FREMONT, Calif.—The FLO Forum said it approved a specification for its mobile TV network technology, a move that will allow equipment makers to build gear that will work on any FLO-based network. Thus, operators will be able to choose products from multiple vendors. Designed...
Hello! And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There's a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....
The buzz surrounding mobile TV and full-track downloads grows increasingly deafening as the industry heads into next month's CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment show in Los Angeles. But for now, at least, the most lucrative application in wireless may be in simple, community-based applications....
Controversial competing technologies. A spectrum auction that brings in billions of dollars. Am I flashing back to 1995?No, but a few noteworthy announcements in recent weeks are reminiscent of spectrum auctions and subsequent buildouts for second- and third-generation services. If history repeats itself, look...
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...
While the long-term vendor ramifications of Sprint Nextel Corp.'s plan to deploy a WiMAX network remain uncertain, it's clear that the early winners are Intel Corp., Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.-while the biggest losers are Qualcomm Inc. and its Flarion Technologies Inc.-developed...
Look out, Texas Instruments Inc. and Infineon Technologies AG. Your closest competitor in EDGE baseband chips and W-CDMA RF transceivers, respectively-Philips Semiconductor-has a new, ambitious owner anxious to position its acquisition to eat your lunch. Or at least grow Philips Semiconductor by feeding on...
DALLAS-The U.S. mobile video market can't support all the multimedia networks scheduled to come online in the next 18 months, according to a new report from Parks Associates. The prospects appear bright for Sprint Nextel Corp.'s planned WiMAX network and Qualcomm Inc.'s MediaFlo, according...
Operators around the world are rolling out sexy new services like mobile TV and full-track downloads in an effort to compensate for razor-thin margins for voice service and see a return on investments in 3G technology. But carriers looking to spur data revenues-which is...
TOKYO—Japanese wireless carrier SoftBank announced it will study the feasibility of using Qualcomm Inc.’s MediaFlo technology to offer mobile TV services. Qualcomm said SoftBank joins a growing list of carriers looking into its MediaFlo offering, a list that includes KDDI Corp. in Japan, BSkyB...
MILTON KEYNES, U.K.- Mobile TV provider ROK Entertainment scored a major win last week, outperforming two carrier-affiliated services in a study from Strategy Analytics. The market research firm said Vodafone Live was the wireless video service of choice in a benchmark survey of wireless...
LOS ANGELES-Toyota Motors North America plans to expand its mobile marketing efforts with a new wireless TV series from Fun Little Movies. The automaker is sponsoring "The Pool," a made-for-mobile comedy series that is being promoted with broadcast television commercials on major networks including...
LOS ANGELES—Toyota Motors North America plans to expand its mobile marketing efforts with a new wireless TV series from Fun Little Movies. The automaker is sponsoring "The Pool," a made-for-mobile comedy series that is being promoted with broadcast television commercials on major networks including...
The June 26 Focus article on backhaul for mobile broadband misstated information about IPWireless' mobile TV platform. IPWireless counts three trials of its mobile TV platform, and 15 deployments of its mobile broadband platform.
In the modern age of mobile TV and wireless porn, a simple caller-ID application may not get your pulse racing. Unless you're Rick Hennessey. The chief executive officer of Seattle-based startup Cequint Inc., Hennessey thinks he has a winner in City ID. In addition...
BELLEVUE, Wash.—Nexage Inc., which provides wireless multimedia software and services, said it closed its first round of funding for its mobile TV platform venture. Funding came from John Ostrem, founder of China MobileSoft, a Linux-based mobile software company that was acquired last year by...
Qualcomm Inc., Crown Castle International Corp. and Aloha Partners LP are each spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build dedicated networks for multimedia mobile content. And, analysts say, one of them is probably going to lose. Consumers will flock to mobile television services...
FALLS CHURCH, Va.—Disparate standards and lack of spectrum could hinder the growth of the mobile TV industry, according to a new report from Telecom Trends International Inc. The industry has the potential to generate $107.3 billion in annual service revenue by 2012, predicts the...
OYSTER BAY, N.Y.—Consumers will flock to mobile television services in the next few years, with most subscribers tuning into wireless broadcast offerings, according to two new studies. More than half a billion users are expected to subscribe to mobile TV services by 2011, up...
TOKYO-PacketVideo Corp. said it will work with NTT DoCoMo Inc. to bring mobile music to the Japanese market using Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile Media technology. The companies are introducing Windows Media capabilities-including Microsoft's digital rights management offering-into NTT DoCoMo handsets through Universal pvPlayer, PacketVideo's...
Television has been called the "75-year-old killer application" and, indeed, one of the hurdles to-and possibly a shaper of-the mobile television experience is the recent trend toward giant, flat-screen TVs with surround sound in the home. Accustomed to zoning out in front of a...
NETANYA, Israel-Intel Corp. has selected Siano Mobile Silicon's multi-band, multi-standard receiver chipset for Intel's mobile TV reference platform in its Xscale product line. The collaboration comes at a time when mobile TV component makers are matching up with chipset and handset vendors. The news...
NETANYA, Israel—Intel Corp. has selected Siano Mobile Silicon’s multi-band, multi-standard receiver chipset for Intel’s mobile TV reference platform in its Xscale product line. The collaboration comes at a time when mobile TV component makers are matching up with chipset and handset vendors. The news...
In a move that smacks of the Research In Motion Ltd./NTP Inc. tussle, a holding company that owns wireless spectrum has sued Alltel Corp. and Verizon Wireless over alleged patent infringements involving the transmission of television to a wireless phone. A wholly owned subsidiary...
