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Vodafone UK mimics AT&T by requiring custom plans for FaceTime over 3G

Vodafone UK mimics AT&T by requiring custom plans for FaceTime over 3G

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Vodafone UK requires customers to have a VoIP add-on to use FaceTime over 3G on its network.

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iPhone 5 display
iPhone 5 display

iPhone 5 users on Vodafone’s network in the UK may have to upgrade their service plan in order to use FaceTime over 3G, echoing a similar move by AT&T. According to Wired UK, Vodafone will require customers to have a VoIP add-on for their plan in order to use Apple's video calling service over a cellular network, a new feature in iOS 6. If customers don't already have VoIP support, they'll have to adopt a newer service plan or pay an additional fee to add VoIP to their existing plan. Any new customers to the carrier seeking the iPhone 5 won’t be affected, however, as the recently added Red data plans include VoIP and tethering by default. As for the other UK networks, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, and EE have all confirmed that FaceTime over 3G will work with existing data plans.

Update: Vodafone has contacted us to clarify exactly who will need to upgrade. Any iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S customers on existing service plans costing more than £40 per month automatically receive the VoIP add-on. Customers under that threshold will have to pay £10 per month to receive VoIP access in addition to 2GB of extra data.