Qualcomm plots use for new spectrum
By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/7/2008
Qualcomm said it will use the wireless spectrum it acquired in the FCC's recent 700-MHz auction to expand the programming offered by MediaFLO, the live mobile-TV service it currently operates on UHF broadcast spectrum in 58 markets across the country.
Qualcomm spent $554.6 million to gain channel-56 spectrum in the Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco regions, complementing the channel-55 spectrum it already owns there and giving it a footprint of 12 MHz across much of the East and West coasts.
MediaFLO said it plans to work with Verizon Wireless, which has been marketing MediaFLO for just over one year, and AT&T, which will launch the mobile-TV service next month, to roll out second-generation mobile handsets that will be able to tune into both channels simultaneously and receive up to 40 streams of live video in total.
