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AT&T to Use Qualcomm MediaFLO Cell TV

Posted on: Monday, 12 February 2007, 15:00 CST

SAN DIEGO - AT&T Inc.'s Cingular Wireless will use Qualcomm Inc.'s new MediaFlo wireless network to deliver broadcast television to mobile phones by the end of this year, the companies announced Monday.

The deal is a victory for Qualcomm as it tries to establish MediaFlo as the leading technology in mobile TV. Last month, Verizon Wireless said it will launch the MediaFlo service under the name V Cast Mobile TV in at least one market by the end of March.

Terms of the agreement between AT&T and Qualcomm were not disclosed.

AT&T has not determined pricing, which programs will be broadcast, or where the service will be launched first, said spokesman Mark Siegel. Subscribers who buy the service will need a new handset that can pick up the broadcast signal in addition to the regular cellular signal for phone calls.

Albert Lin, a securities analyst at American Technology Research, said AT&T's move deprives Verizon Wireless of a chance to get a huge jump on the U.S. market.

It also marks a setback for Crown Castle International Corp., a cell tower operator that has launched a trial of a live TV network for cell phones but has yet to announce carrier customers.

The Crown Castle venture, dubbed Modeo, uses a rival technology called DVB-H. That platform - backed by Texas Instruments Inc., Nokia Corp., Motorola Inc. and others - has been embraced by wireless operators in Europe and elsewhere that already use a non-Qualcomm technology known as GSM to connect phone calls.

Shares of San Diego-based Qualcomm were down 23 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $38.08 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market after rising as high as $38.80 early in the session.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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