It appears that AT&T has implemented its plan change to allow FaceTime over cellular networks for non-Mobile Share plan customers. A couple of weeks ago, AT&T announced that FaceTime over cellular would open up to all 4G LTE customers on tiered data plans.
However, MacRumors is reporting that FaceTime appears to be usable by almost everyone, including iPhones that are not 4G-capable.
According to MacRumors, visitors to the blog forum are finding that their phones are activating FaceTime over cellular, even though they weren’t supposed to. One forum poster commented that he was able to use FaceTime on his iPhone 5 with an unlimited data plan and with his iPhone 4S (which is not LTE-compatible).
The activation is not complete. AT&T said the change over will take 8-10 weeks. The IP has also not confirmed it would be allowing these additional plans and devices to use FaceTime over cellular, so there is a chance that it is an oversight that will be “fixed” as soon as AT&T discovers it.
If it is not an error and the company is legitimately planning on offering the service to all compatible devices, then there is a chance that within the next few months, your iPhone will activate FaceTime over cellular, even if you didn’t think you could.
Apple’s iOS 6.0 brought FaceTime over cellular to the iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, and third and fourth-generation iPads. Earlier devices are not capable of the service, even if the data plan allows it.
MacRumors notes that users may need to restart their phones in order to see the changes. To restart your device, hold the home and lock screen buttons at the same time for a few seconds. When the screen goes black, the device has been shut down. To restart it, hold the lock screen for a few seconds until you see the Apple logo. The device will boot up shortly.