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The second biggest wireless carrier in America is currently working to restore FaceTime for subscribers of its GoPhone unlimited plan. AT&T, however, still has not revealed the cause of the disruption.
A week ago, the mobile operator had introduced a $60 per month unlimited data option for customers of its GoPhone brand, and the plan included voice calls, text messaging, and data, but connection speeds are throttled at 3 mbps. A number of GoPhone customers, however, have already noticed that their new plan does not have support for Apple’s video calling feature on AT&T’s network.
People have already expressed their frustration in websites such as Reddit and even the major US wireless carrier’s own community forum. Their complaints centered around the fact that when they try to open FaceTime using AT&T’s cellular network, they receive a notification that tells them to connect to a Wi-Fi network, instead of a cellular network.
As pointed out by a report published by PrepaidPhoneNews, it has not been made clear yet if AT&T is actively blocking FaceTime in an effort to reduce the volume of network traffic, or if the issue is merely a technical glitch. If the carrier is indeed blocking FaceTime, this may be viewed by many as violating net neutrality rules, but with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) currently under new Chairman Ajit Pai, this may go unpenalized nevertheless.
Meanwhile, it appears that AT&T has removed Lumia devices from its online store. Indeed, of the 29 handsets currently listed in the wireless carrier’s website, not one of them are Lumia devices. If one does a quick check right now, Lumia smartphones are also no longer offered on the online stores of other mobile operators like T-Mobile and Sprint. As for Verizon Wireless, it currently only sells a single Lumia phone -- the Lumia 735 (launched back in September of 2014).
Cricket Wireless (a prepaid arm of AT&T’s), however, still offers Lumia devices in its physical stores, and even offers a couple of Lumia handsets in its online store. But in the websites of other prepaid mobile service providers like Boost Mobile, MetroPCS, and Straight Talk, Lumia models are noticeably absent.
The fact that Lumia devices are powered by Microsoft’s Windows does not help their case. Last month, Gartner reported that Windows only captured a 0.3 percent market share among mobile operating systems during the final quarter of 2016.
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