Qualcomm's opting for the "la la la la, I can't hear you!" approach to the EU's decision to roll deep with DVB-H, it seems, committing $16.3 million in the UK to scoop up about 40MHz worth of nationwide spectrum for testing its own MediaFLO there, seemingly in an effort to woo locals to FLO's benefits. To be clear, Qualcomm says that it won't go solo with a commercial launch -- it wants a business partner to do that, much as it uses Verizon and AT&T in the States -- but it seems like the company has no problem dumping a few quid into getting the rejected standard some time in the spotlight. The odds are certainly against it, but hey, you've gotta admire their commitment.

So we know that AT&T slipped its MediaFLO-based mobile TV launch from the end of 2007 out to early '08, but just how "early" are we talking? Well, "as early as possible," to be specific. That rather unhelpful statement is all that's coming out of AT&T for the moment regarding its go-live window for the service, saying that testing is going "very, very well" but that it wanted to take an extra timeout to "make sure the user experience is absolutely optimal." As far as we're concerned, those statements are in conflict with one another -- if they'd planned to launch in '07 and everything's going well, what the heck's the hold up? At any rate, when it does launch, it turns out that we'll be getting essentially the same lineup MediaFLO offers through Verizon's VCAST TV presently, featuring channels from Fox, NBC, ESPN, CBS, and MTV. That rubs us the wrong way considering that AT&T's original press release mentioned its intention to take advantage of advanced MediaFLO capabilities like datacasting and music, so to summarize: less functionality, later than originally expected. Everyone cool?

[Via mocoNews]

So here's the deal for AT&T's CU720 Shine: AT&T looks to be preparing the anticipated slider (or, at least it was anticipated like a year ago) for a Black Friday launch. The silvery model will launch first, with black and red both planned for early '08. The Vu -- alias Prada, alias CU920 -- is still on track for an early '08 launch, too, though LG and AT&T are apparently pushing hard to get it rolled out in December, presumably to catch some last-minute holiday sales. MediaFLO support is confirmed in this bad boy, meaning that glorious display should see a little more action than the Cellular Video and MobiTV options AT&T subscribers have today. Oh, and are you wondering how that name's pronounced? Turns out it's "view," not "voo." Thank goodness.

[Thanks, Kal-El]

DigiTimes is reporting that Qualcomm has openly expressed interest this month in setting up a joint venture in Taiwan to get the ball rolling on MediaFLO there. Having bagged two of four national carriers in the US (with the distinct possibility of bagging one or two more still in the cards), Qualcomm appears to be turning its attention to distant lands. As DigiTimes points out, the company has already set up a joint venture with Japan's KDDI (a CDMA carrier, unsurprisingly) to push its proprietary mobile TV tech in that country, so it seems like similar ventures elsewhere are a foregone conclusion. Noting that a joint venture could be either "financial or technological," Qualcomm already runs a MediaFLO-based trial in Taiwan that kicked off earlier this year, so we figure that it may be looking to get an infusion of local cash to take the service commercial -- especially considering that it'll be going up against a handful of recently-awarded DVB-H licenses in the country.

[Via mocoNews]

Yeah, MediaFLO support is cool and all, but the SCH-U620 definitely felt like the "me-too" handset at today's Verizon press event; it just couldn't hold a candle to the LG VX9400's drop-dead good looks. 'Course, it was quite a bit smaller than the LG, and folks partial to the conventional slider form factor will feel more at home on this one. As with the VX9400 (and the service itself), pricing and availability are to be announced at a later date. Click on for some more shots.

Wait wait wait, LG, let's be sure we have this straight: you've gone ahead and distributed pictures of the rumored 9400 with your CES press kit, but you make positively no mention of it in your press release. Didn't something just like this happen at CTIA with the VX8600? Either you've truly mastered the fine art of brilliant viral marketing, or you've accidentally announced yet another critical phone in Verizon's lineup early. Our money's on the latter. Anyhoo, here's the 9400 finally in all its blur-free glory, finally ushering in the age of mobile TV stateside. Though it's not branded as a Verizon release, we know from our candid shots that it's due up as a launch device for the imminent unveiling of Big Red's MediaFLO network -- possibly as soon as this afternoon at Verizon's press event. As always, we'll keep ya posted; in the mean time, check after the break for some more eye candy.

We have to hand it to 'em, T-Mobile's gotta be given some credit for doing their homework in the whole mobile TV biz. It turns out that their trial agreement with Hiwire really is just that -- a trial -- and success won't guarantee them T-Mobile's signature on the dotted line. Besides working with both Hiwire and Modeo, the States' number four carrier has now hooked up with Qualcomm's MediaFLO folks, too, giving them the trifecta (if you will) of mobile TV partnerships. Though Qualcomm is more strongly associated with CDMA, GSM carriers have no particular reason to shy away from MediaFLO since the TV system is disjoint from CDMA itself. So far, T-Mobile's been low-key about naming a winner, which makes sense: the Vegas-based Hiwire trial hasn't yet begun and the MediaFLO trial (location unknown) is apparently still underway.

[Via MocoNews]

Although we're sure MediaFLO holds plenty of promise as a downlink-only TV mobile TV delivery platform, the folks over at Qualcomm wouldn't be doing much of anything with the technology -- here in the US, anyway -- without the requisite bandwidth. Happily, that's one hurdle they can now put behind them, as the FCC has granted MediaFLO the right to broadcast on TV channels 54, 55, or 56 ahead of the digital TV transition scheduled to complete on February 17, 2009. The feds came to their decision (a wise one, if we do say so ourselves) after drawing the conclusion that FLO broadcasts would have little or no ill effect on existing TV or DTV broadcasts on those channels, opening the door for mobile TV goodness just as soon as everyone can get on the same page and get some equipment and content out the door. Of course, if we discover that our beloved PBS is starting to get snowy as a result of this newfangled FLO business, we'll be having a few choice words.

[Via The Wireless Report]

Qualcomm has announced its Universal Broadcast Modem, a mobile TV chipset supporting DVB-H, ISDB-T, and Qualcomm's own FLO technology alike. The UBM, as it's known, is not dependent on a Qualcomm device chipset, which should help ease adoption. Sadly, samples won't be available to manufacturers until 2007, meaning we have a long haul ahead of us before we see devices using the technology. Although we think it's awfully big of Qualcomm to swallow its pride and bundle support for competing technologies with FLO, we'd rather see more standardization instead -- heck, we don't even have any one of these three available to consumers in the States yet.

[Via Phone Scoop]