Rogers formally launched its new VISION product line today, offering the first video calling service in North America. On hand to make the first official video call was none other than William Shatner.
Rogers Wireless VISION is a suite of services that also includes video-on-demand, Mobile Television to watch TV on your mobile phone, radio-on-demand, featuring live XM Satellite radio, and the Rogers MusicStore, offering music downloads and a subscription service. VISION is not cheap though with the mobile TV service costing $25 CAD a month, radio and video streaming adding another $15 CAD a month and another $5 CAD for the video calling plan (A promotions is currently being offered offering 3 years free unlimited video calling and other goodies).
The service will operate on Rogers’ HSDPA network (which can operate up to 14.4Mb/s) and customers will need the recently announced Samsung A706 to take advantage of the new services. Rogers is currently offering HSDPA in a very limited area around Toronto but plans to expand the service to other large cities this year.