2010/10/08

FLO TV is dead, Long Live FLO Data?

As predicted Qualcomm have killed off their FLO TV service in the US which uses Qualcomm's Media FLO technology (you could buy an adapter for Android and other devices that was a radio receiver and some decode bits that allowed you to watch Media FLO channels on your phone).

What this means for the UK is still uncertain, as Qualcomm paid a considerable fee for a national license to run their Media FLO services.

Now Qualcomm are pushing to utilise the spectrum for data offload from existing mobile networks and this may be a winning strategy, though in Europe there's already spectrum coming available in 2.6GHz (a BUG chunk) as well as the old TV channels etc.

Qualcomm invested heavily in Media FLO technology and buying spectrum, which many believed was a white elephant and has been proved to be so. There's probably going to be a fire-sale of spectrum now.

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