Couple of thoughts on Media Flo.
First of all. It really underscores the competitive advantage of being the architect and provider or the base band modem. Thus, you can turn largely undervalued spectrum, into valuable spectrum by simply implementing sorftware and hardware changes into your current production methodology for very little up front costs. Thus Qualcomm turns unpaired Channel 55 spectrum into the possible position of generating returns. (They did the same thing with Globalstar, and it's was a huge technical success. Unfortunately, Qualcomm did have the financial resources at the time to manage the entire enterprise, and buy satellites. They left the management to a tired old man that will go down in history as one of the worst CEOs' in recent history. The demise of Globalstar wasn't so much Qualcomm's direct fault. They only errored on the relinquishment of control to Loral.)
Anyway, back to MediaFlo. Now they go back to the Wireless Service Provider business... Haven't we been there before? Seems like a good idea. Take cheap spectrum, implement it into future chipsets, build a network (cheaply thanks to High Power licenses in the 700Mhz Television Spectrum ((people won't complain about a 5 Megawatt 1500 foot transmitter @ 700 Mhz , but will claim that a 100 Watt Base at 100 feet @850Mhz will kill them???)). But, the real killer is........
Content!!
Just like almost every other subscription based service before it. Content is cheap at first, and then as the popularity grows. The price of the content grows not in a linear fashion, but exponential. See cable TV, Satellite TV, Satellite Radio as examples.
So what kind of content will drive adoption of MediaFlo by the consumer?
The only real advantage of MediaFlo is.... It's instantaneous.
Archived content can be uploaded at your leisure.. ala ITunes. You don't need to control the ASIC development to implement that. MediaFlo's advantage will be "real time" and quantity. CNN, FoxNews, etc.. All the obvious.. How about The Commercial Channel? Watch a Commercial and answer a queston about it and get a dime knocked off your cell phone bill? How about a National Emergency Broadcast Service system like Television and Radio Stations do? A couple of encrypted Homeland Security Channels for Govt. use.
All you need is a law that requires every cell phone sold in the US to be able to receive the Homeland Security Alert Channel, to make it a success.
PCSTEL |
