Qualcomm hints at selling off FLO TV unit

Qualcomm said it is open to selling its struggling FLO TV mobile broadcast unit, and would also be interested in partnership opportunities. At the company's Uplinq 2010 developer conference in San Diego, Qualcomm chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs said it was never Qualcomm's intention to become the service provider operating FLO TV, which delivers mobile TV programming to operators like Verizon Wireless and AT&T. He also reiterated previous comments that it is likely the FLO solution will expand beyond its broadcasting focus into a more general data delivery platform for connected devices.

Speaking at the All Things Digital Conference in May, Jacobs admitted consumer adoption of FLO TV has failed to meet Qualcomm's expectations. Speaking to Bloomberg a few weeks later, FLO TV president Bill Stone said the service's future hinges on extending its parameters beyond television content into new solutions like electronic magazine delivery. "If it's only mobile TV, we're dissatisfied, we're not happy with it," Stone said. "There are going to be a lot of revenue streams off this service." According to Stone, FLO TV also must expand across a wider selection of handset models, noting that Qualcomm is at work on an add-on antenna-like product that can be attached directly to phones, giving consumers the flexibility to migrate the service from device to device.

Stone also touts the FLO solution as a means for service providers and manufacturers to ease network bandwidth concerns--the FLO system transmits data across frequencies separate from those used by mobile networks, operating over the 716-722 MHz spectrum band in the U.S. "One person streaming a video takes up as much bandwidth as 100 cell phone calls," said Stone. "Networks break down and can't handle it. For me, whether I have one or 1 million users, it doesn't matter."

For more on Jacobs' FLO TV comments:
- read this Light Reading Mobile article

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FLO TV: We need more phones, new services to succeed
Qualcomm CEO: FLO TV numbers 'not nearly what we expected'
FLO TV adds interactive features, time-shifted viewing