UAE operators & Apple disable iPhone 4 FaceTime option?
FaceTime is meant to work worldwide... Does it?
In case you’ve missed it recently, the operators in the UAE (Du & Etisalat) have a funny way of forcing companies into corners to get things the way they want; first they threatened to cancel BlackBerry Services, then offered cheap iPhones as an alternative and finally removed their threat regarding BlackBerry services.
Apple themselves are known to be notorious for not allowing companies to meddle with the software on their products and so it seemed the case until we established that actually they have bowed down to UAE operators! Whilst they refuse to allow UK networks to brand and alter the iOS platform on the iPhone 4, Apple themselves have disabled the FaceTime video calling function on the iPhone 4 handsets it provides to both Du & Etisalat in the United Arab Emirates.
Etisalat iPhone: No FaceTime Option
We’ve got our hands on a UAE iPhone and have found that actually the option to use FaceTime will only appear after a jailbreak and patch install; it’s not surprising in the least when you consider that Skype (VOIP: Voice Over Internet Protocol) services are banned from being used from desktops unless routed through a Virtual Private Network. If you use an iPhone 4 in the UAE that was bought from either Etisalat or Du, try going to Settings > Phone and the FaceTime option should not be there, where as with UK iPhones, under Settings > Phone, the FaceTime option will appear as either On or Off.
O2 iPhone: FaceTime option available
It does all lead to one question though; how long before Apple goes the way of other manufacturers and allows its handsets to be branded, especially if it comes to the attention of non UAE networks, the deal they have in place regarding barring FaceTime.
Let us know in the comments if you’ve been affected by this; a point of note is that it seems to work for iPhones bought abroad and being used in the UAE with a foreign sim… it doesn’t work for iPhones purchased abroad and used with UAE sims!
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Category: Opinion
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Unfortunately, the patch would not work with Etisalat. I just purchased two for my wife and I. I used Green Pois0n RC3 B5 to jailbreak it. I then installed Facetime Hactivator from the iphoneislam.com source pack. I get the Facetime button but when I switch it to On, I get the dreadful “Waiting for activation…”..arrghh! I might as well have waited till I got back to the States before purchasing them!