Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

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On-demand Media (FLO) not before '07
Qualcomm's spectrum efficient broadcast initiative needs a lot of convincing before carriers and content providers outside the US accept it.

Friday, June 03, 2005

http://www.ciol.com/content/news/2005/105060302.asp

SAN DIEGO: While India is wallowing in its direct-to-home (DTH) and cable TV regulations, the world is already looking at bringing television content over mobile phones real time. Though the Qualcomm supported MediaFLO is still a good year and a half away from being commercially launched, it is attracting lot of attention and investments from around the globe.

As for India, MediaFLO is not making an entry before 2007. However, the US mobile subscribers might experience almost 100 channels over their handsets by October 2006. In India, Qualcomm has conducted trials with a leading CDMA operator and is also in talks with content providers to bring high speed broadcasting to the users.

“Outside the US we would be working with partners to launch Media FLO. This includes the Indian market where we are already working with the carriers and the content providers for a viable business model,” said Qualcomm Internet services business development senior director Rob Chandok.

For the American market, Qualcomm is promoting MediaFLO USA. This is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, which would be spun off as an independent company once the investments are recovered.

“For the US market we do not need to convince the carriers. They see it as an ARPU enhancer as part of their data revenue and we are already in talks with them to launch the service. But in other markets like India, lot of convincing is required in terms of returns on investments etc. So these markets may take some more time to be captured,' said Qualcomm Inc. CEO-elect Dr Paul Jacobs.

However, he added that Qualcomm would not become an operator anywhere. “One thing is very clear for Qualcomm - we are not in carrier or operator business. We own spectrum in the US, which makes it easier for us to launch a MediaFLO network here. But in the end it is the mobile operators and content providers who have to reach out to the customer. We would not reach out to the consumers directly,” Jacobs said.

MediaFLO or media forward link only is a combination of the media distribution system and FLO Technology. It aims to address the usability, network capacity, and device constraints typical of video delivery to a mobile handset. For this the mobile networks have to be 3G or EV-DO enabled as the minimum requirement. The media content is picked up from various sources and compressed to fit the mobile handset screen size and also optimally utilizes the network capacity to deliver content to multiple users in real time.

Though the officials claim it to be spectrum efficient technology, the fact remains that in many countries like India spectrum allocation is caught in regulatory hassles and in China 3G licenses are still not in sight. Chipsets for MediaFLO would be available by end of 2005, but issues of spectrum, other than US where Qualcomm owns it, revenue share between carriers and content providers, etc. need to be resolved before consumers are convinced about its usability.

- CyberMedia News

The author was hosted in San Diego by Qualcomm.