SAN DIEGO—Qualcomm Inc. said its MediaFlo mobile TV network technology will be up and running in Japan sometime in 2008.
According to a Reuters report, Qualcomm’s Jun Yamada, president of the company’s Japanese unit, said he expects Japanese regulators to allocate frequency bands for mobile TV since “there’s a great need for such multimedia broadcasting services” in the country.
Qualcomm was not immediately available to comment on the report.
Qualcomm has been pushing MediaFlo in Japan for months. In December 2005, Qualcomm and KDDI Corp. established a joint-venture to explore broadcasting wireless video programming to subscribers of the Japanese operator. At the time, the companies said MediaFlo Japan Planning Inc. would examine licensing spectrum necessary to build a MediaFlo network in Japan. KDDI agreed to make an initial investment of $85,000 in the project.
Also in Japan, Japanese wireless carrier SoftBank said it would conduct a “technical study” of Qualcomm’s MediaFlo technology.
Elsewhere, Qualcomm is testing MediaFlo in Europe through an agreement announced in May with digital TV platform operator British Sky Broadcasting Inc. The two companies agreed to test MediaFlo in the United Kingdom this summer.
In the United States, Qualcomm is spending $800 million to build out its mobile TV infrastructure. The company has said it plans to launch MediaFlo services with Verizon Wireless by the end of next year.
