TORONTO – Rogers Wireless today announced the next phase of its 3G high speed wireless network and Vision services in 22 Canadian markets.
Earlier this year, Rogers introduced its Vision suite of services in Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe. Rogers is the first and only wireless carrier in North America to offer wireless video calling, a service that few use because the number of handsets that can pull it off is still pretty low.
The Rogers Vision suite of services operates on Rogers’ new High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) network. HSPA is the latest evolution of GSM, which has become the world-wide standard for mobile wireless communications. “This 3G protocol significantly increases download speeds on wireless devices, providing a user experience similar to broadband high-speed services,” says the Rogers press release.
The expansion announced today introduces Rogers Vision services for customers in Greater Vancouver, Kelowna, Victoria, Whistler, Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Ottawa/Gatineau, Kingston, Sudbury, Barrie, London, Kitchener/Waterloo, Guelph, Windsor, Greater Montreal, Quebec City, Chicoutimi and Trois-Rivières. Rogers Vision is already available in the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton/St. Catharines, Burlington/Oakville making this unique suite of services available to 60% of the Canadian population.
Customers can communicate in new ways with Rogers Vision with mobile multimedia and visual services, like video-on-demand, including, online community sites like MySpace and YouTube, over 25 channels of Mobile Television and video programs with incredible clarity; radio-on-demand, featuring live XM Satellite radio and Rogers MusicStore with more than one million music tracks.
The Rogers HSPA network allows business customers to save time by taking their high-speed broadband office experience on the road and even abroad with incredibly fast wireless Internet and multimedia access. Just as Rogers customers can roam with GSM, they can roam when traveling to countries where HSPA networks have been deployed. Already there are 117 commercially launched HSPA networks in 58 countries.
Rogers is offering state-of-the-art handsets to enable the Rogers Vision suite of services to come to life, including the Samsung A706, the LG TU500 and the LG Shine Slider. Business customers can choose from a range of high-speed wireless devices such as the Motorola Q9H, the Palm Treo 750, the HTC TyTN and the GT Max PC card.
