Mobile TV's Weak U.S. Signal

Back in March, 2007, the outlook for Qualcomm’s $800 million bet on broadcasting TV signals to cell phones was all smiles. Verizon Wireless had just launched the first commercial service based on Qualcomm’s MediaFlo TV network, an eight-channel package, for as little as $15 a month. At about the same time, AT&T said it would introduce MediaFlo by late 2007. Qualcomm even revealed it was testing the service with British Sky Broadcasting, a coup given the European Union’s decision to back a rival wireless mobile-TV technology. Several Asian trials were under way as well.

In short, MediaFlo was on a roll; analysts began predicting Qualcomm might spin off the business with a public stock offering as early as this year.

Yet one year later, Verizon Wireless is still the only commercial provider of MediaFlo service, and it has yet to disclose any data on customer usage. While Verizon rarely reveals subscriber tallies for specific premium services, it does periodically trumpet statistics that illustrate the growing popularity of text messaging and downloading ringtones, music, and video games. The vacuum of similar pronouncements about MediaFlo a full year after its launch as V Cast Mobile TV isn’t an encouraging sign. Nor is the fact that Verizon, with a lineup of nearly 40 handsets, offers just four with the necessary TV tuners.

Qualcomm says all is well with the venture. “We [and Verizon] are both happy with the uptake and how it’s going,” says Gina Lombardi, president of MediaFlo USA. Yet Lewis Ward, a research manager at consultancy IDC, estimates Verizon Wireless has only signed up tens of thousands of subscribers for the TV service so far. Verizon didn’t make a spokesperson available to discuss the topic.

AT&T, meanwhile, has delayed its MediaFlo launch twice without explanation. “We still plan to announce [MediaFlo],” says spokesperson Mark…