 4 over my cell Data plan.



    It?s not broke, they haven?t enabled it yet. I seem to recall Jobs specifically saying 2011 during his demo as the carriers need time to add the necessary protocols.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by clickmyface View Post


    I wonder if this is similar to the blackberry issue where certain services (facetime servers) take place overseas and thus they won't allow it.



    Maybe, but remember that this service will be using the shortest and fastest distance to establish the connection and Apple stated they were submitted it to become an open standard the day after they demoed it, so I don?t see a requirement for it to rely on Apple?s servers. Especially servers in the US to okay a video chat and to get info on how to connect it.
  • Reply 10 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by radster360 View Post


    Anyhow - When are they going to fix the FaceTime between Wi-Fi and Cell users? I would love to do FaceTime with my kids with their latest iPod Touches while I am on road with my iPhone 4 over my cell Data plan.



    Jailbreak and use my3G, works great for facetime.
  • Reply 11 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wurm5150 View Post


    I doubt it. Apple doesn't operate like RIM. It's the whole conservatism of their governments more than likely. They're afraid their people would use it for live phone sex. I don't know..



    My guess would be technology export restrictions by our own fine government. Remember how paranoid they are about encryption software and such. I would imagine that facetime probably incorporates something that the govt doesn't want to be available to the rest of the world.



    C
  • Reply 12 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by radster360 View Post


    Anyhow - When are they going to fix the FaceTime between Wi-Fi and Cell users? I would love to do FaceTime with my kids with their latest iPod Touches while I am on road with my iPhone 4 over my cell Data plan.



    Couldn't you guys just use wifi?
  • Reply 13 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TheOtherGeoff View Post


    BB messages all go back to Canada... Facetime is point to point. Slightly different problem, although they use BB's Canadian servers to be the 'face' of the problem. actually the BB stuff is compounded by their encryption being 'quite good' and very hard (impossible?) crack it on the fly. I'm curious if the encryption/compression of facetime is the same issue, making it hard to wiretap on the fly at the carrier's office.



    Yes, the BlackBerry issue is simply one of the governments in question wanting to spy on their citizens and BlackBerry (initially) not allowing that. Anyway, BackBerry sold out their users and relented so that's pretty much over already.



    The issue over "servers in another country" is closer to the Canadian situation where we are forbidden to use Google's services for any institutional purposes (Universities, Governments, etc.), because Googles servers are in the USA and Homeland security has unfettered access to the data.



    No government can sensibly allow their communications to be potentially spied on by a foreign power.



    Unfortunately, the BlackBerry issue just shows that the same Governments are often too happy to spy on their own citizens.
  • Reply 14 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by radster360 View Post


    Anyhow - When are they going to fix the FaceTime between Wi-Fi and Cell users? I would love to do FaceTime with my kids with their latest iPod Touches while I am on road with my iPhone 4 over my cell Data plan.



    Cell networks aren't ready for it. Sorry but it's a little more complex than just the carriers not wanting you to have it, video is a bandwidth hog and I'd rather keep getting my calls & e-mail than be able to video chat with people while I'm driving down the road. You get AT&T wifi free and you get free wifi at many StarBucks & McDonald's. Why do you need it over the cell network?



    Maybe you aren't living in the US, I don't know, but I think if you look around you'd find there are plenty of free wifi hotspots for convenient FaceTime while on the road. There are even free wifi finding apps for iPhone, you should check em out.
  • Reply 15 of 75
    I think they need dev team and A good ole fashion "JailBreak"!!!
  • Reply 16 of 75
    This is none sense, this is in apple's hands and apple again licking backsides of carriers, they will soon have a brown nose
  • Reply 17 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by radster360 View Post


    Anyhow - When are they going to fix the FaceTime between Wi-Fi and Cell users? I would love to do FaceTime with my kids with their latest iPod Touches while I am on road with my iPhone 4 over my cell Data plan.



    WHAT!? It doesn't already work like that?



    That can't be permanent. There has got to be an update in the mix. It doesn't make any sense to not allow the devices to talk to each other. How nonsensical.
  • Reply 18 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hezetation View Post


    Cell networks aren't ready for it. Sorry but it's a little more complex than just the carriers not wanting you to have it, video is a bandwidth hog and I'd rather keep getting my calls & e-mail than be able to video chat with people while I'm driving down the road. You get AT&T wifi free and you get free wifi at many StarBucks & McDonald's. Why do you need it over the cell network?



    Maybe you aren't living in the US, I don't know, but I think if you look around you'd find there are plenty of free wifi hotspots for convenient FaceTime while on the road. There are even free wifi finding apps for iPhone, you should check em out.



    Wait a second maybe I misunderstood him, but it sounded to me like iphone 4's can't do facetime with the new ipod touch, even when both are over wifi. I'm wrong?
  • Reply 19 of 75
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by chronster View Post


    WHAT!? It doesn't already work like that?



    That can't be permanent. There has got to be an update in the mix. It doesn't make any sense to not allow the devices to talk to each other. How nonsensical.



    Is that a serious post or are you missing a sarcmark? You’ve been around these forums long enough that you would have surely seen this come before and I assume seen the keynote in which this was directly addressed, not to mention the posters in this very thread already addressing it.



    edit: Ah, I see how you read that now. G4 iPod Touches and iPhone 4s can do FaceTime with each other over WiFi.
  • Reply 20 of 75
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tomlawler View Post


    Couldn't you guys just use wifi?



    Sure - But that meant I have to be either at Starbucks or place like that. I literally meant on road, as in a Metro or even in Taxi, where my connection to internet is through the 3G network and then are at home on our WIFI.
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