By Tara Seals

First launched in Atlanta, Dallas and San Antonio at NXTComm in June, AT&T Inc. has now expanded its Video Share service to 160 markets nationwide.

Video Share, which enables users to show people on the other end of the line what theyre looking at, requires a Video Share-capable handset and one of two Video Share service packages: $4.99 each month for 25 minutes of Video Share usage, or $9.99 each month for 60 minutes of usage. Alternatively, per-use charging is available for 35 cents per minute. The pricing is in addition to voice minute charges.

AT&T is billing Video Share as the first commercial IMS service in the United States. A SIP client on the handset talks to the application that resides in the core IMS-enabled part of the network, which also auto-detects if the user speaking to someone with the same client on his or her phone. It then prompts you that you are “video-share ready,” and with a click, the one-way video stream (with audio) is enabled.

AT&T has said this is the lead-off service for what will be a full three-screen strategy of fixed-mobile convergence toward the end of the year people will be able to stream video to a PC, and eventually to a television.

AT&T Inc. www.att.com