Qualcomm's Gilbert 'frustrated' over mobile TV
13 February 2008
Qualcomm's Gilbert 'frustrated' over mobile TV
The European mobile TV sector is being hindered by spectrum allocation issues, according to Andrew Gilbert, Qualcomm EVP and president QIS, MediaFLO technologies, Europe. Gilbert recently assumed control of the firm's MediaFlo mobile TV operation - the first of the firm's units to be headquartered in Europe.
"It's miserable, it really frustrates me," said Gilbert. "You have to have the spectrum on which to deploy it and that's not being made available."
Gilbert also suggested that the mobile TV services available in Europe today are in danger of damaging user perceptions of the concept as a whole. "You can give a dog a bad name," he said. "Mobile TV could be the next WAP because existing formats aren't that great." Users are unwilling to accept a mobile TV service that degrades from their domestic television experience, he said.
Unsurprisingly, Gilbert argued that MediaFlo offers a superior user experience, pointing to what he said were typical usage figures in the US of 80 minutes a day.
On patent battles - a part of business in which Qualcomm probably has unrivalled experience, Gilbert said: "We're not winning them all, but we're not losing many."
On WiMAX, Gilbert - who joined Qualcomm through the firm's acquisition of Flarion - remains unconvinced. "It's difficult to see where the space for WiMAX is," he said, arguing that with 3G, through HSPA and on to LTE, mobile broadband access is effectively covered.
Despite this, he still argued the case for UMB, a technology for which, unlike WiMAX, Qualcomm holds a substantial patent portfolio. "We're still getting a lot of interest in UMB," he said.
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