AT&T said today its new cell phone shared video (AKA I-see-what-you-see) service is now available for 3G cell phone users in three U.S. cities--San Antonio, Atlanta and Dallas.
With the new service, cleverly named Video Share, you can point the camera on the back of your phone at something, and start streaming video to your friend and talking (using speakerphone), all in real time. The service works on three handsets models so far--two Samsung and one LG.
Shared Video is one of those deals where both the service and the handset have to be bought in pairs (or more). For the service to work, both sender and receiver must own one of the three phones mentioned above. And they must both have signed up for the Video Share service. And they must both live in an area where AT&T 3G wireless service is available. Right now that area is confined to the three cities mentioned above, but an AT&T spokeswoman says Video Share will become available throughtout the remainder of the AT&T/Cingular 3G network footprint (200-some more markets) in July.
(In case you wondered, Video Share will not work on the iPhone, which will run on AT&T's non-3G EDGE network.)
The launch of Video Share is a big deal for AT&T, and a sign of things to come for wireless carriers. Over the past two years, AT&T has been rebuilding its network to deliver "blended" or "converged" services. The new shared video service, which blends video and voice data packets, is the first real fruit of that labor.
There has been much debate in the telecom world about which services might end up being the "killer app" that makes all that network convergence work and expense pay off. Any killer app has to have a quickly-understandable "wow" factor, but also must be truely useful in everyday life. As for the usefulness thing, AT&T's Flash demo, here, is kinda compelling.
If I know anything about the tastes and habits of Generation Y, AT&T may have picked a winner here. The kids will dig it.
That is, if their parents can afford it. AT&T says its new Video Share service will cost $4.99 each month for 25 total minutes of service, or $9.99 each month for 60 minutes of usage. You can also pay-as-you-go at 35 cents a minute.
