BARCELONA – As Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs pointed out at the company’s press conference at the 3GSM World Congress this week, times have changed for the San Diego company that once was an outcast in a GSM world.
Qualcomm was persona non grata at the world’s largest GSM show a few years ago. It may not be welcomed with open arms yet, but Qualcomm has joined the club. Some of its executives are on 3GSM panels this year, and some of the biggest news coming out of the show has been generated in part by the company and its technology.
“We’re partnering with the operators and are being accepted into that community as an enabler,” Jacobs said at his press conference, adding that Qualcomm’s participation at 3GSM “would have been unthinkable a few years ago.”
The two biggest pieces of Qualcomm news being talked about at 3GSM include AT&T (Cingular) Wireless’s selection of Qualcomm’s MediaFLO network for mobile broadcast TV, plus the selection by the GSM Association of LG Electronics to build low-cost handsets under the association’s 3G for All campaign. The AT&T announcement actually wasn’t made in Barcelona but it got everyone’s attention here, especially because so much of the 3GSM World Congress is talking about mobile TV using the DVB-H standard.
The LG announcement was particularly satisfying for Jacobs since LG plans on using Qualcomm chips. Jacobs also commented at the press conference that he was pleased that LG beat out Qualcomm rival Nokia for the contract. The LG-KU250 multimedia phone, to be used by 12 mobile operators, is expected to cost about one-third less than typical entry-level 3G handsets, making it possible to expand the carrier markets.
Although Nokia didn’t win the bid, the GSMA announcement did commend the Finnish company for its 6151 platform, which uses a Texas Instruments’ chipset.
The buzz at 3GSM about AT&T’s decision to go with MediaFLO was that the carrier needed a mobile TV strategy to compete with Verizon Wireless’s planned launch this quarter of MediaFLO. MediaFLO’s network is much further ahead than alternatives offered by DVB-H in the United States, according to the 3GSM talk. Verizon Wireless’s exclusive deal with MediaFLO runs out in September, so it will only have a few months headstart over AT&T.
Jacobs also said Qualcomm has completed a second technical trial in the United Kingdom of the MediaFLO technology. Both of those tests were with British Sky Broadcasting, with the first in Cambridge and the second in Manchester. Jacobs said the trials were done to test the technology, service and how it fared with competing technologies.
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