Facetime speed requirements?

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Level 2

397 points

Facetime speed requirements?

I was wondering if there are official facetime network speed requirements. The reason I ask is because I had a friend who was flying and using the wifi on the plane try to call me and it kept trying to connect but never did. I had him do a speed test and it was in the normal range of 3G speeds, even though on a WIFI connection.

We tried using one of my apps to connect via the game center. We were able to use the text portion of it, but voice didn't work.

So I suspect there is a certain limit that needs to be established before facetime will work. Anyone have any official numbers?

G4 sawtooth, Ibook dual usb, CRT Imac

Posted on Oct 12, 2010 12:11 PM

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Answer 1

whatheck

Level 5

4,131 points

Oct 12, 2010 12:41 PM in response to Roie Gat

The connection problem was more likely caused by a firewall.
"Port forwarding must be enabled for ports 443 (TCP), 3478–3497 (UDP), 16384–16386 (UDP), and 16393–16402 (UDP)."

There isn't a minimum speed requirement posted that I can see, probably because anyone with Wi-Fi has broadband Internet and the iPhone box says broadband required. But, Anandtech wrote an article that says 100 - 150Kbps minimum for smooth FaceTime chat.

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Answer 2

EZ Jim

Level 7

22,590 points

Oct 12, 2010 3:51 PM in response to Roie Gat

Roie Gat wrote:
I was wondering... Anyone have any official numbers?

I don't, but Apple's troubleshooting help is here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4319

Message was edited by: EZ Jim

Mac Pro Quad Core (Early 2009) 2.93Ghz Mac OS X (10.6.4); MacBook Pro (13 inch, Mid 2009) 2.26GHz (10.6.4)
LED Cinema Display; G4 PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11); iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9); External iSight; iPod touch 4.1

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Answer 3

Jan 7, 2013 10:11 AM in response to Roie Gat

Per Apple, sending or receiving HD video requires a minimum bandwidth of 1 Mbps. Non-HD has lower requirements.

 Cheers, Tom 😉

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Answer 4

zippahh

Level 1

0 points

Mar 15, 2014 1:39 PM in response to Roie Gat

facetime for me worked on 500kbs just fine

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