Verizon launches Mobile TV on Qualcomm's MediaFlo network

Stuart Corner
Friday, 02 March 2007 00:25

Your IT - Home IT

US telco Verizon has launched a mobile TV service in 20 markets in the US on Qualcomm's MediaFLO network.

Initial service areas are predominantly in the western USA and some in the mid west. The network operates in the 700MHz band which is being cleared of TV broadcast usage by the FCC and rollout is governed by the timetable for this clearing.

Verizon is offering eight channels including a combination of simulcast time-shifted broadcast TV programming and 'Golden Oldies'. Programming on the eight channels comes from CBS, Comedy Central, ESPN, Fox, MTV, NBC News, NBC Entertainment, and Nickelodeon. MediaFLO, however has a capacity of 20 channels.

The service V Cast Mobile TV. costs $US15 a month, or $US25 a month for unlimited Mobile TV, regular V Cast services and mobile Internet. At launch the only handset available is the Samsung SCH-u620 device. The LG VX9400 will be launched in the next few weeks.

Verizon Wireless is the first US carrier to launch mobile TV on the MediaFLO network. AT&T's Cingular Wireless announced in January that it also would use MediaFLO to deliver mobile TV, starting late in 2007. Sprint Nextel, which currently offers a video service over its 3G network, has been trialling the network but  has yet to commit.

Nearly all mobile TV programming today is delivered over the cellular network and is unicast to each individual user - meaning that it soaks up a huge amount of network capacity. Technologies such as MediaFLO, DVB-H and MBMS use separate overlay broadcast networks, but are not able to deliver different programming to each individual subscriber.

The MediaFLO network uses Qualcomm's FLO (forward link only) technology unveiled in 2004. It can operate with CDMA200, 1x EV-DO and WCDMA networks. 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 content distribution system, also 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.

The MediaFLO network Verizon is using has been rollout US-wide at a cost of $US800m by Qualcomm through its subsidiary, MediaFLO USA.