Canadian Carriers Trial Two-Way Video Calling

Canadian mobile phone carriers Bell, Rogers and TELUS announced on Wednesday that they had successfully completed two-way mobile video calling trials between operators. According to the trio, Canadian handset users are now one step closer to benefiting from video calling services that will bring together friends, family, and clients across competing mobile networks. The three companies also noted that the video calling feature would deliver the possibility for customers to create a ‘see-what-I-can-see’ connection with other wireless users, something that will enable the sharing of special moments.

Mobile phone users in Canada can already enjoy video calling services from their carriers, only that both callers need to be on the same network to use the service, while also having to own compatible devices. However, the new inter-carrier mobile video calling capabilities Canadian operators are working on at the moment will enable the use of the service across multiple networks, while creating “North America’s largest two-way mobile video calling community.”

“We are proud to be part of the first inter-carrier partnership in North America to enable clients to call each other using video capabilities,” said Stephen Howe, chief technology officer for Bell Mobility. “By breaking down the barriers between video calling clients in Canada, we anticipate strong demand for the service – as we saw with past inter-carrier initiatives such as text and picture messaging.”

According to Ibrahim Gedeon, chief technology officer at TELUS, mobile video calling will enable a richer communications experience for friends, families and other users too. Moreover, the carrier sees the successful trials with Bell and Rogers as a milestone in the Canadian mobile industry. Bell, Rogers and TELUS already offer video calling handsets to their users, and they mention that these devices are compatible with other systems and carriers that support the open 3G-324M Video Telephony standard

“The trial uses inter-carrier mobile video calling to take video communications to the next level, creating a much larger video-calling community, and providing customers with greater flexibility and freedom in the way they communicate,” said Upinder Saini, vice president of new product development at Rogers Communications. “This is an exciting development for wireless users in Canada and marks a major milestone for video calling.”