Q: Apple blocked Face Time in Middle East

Greetings,

Apple didn't block anything - if anything your Carrier did. Check to see if it is even on. Go to > Settings > Phone > Face Time > set it to on, or off.

It works everywhere I have been, as long as I have WiFi - it doesn't work over EDGE, 3G, 4G, or any phone circuit.

Cheers,
M.
***

Hi,
I am currently living in Saudi Arabia, Jeddah and using facetime on my iPhone 4 got mine from London though, have told all my friends not to go for it so that the distributors are forced to resolve the issue with Mobily in Saudi Arabia, they cannot take the consumers for granted..
BBM was bein banned but that didnt happen they are inspecting it hence this should have been inspected before being banned.

ridiculous

My dear;

you said "Go to > Settings > Phone > Face Time > set it to on, or off."

Please note that when we update our Iphone from ver. 4.02 to v. 4.1 then this option will not appear at all. the problem that we did not see this option. in other word, when we go to phone sitting, we don't see any option called "Facetime".

Is it clear.

Apple mentioned on (www.apple.com.sa) that some of the features are not available in some regions.
I bought an iPhone 4 from Mobily, a Saudi carrier, earlier today. It comes with 4.1 already. It doesn't support FaceTime, so everybody got disappointed, however no one knows who the responsible For that issue is.

UAE has got the same issue, but the carrier there said they are trying to communicate with apple to solve it, obviously that means apple is the responsible for that.


Note: FaceTime option doesn't exist even in the sitting or Restrictions

Thanx

Apple is not responsible for it. Your oppressive government is and Apple is just complying with the government.

So there is no way to get it back ? .. Any solutions?

hey,

will be getting an iphone 4 from dubai soon to india. heard the facetime doesnt work there. if i activate here will i be able to use the feature? is the feature completely removed in the phone or is it that the feature is not supported in dubai? pls reply

thanks !!!

I am sorry but I think this information is not accurate…..

In Saudi Arabia you can make video calls through any mobile phone if you use 3G network. I use it on my Nokia all the time. So it is not a cultural issue.

However, there is something going on with FaceTime in particular.
I have spoken to many iPhone 4 owners in Saudi Arabia and here is what I found out:

If you bought an iPhone 4 from other countries then FaceTime works fine regardless of the update version.

If you bought an iPhone 4 from the Middle East then FaceTime will work fine as long as you do not update to version 4.1.

So I do not think it is an issue with the regulators. And it is definitely not a cultural issue. This leaving only Apple and Communication companies.

Hi all,

From technical point of view .. governement and GSM carrier has nothing to do regarding blocking or allowing this service as it is NOT using the GSM network it is using the WiFi network.

and here in Saudi Arabia .. I've iphone4 (IOS 4.1) has no FaceTime option and one of my firends have iphone 4 (IOS 4.1 UPDATED from 4.02) and its working very fine withim.

So please try to find an answer from other point of view.

Thank you
Omar Abdulkader
Saudi Arabia

Dear All,

after few search and checking /comparing with friends i found that it's apple blocking the FaceTime for middle east mainly. As all friends of mine owned iPhone 4 from USA or far east (factory unlock) can make facetime and they have the option of facetime in Setting.
So, it is the serial no. of iphone which determine the update. and by they way Facetime is working only via Wifi. i think coz US network can not handle video calling via mobile network.!

Message was edited by: A7med

Dear Omar,

Where did your friend obtain his iPhone 4? Locally? And what about you?

Many people who have bought a legally unlocked iPhone from the UK or Singapore have FaceTime working without any problems…..

From what I gathered only people who bought from local vendors AND upgraded to 4.1 have this problem.

I know that FaceTime is using WiFi but it is going to compete with video calls made over the normal GSM network. That is why I think that it is likely a decision by the local telecommunication companies who are distributing the device.

hi there
ok lets brief stuff here please to reach to an ultimate goal
quick notes are :
1) iphone 4 is blocked in middleeast ...etc
2) facetime comes shipped by default with version 4.02 and facetime feature is already there
3) when you upgrade to version 4.1 facetime just disappear from the phone
4) this isnt related to the carrier ( the mobile company ) as ipod touch is facing the same issue so no mobile sim card is there even
5) the facetime isnt related to the hardware location ( some people brought the telephone from UK and some from middle east and when they upgraded it simply doesnt have the facetime option anymore )
6) the ISPs in middle east arent blocking facetime and the proof is ITS WORKING ON VERSION 4.01 !!!!!!!!

now my suggestions are as follows :

1) it seems the block is related to the IP range of the internet connection on the PC/MAc when you activate your iphone or upgrade it , correct ?


now can we do one of the following please :

1) use a program to change your IP address to be located in a different country rather than middle east ( like UK or US ) and try and activate your telephone and then do the upgrade , this must still show you the facetime feature


2) try to use ifiles and reshow the facetime feature by changing the settings from false to true

3) is it possible to restore the software from 4.1 to 4.01 ? like downgrading , if you do that it must reappear i think

4) if anybody bought an iphone from middle east and still didnt upgrade and he is living now in UK,US ( a place where facetime is working ) then please upgrade and check if its working fine !

i was thinking to buy an iphone 4 as im located in saudi arabia now but the prob is i dont want to get swamped for this issue , for now i wana a solution to facetime then will buy one !



if i misunderstood something from the above please mention it

Greatings Screeeeeeeem,

I think your notes are accurate and helpful. However I would like to point out a potential mistake in point 5.

According to what I have heard and read, if you buy an iPhone from another country (ie. UK, Canada, Singapore) then FaceTime works fine even if you upgrade to 4.1.

Can someone confirms or denies that?

Silver Friday

P.S. I live in Khobar too

I have a factory unlocked iphone 4 bought from Singapore and even updating to 4.1 and allowing the carrier update from Etisalat and FaceTime still works perfectly.

My friend purchased the iphone 4 from Du with firmware 4.0.1 and his FaceTime still works, but upgrading these phones to 4.1 will result in loosing the feature.

One group has tried to restore a locally purchased phone with firmware from the US and activating using an AT&T simcard installed, but FaceTime was still missing.

The most common thought now, and as already mentioned in this thread, is that it it the phones themselves from this region that are the issue and no matter what you try, and where you try it, currently there is no way to get FT working.

It is looking like a job for the Dev Team!

Thanks abdullah for your thoughts. I would like to add my experience with facetime. I bought it from UK but before I use it my previous iphone 3gs was jailbroken. I backed up my data and restore it on my iphone 4 using iOS 4.02. Suddenly facetime feature disappeared. I checked online it was due to the jailbreak. So if one of you who lost facetime when upgraded and bought it from mobily please check if you jailbreaked your iphone before upgrading. It seems that when upgrading while jailbreaked it create a mess especially for facetime feature. when upgraded to 4.1, the facetime feature returned back. It seems odd to me but I think jailbreak has something to do with it.