Qualcomm's spectrum efficient broadcast initiative
needs lot of convincing on returns for the carriers and content providers before
it is launched out the United States
While India struggles to come out of the direct-to-home and
cable TV regulations, world is already looking at bringing television content
over mobile phones real time where ever you want. Though Qualcomm supported
MediaFLO is still a good year and a half away from being commercially launched,
it is attracting lot of attention and, of course, investments around the globe.
For the Indian market MediaFLO is not making its entry
before 2007. However, the US mobile subscribers might be lucky in experiencing
almost 100 channels over their handsets by October 2006. In India Qualcomm has
conducted trials with the leading CDMA operator and is also in talks with
content providers to bring high speed broadcasting to the users.
“Outside the United States 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 Rob Chandok, senior director, business development,
Qualcomm Internet services.
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 Dr Paul Jacobs,
CEO-elect, Qualcomm Inc.
However, he added 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 United States, 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.
Qualcomm is promoting MediaFLO as an enhanced multimedia
feature for the mobile users where broadcast and on-demand content is the key
instead of the present day stored clip and downloads-to-view kind of
applications.
“The processing power of the mobile chip is increasing
and more computing power is being added to the devices. FLO technology takes
things one step forward enables the users to get multiple media channels and
tickers real time on click of the button. However, this does not mean mobile
handsets would become TV sets. Yes we are working to link the mobile devices to
beam the content to the normal TV sets,” Jacob said.
Work on MediaFLO started in 2002-03 and almost $800 million
have been invested in it as part of Qualcomm's strategic initiative. For
MediaFLO to be a success lot depends on the handsets and the network capacity.
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.
Anurag Prasad
(The author is in San Diego on Qualcomm's invitation)
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