British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB) will conduct technical trials of QUALCOMM’s MediaFLO technology in the U.K. beginning this summer. The technical trial will feature 10 channels of BSkyB content on a small number of non-commercial devices provided by QUALCOMM.
The companies said their technical trial is intended to allow BSkyB to closely evaluate the performance capabilities of FLO technology, an open, cellular network-agnostic wireless multicasting technology, as it continues to explore the growing number of opportunities to deliver video services to mobile devices.
The BSkyB technical trial is expected to be the first such trial of FLO technology in Europe.
In addition to this technical trial, QUALCOMM and KDDI have formed a joint venture to explore the deployment of MediaFLO services in Japan. Also, MediaFLO USA, a subsidiary of QUALCOMM, is working with Verizon Wireless to deploy wireless multimedia services based on FLO technology in the United States.
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- Verizon is working with QUALCOMM and its subsidiary MediaFLO USA Inc. to launch mobile TV services over the MediaFLO network in approximately half of the markets already covered by Verizon Wireless’ CDMA2000 1xEV-DO-based broadband network.
- FLO technology is a new air interface originally developed by Qualcomm with multicasting capabilities designed to increase capacity and reduce content delivery costs to mobile handsets. The technology is independent of the cellular network but complements CDMA2000 1X, 1xEV-DO and WCDMA cellular network data and voice services.
- MediaFLO USA Inc. is building a nationwide network based on QUALCOMM’s FLO technology to deliver multimedia content to mobile devices in the 700 MHz spectrum. QUALCOMM holds a nationwide footprint of spectrum licenses in this band. MediaFLO USA Inc. expects to begin commercial operation of the new network in 2006.