Montreal Tech Watch

Rogers Wireless, first and only carrier in North America to offer mobile video calls

By Heri Oct 17th 2007 in Mobile

Rogers has launched yesterday the highly-publicized HSPDA service in 22 cities in Canada. The coverage is mainly done in BC, Ontario, and Québec with 5 cities, Montreal included. As reported earlier, HSPDA is the only “true” 3G service currently avalaible in Canada, allowing data bandwidth similar to cable or ADSL.

Rogers has also developed mobile video conferencing, allowing callers to see each other. To this day, Rogers is the only carrier offering this feature in North America. It doesn’t come cheap though, because it costs an extra 25 cents per minute to have video calls, which is roughly more expensive than an international call to Europe. Still, I find this welcome, in a world where the Canadian telecom landscape is often seen as late compared to the US, Europe or Asia.

htc tytn rogersHSPDA will also let the user surf the internet at high-speed, and connect the device to a laptop, allowing thus true mobilility. Like video calls, this is also something that should not reach mass market because of its price tag, and because of the compatible devices, the Samsung A706, LG TU500, Motorola Q9, PALM Treo 750, HTC 621 and the HTC TyTN, which won’t win any design award.

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Comments

  • Carl Mercier October 17, 2007

    If they could just give us the iPhone with decent a decent data plan…

  • El pibe October 17, 2007

    Great! HSPDA! As long as I don’t have to pay the bill.
    Canadian data rates will empty your bank account in no time.
    A cursory look at Roger’s rates showed the $90 monthly plan includes a wooping 30MB of data, and additional ones at $7/MB.

    Got a suger daddy?

  • Heri October 17, 2007

    carl mercier and el pibe: i once dreamt of accessing the Internet via a cell phone, that was last year, and since then, I concluded that it’s just not possible.

    now, i will be buying a iPod touch and mobile browsing will be limited to hotspots

  • Carl Mercier October 17, 2007

    Heri: your conclusions are just plain wrong because I do it everyday. Expensive, yes, but not impossible.

  • Denis Canuel October 17, 2007

    Nice but pricey. I guess telecoms are trying to get money from multiple sources in order to prepare itself against the wifi revolution (aka their death).

    And late because I experienced the same launch but in Japan. And that my friend was in… 1999. Almost 10 years ago! Don’t tell me this is revolutionary technology. Why are we so late puzzles me… Sigh oh well! :)

  • Sylvain Carle October 17, 2007

    Same here. Access it everyday with my phone, with a few tweaks (download only headers for emails for one) and no images for browsing and most m.domain websites (optimized for mobiles)… Monthly data bill between 50-100$, depending on activity that month (posting images to flickr from phone is my big data-sin usually).

  • Montreal Tech Watch October 17, 2007

    new post: Rogers Wireless, first and only carrier in North America to offer mobile video calls http://tinyurl.com/ywegd5

  • Heri October 17, 2007

    Carl Mercier: I was talking about the cell phone and internet service from telus. I got a motorola krzr and was told I could have fast mobile internet.

    the device is just unusable. it takes 30 seconds to go to any website.

    Your case is different because the iPhone is just in another category

  • Sylvain Carle October 17, 2007

    Good point Heri, device selection is crucial!

    For any “internet” usage, 320×240 screen, qwerty keyboard and pointing device (usually with the thumb) is the killer combo for me.

    Treo 6XX, Nokia Series EXX, Samsung Blackjacks, Blackberry Curves, Moto Q and several HTC models fit in that category. They are looking more alike each day, there’s a reason for that, methinks!

    BTW, best place in Montreal for high-end phones like these (and unlocking services) is 972 Telecom – http://972telecom.com/

    Crappy website but great and friendly staff and all the latest models for the “well connected geek”. They cost a bit more, but I always buy my phones without contracts now. I figured the phone is now an essential piece of equipement for a geek like me.

    I still drive a crappy car but put my money where my geek lust is… and the phone is pretty much near the top of my list (after the laptop).

  • Olivier November 12, 2007

    Rogers have a 65$ plan for 1GB of date use…. ;)

  • Store Manager March 19, 2008

    Thank you for the comment about our store, you are correct we do carry the latest and most advanced cell phones in all of North america. As for our web site, you are correct it was not uptodate, but now we have made great changes and continue everyday to do so.

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