AT&T has a rocky history when it comes to video chatting apps, particularly Apple's FaceTime (News - Alert) service, but it seems the carrier is finally ready to put the whole debacle behind it. Indeed, despite the fact that no official announcement has been made, AppleInsider is reporting that FaceTime use is now completely unrestricted over both LTE and HSPA+ — even for those with grandfathered unlimited data plans.

The AT&T (News - Alert)-FaceTime saga began last year when AT&T began placing limits on the use of FaceTime on its network. For example, toward the end of summer, the carrier said users would have to sign up for a shared data plan in order to use FaceTime — a move that went against the FCC's (News - Alert) Open Internet rules.

Then, earlier this year, AT&T said it would allow customers, even those on non-LTE (News - Alert) tiered plans, to make FaceTime calls over cellular at no additional charge.  However, the company said that it would still restrict FaceTime use for those on an unlimited data plan.

Fortunately, AT&T had a change of heart regarding this and activation of FaceTime has been verified in parts of New York, Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana, California and Hawaii. Best of all, voice and video quality is reportedly on par with that of FaceTime over Wi-Fi, which suggests that the carrier isn't throttling the service.

About a month ago, AT&T said it would enable all first-party video chat apps on its network over the course of the year.

FaceTime over cellular was first introduced as part of iOS 6 last year. The feature obviously worried AT&T quite a bit, based on the carrier's reaction.

While it's tempting to get angry at the company for its complicated relationship with video chatting, it's worth keeping in mind that increasing use of IP-based chat services has mobile carriers across the world concerned for a reason.