Mobile Industry Review » mediaflo

Qualcomm to launch UK mobile telly?

Julia — Mon, 19 May 2008 03:25:29 +0000

Could Qualcomm be thinking of bringing its MediaFLO mobile TV service to the UK? It’s shaping up to be a possibility after the company bought a slice of spectrum in the recent Ofcom auction.

According to Qualcomm, it’s now got its hands on the 40 MHz (1452-1492 MHz) of L-Band radio spectrum, for the princely sum of Â£8.3 million. It hasn’t given any definitive word on what the spectrum will be used for, except to say it will “bring a variety of innovative wireless technologies to the UK market”, along with its partners.

Needless to say, it’s keeping quiet on the partners and the services in question, but it’s worth noting that the press release the company’s put out about the spectrum quotes an exec with the clunky job title of “president of Qualcomm Internet Services, MediaFLO Technologies and Qualcomm Europe” – could that be a hint on what we’re about to see? After all, it’s got a bit of history over here with mobile TV, following a trial of MediaFLO in conjunction with Sky not so long ago.

AT&T turns on mobile TV this week

Julia — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:31:55 +0000

And after all the talk, it looks like AT&T has stuck to its deadline and it’s going to be launching its broadcast mobile TV service – under the unsurprising brand name AT&T TV – from May 4, with two compatible devices, the LG Vu and the Samsung Access.

The service, based on Qualcomm’s MediaFLO, will go live in 58 cities, with the usual mix of broadcasters from the likes of CNN, Comedy Central, MTV and Fox, with the usual mix of movies, news, comedy, and music content being promised.

At least now we get a chance to see the pricing: and it’s $15 a month, which seems rather ambitious on AT&T’s part. How long before it switches to an advertising (free content in return for ads) or bundled (all the data you can eat and mobile TV thrown in for good measure) model?

Qualcomm gives MediaFLO a $558m boost

Julia — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:30:14 +0000

Remember all the discussion over what the recent 700 MHz spectrum auction would yield for the mobile industry? Well, at least part of that question has been answered: Qualcomm is using its newly won spectrum to broaden the capacity of its MediaFLO TV service, after spending $558.1 million in the auction.

The company said Qualcomm said the licences will let it offer more MediaFLO content in areas including Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco. The company has also got new spectrum around its office to help with R&D efforts.

Mobile TV is still an uncertain bet – anything that can help whip up some more interest from users can only be a good thing. Hopefully the capacity boost will let Qualcomm do some serious work on differentiating its content from what’s available on the home TV.

AT&T brings Qualcomm’s flow to mobiles from May

Julia — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:56:20 +0000

AT&T has revealed it will be bringing Qualcomm’s MediaFLO mobile TV technology to users’ phones by May. FLO will launch on AT&T’s network this May on two new devices, the LG Vu and the Samsung Access.

AT&T said the service will feature two exclusive TV channels, but didn’t give any more information on their content. The operator did say however that it will offer full-length television content and sporting events and programming from leading entertainment brands CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile, MTV, NBC 2GO, NBC News2Go and Nickelodeon.

While there still seems to be a lot of skepticism from several quarters on whether mobile TV is a goer, the networks at least seem to be convinced. I can’t help but think that AT&T will need to add a lot more devices to its line up before too long if it wants to take mobile TV anywhere beyond a niche product.