The news that at&t (formerly Cingular Wireless) has chosen MediaFLO as their mobile digital flavor broke a few days ago, and Reuters had a commentary from Qualcomm’s CEO today (read the whole story here) basically saying that this would possibly bring "common ground" to the ongoing spat between Nokia and Qualcomm over licensing fees. Nokia and Qualcomm’s current deal expires on April 9th, so the kitchen is getting a little hotter every day they remain at a stalemate.

However, the idea that this would "help" the Nokia-Qualcomm fight is poppycock. This is actually lining up right next to the Olly and the Guru episodes which will have their third edition first thing tomorrow. I firmly believe that this is actually yet another nail in the coffin for Nokia and at&t’s current device struggles…. 

And this is why - Nokia doesn’t have anything to do with MediaFLO. They like DVB-H, which is what pretty much all of Europe and Asia are choosing. Both continents are also strong Nokia markets. Verizon has also latched on to MediaFLO, and will be launching their service later this year here in the US. The only two carriers left are Sprint-Nextel and T-mobile USA. Sprint-Nextel recently ended their tests of MediaFLO and opted out of the technology, and T-mobile USA is still eyeing DVB-H for their service (whenever that might be).

Wait, what’s what? Sprint-Nextel is pushing out WiMax as their 4G option, with Nokia signed on whole-heartedly. And who’s building T-mobile USA’s 3G network? Yeah, that’s Nokia, as well. Who DOESN’T have any WiMax patents? QUALCOMM, BABY. Things are definitely starting to heat up.

Here’s Olly’s contribution to this convo:

The thing is, whether I care about it or not (which I don’t), there IS a market for Mobile TV. I think that with Sprint backing out, and T-mobile undeclared on the issue, we’re going to see a DVB-H buildout by Nokia, T-mobile USA, Sprint, and Samsung (who is already into DVB-H in Korea). T-mobile’s already deep in bed with Samsung, anyways, who, incidentally, is also very well-versed in WiBRO/WiMax in Korea. Also, Nokia and Samsung have fairly decent relations (better than Nokia and anyone else).

You can read about OFDM on Wikipedia. Sprint has been deep into OFDM territory, which can be used for wideband access over WiMax. OFDM is what allows for things like DVB-H and WiMax to be so effective. Not to mention the fact that Flash-OFDM, which is a far more efficient competitor to GSM and CDMA, is already being deployed in…..FINLAND, on the 450mHz spectrum, along with Sprint testing it in the States. T-mobile Slovakia offers Flash-OFDM already, with 5.3mb download and 1.8mb upload.

As you can see, Olly is the more technically minded of us, whereas I like to think of the market impact of all this. Be sure to read this week’s episode of Olly and the Guru for our past conversation about how this is all going to shake down.

Categories: Olly's Contribs, Personal Rants
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