December 9, 2004
Technology in Focus features analysis of recent technology news articles, by the consultants in Technology Group, IDA. This is the top pick of the month from a list of 10 - 20 news analysis compiled monthly.
Qualcomm Plans Network to Bring TV to Cell Phones, ZdNet, 1 Nov 2004
by Joshua Lee, Senior Consultant, Enabler Technologies
Qualcomm, touted as the Intel of the wireless industry, has made a radical move to jump-start the nascent video-streaming market. Qualcomm is using the 700MHz TV channel it purchased in the US to deploy and operate a nationwide "media-cast" network, delivering 50-100 high quality video streaming, and video and audio clips programming to 3G mobile phones. Qualcomm will use its own FLO (Forward Link Only) multicast technology. Like DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast- Handheld), FLO technology is based on OFDM and is designed to complement existing Qualcomm technologies CDMA 1X EV-DO and WCDMA. Using the UHF spectrum and deploying high power transmitters, the FLO network will require significantly less transmitters than cellular networks.
With the network, Qualcomm will offer a new business model by partnering with mobile network operators, MVNO, TV stations, cable TV and satellite operators and other content providers and providing a new distribution channel that complements their current offering, thus enabling its partners to reach their customers when they are away from home or when they are on the move. Through its subsidiary MediaFLO, Qualcomm will aggregate content from multiple sources, provide a middleware for delivering content to subscribers, and transmit the content over a dedicated network.
The promise of affordable and rich multimedia services in 3G networks for mass consumers have yet to be realised. The service offered by Qualcomm is not meant to replace mobile operators' streaming services, many of which are in their infancy. Instead, it is to provide a foundation of common content most operators would not launch on their own equivalent of basic package in cable TV over the wireless network. Qualcomm will license its FLO technology to network operators so that they can deploy interactive streaming content over their own 3G networks. In addition, Qualcomm will provide a common client in the handset so that network operators can create a common but differentiated content package for their subscribers.
Clearly, the FLO network is intended as an alternative to other mobile multimedia standard such as DVB-H, backed by Nokia and DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting), backed by the South Korea and Japan. Even though some mobile and broadcasting operators in Europe are trialing DVB-H, MediaFLO may help the US operators to leapfrog its European counterparts in the mobile multimedia service since Qualcomm provides the key technologies, infrastructures, business model, necessary chipsets needed to build handsets to provide the new service. According to analysts, when the service is commercialised, the market is likely to be divided into two camps: Qualcomm-centred America vs Nokia-centred Europe, resembling the CDMA vs GSM scenario. History may just repeat itself.
Some words about the writer
Joshua Lee is a Senior Consultant with the Technology Group, tasked with the responsibility of identifying and driving the adoption of emerging telecommunication technologies in Singapore. He specializes in a wide range of mobile technologies, including positioning and LBS technologies, mobile messaging and PTT over Cellular.
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