Qualcomm’s MediaFLO could be coming to the UK

Qualcomm has announced that it’s acquired 40MHz of L-Band radio spectrum in the UK, paying £8.3 million to communications regulator Ofcom for the privilege. Why should you care? Well, the company says it’ll be able to “bring a variety of innovative wireless technologies to the UK market” with its partners. The press release is carefully worded with no mention of what these technologies might be, but the natural assumption is that the company’s MediaFLO mobile TV platform may now be launched here. After all, Qualcomm ran a technical trial of MediaFLO with BSkyB in the UK last year (that’d be one possible partner). I contacted Qualcomm’s PR for clarification on whether it’s now set for a commercial launch, and here’s the response: “While L-Band is capable of supporting MediaFLO, Qualcomm is planning to test a number of services in conjunction with its partners. No definitive decision has been made on the use at this time.” So there you have it. I’m off to Qualcomm’s BREW 2008 conference in a couple of weeks, so will aim to find out more then about the company’s plans for us Brits.