TORONTO -- Don't be surprised if you start seeing people walking around holding their cellphones out in front of them, talking to the screen, perhaps bumping into things along the way.

With a new service launched this week by Rogers Wireless Inc., cellphone users will for the first time in North America be able to use video calling on their handsets, allowing them to see and hear the person they're talking to in real-time via webcam.

The webcam is set up so that users have to face the screen and talk over a speakerphone, which could give quiet businesses like bookstores and restaurants that already despise voice-only cellphones another reason to grumble. Users can also click a button to activate a camera on the opposite side of the phone to show the person on the other end of the line what they're seeing.

The phones also offer high-speed Internet and multimedia services, including mobile television and downloadable radio and video-on-demand clips from sources like YouTube.com, XM Satellite and Rogers MusicStore.

The video-calling service was described by Rogers as "a landmark in wireless communications," and even drew Canadian actor William Shatner to promote its launch at a news conference in Toronto.

But it wasn't drawing much excitement from one industry expert, who questioned its practicality and wondered why those doing video calling with affordable webcams on PCs would make the switch.

"In research that we did in the latter half of 2006, we found that about 11 per cent of Canadian online users were doing video calling from (PCs)," said Tony Olvet of technology consultancy IDC Canada Ltd.

Rogers is charging $99.99 for the Samsung A706 with a three-year term on its Vision price plan. The wireless video costs 25 cents per minute in addition to standard voice plans. Alternatively, users can buy a video-calling plan that costs $5 per month and includes 50 minutes of video-calling time.

The price point might deter some people from adopting the technology, said Olvet, since carrying on a smooth conversation when first using the webcam could prove tricky.

"There's a lot of, I guess, reticence among consumers to try new data services without really understanding what it's going to mean for them at the end of the month when they look at their bill," said Olvet.

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