HOUSTON-Crown Castle International Corp.’s subsidiary, Crown Castle Mobile Media L.L.C., said it plans to use its tower network and its unencumbered spectrum rights to launch live mobile TV to the nation’s top 30 markets. The company also said it plans to deliver video and audio services to a wide range of mobile devices, including cars.
Along with the new offerings, Crown Castle Mobile Media also announced that it’s changing its name to Modeo L.L.C.
The company explained that it plans to launch live mobile TV in a few select markets this year, including New York City, and will continue with launches throughout 2007. Modeo said its Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld mobile broadcast network can deliver live video and audio channels, and will allow subscribers to download dozens of video podcasts and hundreds of audio podcasts to their mobile devices on a weekly basis.
“Our marketing campaign, ‘Modeo: For the love of TV’, emphasizes our focus on providing a fun and easy-to-use service that delivers popular news, sports, music and entertainment to a broad range of mobile devices including cell phones, laptops, portable media players, personal digital assistants and more,” said Michael Schueppert, president of Modeo.
Verizon Wireless recently announced plans to use Qualcomm Inc.’s proprietary MediaFlo mobile TV offering. Schueppert said in a telephone interview that Modeo does not yet have a carrier agreement for its open-standard, DVB-H-based mobile TV offering, but said that “it’s entirely possible that Modeo and MediaFlo will not be direct substitutes for each other.”
Schueppert explained that Modeo’s network architecture is different from Qualcomm’s MediaFlo offering. He said the high-power MediaFlo network relies on fewer tower sites than Modeo’s, which uses more sites at lower costs.
Schueppert also noted that Modeo’s mobile TV launch plans include more markets than those announced by Qualcomm’s MediaFlo subsidiary.
Qualcomm is the sole chip provider for its MediaFlo technology. Modeo uses DVB-H technology, which is an open standard. Texas Instruments Inc. and others have announced DVB-H chips.
Schueppert said Modeo’s investment in its live mobile TV network should total about $500 million. Qualcomm has said that its investment in MediaFlo should hit around $800 million.
Modeo said it plans to demonstrate its mobile TV service at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week using devices from Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp.
