Uh-oh: iPhone 4 FaceTime not working on XT

"FaceTime Works Right Out Of The Box".....We beg to differ

OK We know what you are thinking: of course FaceTime does not work on XT or any other network for that matter, as Apple clearly stated in the iPhone 4 keynote that it will be wifi-only for the remainder of 2010… HOWEVER… FaceTime over wifi requires activation via your carrier and XT just isn’t having it. Read on to find out why.

I was lucky enough to score two unlocked iPhones from the UK which arrived in NZ a week ago. Understandably, I was keen to test out Apple’s face-to-face video calling (FaceTime) as it’s arguably the biggest new feature of the device. Once I had chopped up the SIM, activated and set it up I went straight to the dial screen to look  for the FaceTime icon. It wasn’t there. I then went to my wife’s address book card who also had the new iPhone 4 set up and ready  to go but still there was no FaceTime call option.

Bit strange, I thought, but no worries. I then headed into Settings and phone settings where I was greeted with the below  screen:

FaceTime Activate Option

Ah no problem, my bad, I just need to enable FaceTime and I am good to go. What I did not know then but do now is that in order to activate FaceTime Apple send two “silent” (i.e. background) SMS messages to the handset which in turn activate the SIM and phone number on Apple’s FaceTime server. Makes sense, right? So what’s the problem?

Well, XT along with numerous other networks world-wide are not handling this silent activation text as they should be.  Once you turn FaceTime on you are greeted with the below: “Your carrier will charge for the activation text message” pop-up.

SMS Activation Charge Warning

Once you have hit OK the silent text then actually gets delivered to your phone and it keeps getting delivered every 5 minutes or so until you turn FaceTime off.

So Called Silent Activation Text

FaceTime remains unactivated and unavailable to use. No icon in address book or on dial pad.

Waiting For Activation

No FaceTime icon

What we know:

As the feature is wifi only, XT do not need to “allow” video calling or “permit” anything, they are absolutely not blocking any features of the new iPhone. This is a technical issue as to how the XT network handles the activation text message.

XT are aware and are working on this issue as we speak. They have confirmed it is a technical issue and expect to resolve it quickly. XT have always unofficially gone above and beyond for their iPhone customers and I do not see this blip being any  different.

FaceTime SMS registration messages are 7-bit but have a UDH header to direct them to an application port. This is different  to the normal flows of handset application messages which are more normally 8-bit with UDH. Apple: they have to be different, right?

One user had the same issue but when he was overseas and roaming on another network his iPhone activated. On the  flip side people who have successfully activated it have been roaming on another network only to find FaceTime disabled again and requiring re-activation. It is 100% an issue with how Telecom XT is handling the activation texts from Apple.

Three other NZ iPhone 4 owners and developers who are on Vodafone have confirmed for iPhonewzealand that they are not having  these issues and FaceTime is working as it should. With the feature working on Vodafone but not XT we can rule out that FaceTime has not been “switched on” for New Zealand yet.

FaceTime works with FaceTime URL’s, an example of which for an NZ number is facetime-prompt://+6421xxxxxxx These URL’s once clicked on activate a FaceTime call. Apple need your number for the server to make your FaceTime URL “active” If your number is not on the server as with any non recognized URL it will not work.

The web forums are full of people having the same issue. A quick Google for FaceTime activation will bring up a ton of  threads.

Google Search

What we don’t know:

Whilst there is nothing as yet to suggest this is to do with official iPhone carriers only being able to handle the activation text with the Apple servers, that could very well change and be the case. Lets face it, it would not exactly be unlike Apple to do this. As it stands right now we do not think this is the case, it has been suggested on forums but there is nothing solid as yet to support this.

Conclusion:

Whilst we felt it only right to inform the good citizens of iPhonewzealand of this issue we do not think at this point in time Telecom will be unable resolve this issue.

The part which I find a little annoying is that the Apple site states FaceTime works right out of the box with no set up. If Apple need to register users on their FaceTime servers it should be done by device UDID or Apple email ID. As I mentioned earlier even users who have successfully activated FaceTime are reporting once overseas and roaming on other networks FaceTime unactivates and can not be used. So much for all you need is a WIFI connection.

From the Apple site:

One-tap simple.

FaceTime works right out of the box — no need to set up a special account or screen name. And using FaceTime is as easy as it gets. Let’s say you want to start a video call with your best friend. Just find her entry in your Contacts and tap the FaceTime button. Or maybe you’re already on a voice call with her and you want to switch to video. Just tap the FaceTime button on the Phone screen. Either way, an invitation pops up on her iPhone 4 screen asking if she wants to join you. When she accepts, the video call begins. It’s all perfectly seamless. And it works in both portrait and landscape modes.

We will of course update this post if anything changes but for now it looks like I will be waiting a while longer before  having a FaceTime call.

We will be furthing testing on Dan’s iPhone 4 next week (when it arrives) and we will be testing on 2Degrees as well to check and see if it is an XT only thing, or a non-official carrier thing.

Are you lucky enough to have already scored an iPhone 4? Are you experiencing these FaceTime activation issues on XT?  Are  you running your iPhone 4 on Vodafone or 2degrees without FaceTime issues? Or maybe your XT iPhone 4 is not having these  problems? Would it be a deal breaker for you if XT could not get this going? let us know all your  thoughts on this in the comments.