Many iPhone 4 users may have started receiving random FaceTime calls that were unable to connect at all hours of the night after upgrading to iOS 4.2.1. The calls are more than an annoyance as they are coming from friends and create concern when they fail to connect after this out-of-the-blue call.
The random calls have inspired a thread on Apple"s Discussions message board where 40 iPhone 4 users, all with iOS 4.2.1 have experienced this same issue. One major round of false FaceTime calls went out to the United Kingdom from 2 A.M. to 2:30 A.M, causing much unrest, annoyance, and concern, especially as all of the calls originated from someone in the contacts list of the phone.
Users in other parts of the world reported similar issues all at the same time as the UK users, who seem to have been hit the hardest by this, experienced their phantom calls. One user mapped out all of the times reported by the users who have complained. "It does seem to be the same time across the world, 6:30pm LA, 9:30pm NY, 2:30am London, 3:30am Europe. What was Apple doing?"
Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any major connection between the calls other than iOS 4.2.1. The users chosen in the contact list however, seem to be at random; not the first person in the contact list or even the last person who called. Even stranger, many of the phones were turned off that supposedly "made" the calls.
FaceTime is not maintained by the mobile companies rather, but instead by Apple. There seems to have been a server blip, but with such extraneous results it isn"t clear what caused the rude awakenings. Some users speculated that it may be the desktop version, but other users have no connection to the desktop version leaving everyone scratching their heads.
The issue was not contained to that one blip at 2:30 A.M. in the UK, before that night, other users were also experiencing similar phantom FaceTime calls, most of which are related to iOS 4.2.1. If this is an issue with the update, Apple will be quick to fix it if their response to the iPad iOS 4.2 WiFi issues holds true in all situations.