Facetime SMS Charge

[bstonehouse]

Hello - I am new here and have a question about SMS charges when using Facetime. I have read lots on the internet about this subject and am still not fully clear about it.

I have just got an Iphone5, primarily to facetime my son in the USA. I have aVodafone  £37 per month unlimited text and Calls contract with 1Gb of data pr month.

Question 1 Can someone tell me categorically will I be charged a SMS charge for each Facetime call to my son, taking into account that I have free unlimited texts

Question 2 I have also read that if Facetime is activated that there is the same time every time I turn my phone on and off ??

Question 3 I have also read that other providers (02) do not charge for this SMS. If that is the case I plan to try and change as I have only had the phone for 3 days.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[drey_p]

Hi there

Facetime uses a WiFi connection so that you can make video calls from your iPhone unless you are on a newer phone.  I personally wouldn't recommend using it on anything but WiFi as video calling will chew through your data plan quite quickly.

1.  SMS charge - not sure why you would be charged this as you would either be using mobile data or WiFi to make the call.  SMS doesn't come into it.
2.  Not sure what you are asking.  Basically you only have to set up FaceTime once
3.  See above - if you are using WiFi, the mobile network won't even come into it.

[bstonehouse]

Thanks, but I am still not convinced

Here is one of many internet pages/posts that say that a ''silent' SMS text is sent to a premium rate number as part of the Facetime process.

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/iPhone-4-and-4S/FaceTime/td-p/913661

I just want to be certain that I am not going to be charged to use Facetime because of this SMS as other providers do not charge for this SMS.

Thanks

[JohnA]

It can send an SMS for initial activation to tie it to your phone number. It won't do this everytime you make a call or if you switch your phone off and on but might be needed again if you switch Facetime off and then on again. It's the same for iMessage but either way it isn't charged for.

[bstonehouse]

Thanks JohnA for you help

I guess I have to accept that it is going to be OK and I won't get charged but I will be using the facility a lot of time during the next few weeks and don't want big charges for a seemingly 'free' service. I just don't understand why people are posting over the internet that they have been charged for silent SMS's to premium numbers.

I guess I'll stick with it and see.

[JohnA]

You'llcetainly get a warning message about the possibility of a charge pop up when you activate it but this is to be expected as Apple can't know if your network will charge or not. Maybe this is what people are referring to and it's quite possible that some networks charge for this. However as I said it's only on activation and the amount of times you use FT is irrelevant. If it helps I can assure you, I've deactivated and reactivated FT many times and see this warning each time but I've never been charged for it whilst on Vodafone.

[bstonehouse · Accepted solution]

Thanks.JohnA, I'm assured it will be OK

I've marked it as solved

[nigel2]

Related to this - I have never used, and never intend to use, Facetime; I have de-activated it in settings. Nevertheless, I keep getting the warning that I may be charged for SMS messages used to activate it, at least once a day. Hence the following questions:

1. How can I get rid of the annoying warnings?

2. Given I'm on Vodafone pay monthly (unlimited texts), would I or would I not be charged for these activation SMS messages, if the answer to the previous question is that the only way is to activate and then disable Facetime? I've seen both answers in these forums. To be clear - the number to which the texts are sent is 07786205094, I believe.

I have had problems before with Vodafone using seemingly arbitrary definitions of what numbers are and aren't included in "unlimited texts" - for example, some "short code" numbers are free, some are not, and there seems no way to find out, hence the significance of the question.

[kids]

The message is part of the Facetime set up and does not come from Vodafone but is part of Apple's ios.

To get rid of the message you just need to send one text which is charged at the standard rate, so will come out of your bundle. It is a one-off text and should you do ever decide to use Facetime it will have been activated.

[nigel2]

Thanks - I eventually tried it, and the message was indeed included in my bundle. I then started getting the same warnings about iMessage, which again went away when I enabled the service, and I wasn't charged for that message either.