AT&T has caught a lot of flak for being excruciatingly picky about what apps can do video chat over data on what kind of plans. It's been equal parts annoying and confusing for everyone involved. But now, the carrier is about to simplify it by letting everyone do everything by the end of this year. Finally.

For way, way too long, AT&T blocked us from using the data we were paying for to make FaceTime video calls. Why? No good reason at all. But the blockage is over, and the good news is it works fantastically.

In a move overdue since FaceTime over cellular launched in September, AT&T is finally letting most of its customers actually freaking use it. In a blog post, AT&T says it has extensively tested the feature and that it will be enabled to all customers on tiered data plans at no additional cost.

AT&T recently allowed FaceTime over cellular for iPhone users on tiered data plans but reports are coming through that AT&T iPhone users on unlimited data plans are also getting unchained from FaceTime's Wi-Fi only shackles. Is this happening to you too?

Today, iTunes Match went down. Yesterday, it was iMessage and FaceTime. Since launching iCloud to the public on October 12th, 2011, Apple just hasn't been able to keep its cloud-based services airborne.

After months of complaining, AT&T will now doing the right thing, unchaining customers with regular tiered data plans to use FaceTime on their LTE phones and iPads with nothing more than a cell signal. It's good, but definitely not enough.

Today three net neutrality groups—Free Press, Public Knowledge and the New American Foundation's Open Technology Institute—together released a written statement to AT&T (see below), alerting the iPhone carrier of their intentions to file a formal complaint with the FCC.

While Verizon has been upfront about the fact that it won't let you keep grandfathered unlimited data plans with a new iPhone 5, it is softening on one point: the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the carrier will let you use FaceTime for no extra charge, regardless of what data plan you're on.

When Apple launched iOS 6, it was happy to announce that FaceTime was finally going to be available over 3G. Great! But now, 9to5mac is reporting, based on leaked screenshots, that using FaceTime over AT&T's 3G network may require a paid-for contract bolt-on. Not so great.

When iOS 6 is released in a few months, iPhone Facetime users will finally be able to place video calls without the need for a Wi-Fi connection. It's an improvement that was a long time coming, particularly when you consider that AT&T/Bell had offered a picturephone service over 40 years earlier.