Rogers officially launched its new chatr wireless brand today, and confirmed details on pricing, handsets, and network coverage. Will the company knock new competition out of the water?

While Rogers most certainly has a leg up on the others in terms of network coverage and reliability, not to mention brand recognition, the pricing structure won't be turning heads. It's $35/mo. for unlimited talk, and $45/mo. for unlimited talk and text; no contract required. Of course, however, there are a few notable limitations. With the $35/mo. plan, you can only talk for an unlimited number of minutes within your chatr "zone," and when the calls are incoming. For outgoing calls, however, you can chat to your heart's content to anywhere in the province. Otherwise, long distance calls within Canada and the U.S. are $0.15/min. With texting, unlimited is only for receiving: for sending, you have 50 per month for Canada and the U.S., with $0.10 per additional SMS. While the plan does include call display, call waiting, call forwarding, and conference calling, arguably the sneakiest fee in this mix relates to voicemail: you'll be dinged $0.25 per minute you spend retrieving messages. Note that WIND Mobile's $35 Always Talk plan is essentially identical, minus the voicemail charge. However, that carrier's plan does not include voicemail at all: to add it, you'll have to pay an additional $5/mo.

Luckily, the aforementioned voicemail fee does not apply to chatr's step-up $45/mo. plan. In this option, customers indeed have voicemail service, plus all of the other calling features. They can call anywhere in Canada (within the chatr zones, of course), and can enjoy unlimited SMS, both sent and received. They will also have to pay $0.15/min. for long distance calls to the U.S.

The latter plan is $5 more than Public Mobile's unlimited talk and text plan; and $10 more than Mobilicity's comparable plan (albeit with the latter, customers can only make and receive calls for the price within Mobilicity's limited urban coverage areas.) Interestingly, however, the chatr service will only be available in specific areas as well; namely those very same urban spots that competitors like Public, Mobilicity, and WIND operate: Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, and soon Montreal. The chatr network appears to extend a bit further than others, though. For example, Barrie, ON, about an hour's drive outside of the Greater Toronto Area, is indeed included in the chatr coverage area, whereas that city is typically considered outside of the "zone" with the new carriers. What's more, chatr says the company has "future plans" to extend coverage "for other Canadian markets."

Amusingly, chatr touts a "no worries" network, which means that once you get outside of the chatr network, you won't have to worry about hopping on to another network. "When zipping in and out of your chatr zone," reads the Website, "you don't need to switch onto other networks, which means fewer dropped calls." This statement can also be interpreted as advising that, effectively, you're being charged roaming fees for traveling within essentially the same network for which you already pay. In other words, you're on the Rogers network, then roaming on the Rogers network. Why limit chatr to certain zones when the company clearly has the ability to extend the service to its entire Rogers Wireless coverage areas?

Nevertheless, in addition to more cell sites, Rogers points to better indoor and underground reception as another of its advantages.

Handsets will start at $60 (purchased outright), and include models like the Nokia 1661, Nokia 2680, LG GB125r, and Samsung Gravity. The phones and service is already purchasable through various retail outlets, including Future Shop and Best Buy, Wireless Wave, Telephone Booth, London Drugs, Wireless Etc., Costco, and Zellers.

In a comment reminiscent of ones we've heard from the new carriers, Garrick Tiplady, Senior Vice President of chatr, states: "Canadians have indicated they want unlimited talk and text with simple, worry-free plans on a network that is trusted to deliver quality service. With chatr, customers will have a no-worry, talk-happy experience."

He continues on with a few more familiar statements about customers "never having to think about how many minutes they've used," and enjoying "cost certainty," and "low flat fee without extra charges."

While the talk and text with no data focus seems to be directly targeting Public Mobile's service, the bright orange logo is unmistakably a jab at WIND Mobile's talk bubble design. But Mobilicity isn't left out of the equation: the mychatr service, whereby customers can store funds to cover their next month's bill (monthly service plan fees are to be paid prior to each month), as well as other purchased items like roaming charges or downloads, is eerily similar to Mobilicity's My Wallet feature. (Then again, Koodo's similar Tab feature has been available for some time now, prior to any of the new carriers entering the market.)

Chatr will pose some major competition for the new wireless carriers, and indeed can tout network advantages that none can really argue with. After all, WIND, Mobilicity, and Public have had barely a few years; in some cases months; to build out their networks, whereas Rogers has spent the past decades tweaking and improving its network.

But while chatr has the clear Rogers brand recognition behind it, this can also work to the company's disadvantage. WIND, Public, and Mobilicity have the advantage of being the only truly "new" competitors in the market. This means they've entered with a clean slate; no reputation good or bad.

It will be interesting to see how things play out, especially with the upcoming back-to-school and holiday seasons. If you're on the market for a new mobile phone and plan, the latter part of this year will undoubtedly be the best time to buy one.

Full details of the new service are available at www.chatrwireless.ca. Stay tuned tomorrow, as we'll have a Q&A with the company's Director of Marketing, Jennifer Chen.

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