iPhone 4 FaceTime over a MiFi connection: because we had to try

Okay, so you're starting to come down from your post-purchase iPhone 4 gadget high and you're getting into the habit of using it just like you would any other phone. FaceTime was a neat trick on day one, sure -- but if there's a single thing significantly limiting its day-to-day usefulness, it's the fact that you can only use it over WiFi at the moment. Apple claims that they've got more work to do with carriers to make it usable over cellular, but how legit is that claim?

Seeing how MiFis and other mobile hotspot devices have quickly become a staple of doing business for us, we had a few lying around and figured we'd give it a shot: connect the phone to the MiFi, connect the MiFi to the 3G network, and give FaceTime a whirl. Our first attempt -- a call between Chris in the US with a Verizon MiFi and Richard in the UK -- failed pretty miserably (unlike our transatlantic Fring call), but a second call entirely within the UK using a 3-branded MiFi from Huawei worked quite well, as did a US-to-US Verizon call between Chris and Ross. In other words, it's definitely possible, but you might not get as flawless of an experience as you'll get with a nice, fat landline data connection backing you up. Follow the break for all three videos.

FaceTime between Chris in the US (connected to a Verizon MiFi) and Richard in the UK.

FaceTime between Richard and Alex Lee, both in the UK, using a 3 MiFi.

FaceTime between US-based Ross and Chris, connected to a Verizon MiFi and discussing the finer points of facial hair.

[jaydc393 Posted Jun 26th 2010 9:42PM]

Can you please try this TETHERED over WIFI to an Android Phone?

[KarlW Posted Jun 26th 2010 10:43PM]

@petebob796

Yes. Note the difference between circuit-switched and packet-switched networks. Voice is circuit-switched (needs reserved connection with base station, low latency), data is packet-switched (routed based on destination IP in packet headers, high latency).

[the name is dan Posted Jun 27th 2010 5:32AM]

@statickeith look up "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" by Al Ries & Jack Trout, read it through, and understand why being first sometimes means shit.

[glassfin Posted Jun 27th 2010 7:58AM]

the only problem they have to sort out with the carriers with this is that they don't want to put pressure on carriers to do actual unlimited data plans, with actual hardware rollouts. or the carriers are just saying that they can't do that and apple is believing that. after all, jobs doesn't seem to be that intrested in what happens outside of cali.

meanwhile here in long winterland I've been rolling this past month maybe 10-15 gigs a week on prepaid umts. my phone has unlimited data too, but on another network. real f****** internet(population densities or such don't by the way come as a good excuse either)

one of the whole points of 3g was to get fast enough networks that you could do video calls - the whole network was sort of designed around a speed to hit that was that. now then in the usa they rolled out a perfectly good tech in a perfectly asswards way. the networks could have been done better with the same amount of work and the tech does scale when done right and so would the administrative side of changing faulty equipment and configuration.


and if you're intrested, no, "people" don't use videocalling. people rarely want that. I'd like that sometimes when speaking english over the phone I could see the lips, and thats mainly when phone conferencing, which is where video calling is useful: group conferences, so you can see who is speaking, if someone has raised a hand and so on..

[Mlhugh Posted Jun 27th 2010 7:01PM]

Dan you are so right, Apple have to find a way to charge people using face time over 3G. To all the lucky iPhone4 users get ready to pay out of pocket again for that feature.

[nsayer Posted Jun 28th 2010 10:49AM]

I have a MiFi 2372 on AT&T, so that means that I am using the exact same network in the exact same manner (HSUPA), but with the MiFi, the phone is "fooled" into thinking that it's not on 3G.

I've made more than a dozen FaceTime calls this way and all of them have been flawless. The one FT call that I have made that had any problems at all was a test call I made from the front of the house to my wife in the back, but she was at the fringe of our WiFi base station's range - the MiFi wasn't even involved with that call.

I could believe that Apple might limit FT to WiFi only if the 3G performance was unacceptable. Apple in the past has disabled functionality rather than release features that have problems. But in this case, clearly the WiFi only restriction is all about the carriers figuring out how to price the feature.

[drexfish Posted Jun 28th 2010 11:12PM]

Here is a good option for an iphone grip for those long video calls, no one wants to hod a phone at arms length for 30 mins!!

www.facebook.com/breffo

[jen84 Posted Jun 29th 2010 3:29PM]

Sooooo is Miller Ross guy single?

[Kejeza Posted Jul 30th 2010 10:42AM]

I could ran't about anything Apple, but I would be preaching to the choir...it is pointless to rant on. Congratulations, a couple hundred people read your post and probably agreed with you. Meanwhile, Apple is still selling millions of iPhones. Yep, you guys are really changing the way the market works. Yay for mediocre and sad attempts to prove your faithlessness in a product, a product that you don't own and never plan too. But that gives you all the more right to post outlandish and pointless arguments about any iDevice. I think the internet has made you a sort of Digital Age Hippie, because you wine and complain a lot, but nothing ever comes of it. I kind of feel sorry for you.

[jupiterthunder Posted Aug 5th 2010 12:37AM]

@tklr08 Isn't that Grimmace?