Nokia brews patent litigation against Qualcomm

Stuart Corner
Monday, 11 June 2007 15:04

IT Industry - Deals

Qualcomm unveiled the underlying FLO technology in October 2004 along with 1xEV-DO Platinum Multicast, describing both as "multicast innovations designed to increase the capacity and reduce the cost of delivering video, audio and other content to large numbers of users simultaneously."

FLO can operate on CDMA200, 1x EV-DO and WCDMA networks and, according to Qualcomm, "compared to other multicast technologies, FLO technology is designed specifically for use in mobile devices where low battery power consumption is critical, enabling it to offer superior mobility, power efficiency and coverage characteristics - considerations that are fundamental to the mobile handheld consumer usage environment."

MediaFLO is Qualcomm's complementary content distribution system, announced in March 2004. It is designed to make intelligent decisions about when to send content over a network made up of any number of different wireless technologies, including FLO and EV-DO Platinum Multicast. "In particular, the MediaFLO system allows operators to transmit unicast or multicast content over their cellular networks and seamlessly combine it with multicast content transmitted using the FLO technology," according to Qualcomm.

In addition to developing the technology, Qualcomm has rolled out a US-wide FLO network and earlier this year Verizon Mobile became the first cellular operator of offer broadcast TV services on it.

Meanwhile, in Europe the EU is pushing strongly for a single European mobile TV broadcast standard  and EU commissioner for IT, Viviane Reding, has come out strongly in favour of the Europe-developed DVB-H technology, saying: "European industry has already developed successful standards in the past, and I am very confident that on the basis of DVB-H, mobile TV services can develop the economies of scale they need for take-up across Europe and around the world."

Nokia has today, 11 June, launched its first DVB-H capable cellphone, the N77. It is initially on sale and able to receive DVB-H transmissions in Finland. Nokia says it will start shipments to India and Vietnam later this month.