(Bloomberg) Rogers Communications Inc., Canada’s largest cable-television company, has started selling long- distance phone calling as part of a package of TV, Internet and wireless services to compete with its closest rival, BCE Inc.

Rogers is charging C$5 ($3.99) a month for 1,000 minutes of long distance, the Toronto-based company said on its Web site. BCE’s Bell Canada unit, Canada’s biggest telephone company, introduced a similar bundled long-distance plan in June.

Rogers and Bell Canada are competing for market share as the technologies for delivering high-speed Internet, phone service and TV converge. Rogers’ long-distance service, provided through a reseller, allows the company to enter the phone market before it introduces its own Internet-based calling service next year, said John Grandy, an analyst at Toronto-based Orion Securities, in a note to investors.

``We think Rogers is smart to undercut the key selling feature of Bell’s bundle plan,’’ Grandy wrote. He rates Rogers shares ``overweight.’’

The Rogers plan offers calling anywhere in Canada and the mainland U.S. at any time without additional charge. Customers must subscribe to at least two of Roger’s cable TV, Internet and wireless services, the company said on its Web site.

Jan Innes, a Rogers spokeswoman, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

Shares of Rogers rose 82 cents to C$28.31 at 11:31 a.m. New York time on the Toronto Stock Exchange; they had increased 25 percent this year. Shares of BCE fell 18 cents to C$28.32.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Catherine McLean in Toronto at mclean@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Emma Moody at emoody@bloomberg.net.