AT&T Charging for FaceTime?

If it goes through as an actual Facetime call, then you aren't charged for it.

That said, it can easily fail to go through as a Facetime call and instead connect as a cellular call (either over the cell network or over wifi via Wifi Calling[1] if you have that enabled). If you then add Facetime video to the call, I'm not really sure if the cellular audio call stays active while the FT video goes through data, or if the whole thing transitions to a data call over FT.

That said, the ATT Forums are loaded with posts of this happening to people. Easiest way to prevent it is to just go into your account settings and disable outbound international calls. I'm not sure if they have the equivalent of [2] option in their wireless account portal (the link is for their landline service), but if not you can have customer service do it manually. That way you explicitly prevent your phone from establishing a true international call via AT&T's network (whether via cell service or Wifi Calling).

[1] https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1063258

[2] https://www.att.com/support/article/u-verse-voice/KM1010583

It sounds like you have Wi-Fi Assist turned on, which does exactly what you describe. To quote what it says in my settings tab - "Automatically use mobile data when Wi-Fi connectivity is poor".

To turn it off, on your iPhone, go to:

Settings > Mobile Data > Scroll to the very bottom > Toggle off Wi-Fi Assist.

FaceTime is over Internet. If AT&T is charging you for "international data", then please redact personal information and put your bill on the Internet. That would be absolutely crazy.

I feel like we/you have to be missing something here. I've never heard of international data charges (in this context, traveling/roaming yes but never from US -> Elsewhere). FaceTime is just data, at worst you burned some cell data but it shouldn't matter if you are talking to a server down the street or across the world. You are sure you weren't just being charged for the data at a regular rate? If you can post a screenshot of the bill and if it says something like "International data" or similar that would help.

Please remove your personal information and share a screenshot of that bill. That is the kind of thing that needs to go viral online so AT&T can be shamed. I've never heard of such a thing but they are a telecom, it doesn't surprise me.

>"the wifi is slow”, AT&T will shift to data and they will detect it’s an international call and bill you as if it’s a regular international cell call.

There is an option in iOS called 'Wi-Fi Assist' (Settings > Cellular > (Scroll to the bottom) > Wi-Fi Assist). It will, "automatically use cellular data when Wi-Fi connectivity is poor."

Make sure that's disabled. It should also show you how much you've used (mine is showing 522MB).

Can you post a redacted copy of your detailed bill line item?

You can widen your location on bumble? How did you match with person in South Africa?

That’s how it works if you use the carrier network. I think when a patent suit changed FaceTime away from peer to peer, the carriers route all traffic through some device local to them — Remember most mobile traffic is proxied. They bill based on where it goes.

It’s not unique to AT&T.