With the start of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Assoc. (CTIA) Wireless 2006, tomorrow at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the first public demonstration of Qualcomm’s wireless handset video FLO (short for Forward Link Only) technology on a UMTS (or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) device is planned in a live over the air demonstration. The demo will feature multiple channels of streaming video and audio content using a Samsung cell phone with support for other vendor units including Kyocera and Sharp.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor
of Projection Monthly &
Microdisplay Report

Qualcomm’s Media FLO technology is arguably the leading US contender in one of several "overlay" networks for delivering live TV provided by wireless carriers for video to cell phone connectivity. The company has previously indicated that they expected their first mobile TV rollout in conjunction with Verizon in late 2006, so the absence of a technology demo at the large wireless expo would be more noteworthy than its announced presence.

The other mobile video standard targeting US cell phones is provided by a Crown Castle subsidiary Modeo, a DVB-H vintage standard used primarily in Europe. This technology got a boost from Strategy Analytics in February when that company forecasted sales revenue for TV-enabled cell phones will soar to over $30B by 2010. The report went on to predict the DVB-H technology will dominate the delivery network claiming 40% of the market by the end of the decade-up from a forecasted 19% in 2006, but its still a tough call at this point in time. Europe tends to be a bit ahead of the US in cell phone technology and has standardized on DVB-H as a derivative technology to its digital DVB-T broadcast standard. The other big player of course is Asia who tends towards DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcast) based on the Eureka 147 digital radio broadcasting standard.

The Media FLO demo this week will use two FLO transmitters and feature multicast of multiple channels of QVGA-quality video content, audio content and data transmissions for IP data-casting applications across the city of Las Vegas.

While this is pretty impressive, it does indicate that for FLO to become dominant in the US market, will require a massive investment for infrastructure build-out - to the tune of $800M committed over the next five years. This is something DVB-H (in Europe anyway) could be spared due to the use of nation wide DVB terrestrial broadcast that could be leveraged in the mobile device market.

For Qualcomm, the best case scenario would be to sign up the other carriers to their Media FLO overlay technology network making it the de facto standard in the US. But that’s not likely to happen. Beyond the show floor and the $800M gamble on Media FLO, are other technologies waiting in the wings. These include a recently ratified WiMax 802.11e and the Motorola / Samsung vintage WiBro technology, that also has the backing of Intel, with plans to sell these chips for wireless networking in notebook computers (and other devices) by 2007.

And Verizon rival Sprint Nextel is not lost on the mobile video revolution as they have invested heavily in the 2.5GHz spectrum ideal for WiMax implementation. The company has been looking at WiMax as a way to extend coverage in capacity challenged urban markets as well as with geographic challenged rural areas. And the technology is well suited for video delivery.

Clearly Qualcomm is gunning for first to market status in the US mobile video space but with so many unanswered technology questions, it is particularly hard to predict a winner this early in the game. Whatever your technology choice, it is boiling down to the efficient delivery of one’s and zero’s in data packets - and they really don’t care if they contain a vintage I Love Lucy, the last shot of the NCAA basketball play-off or even your next phone call to grandma.- -SS