Last month Sprint Nextel finished up its trial of Qualcomm's mobile television MediaFLO service, and has decided that--at least for now--it won't use the technology for a commercial deployment. The news comes days after AT&T/Cingular announced it will use MediaFLO to offer services this year. Verizon Wireless plans to have a MediaFLO service by the end of next month. T-Mobile USA has tested the technology and Alltel just announced it will begin MediaFLO trials as well.
Sprint already has a mobile TV service powered by MobiTV commercially launched over its CDMA2000 1x EV-DO network. Considering Sprint's plans for a massive WiMAX network in the coming years (which will probably bring huge benefits to its mobile content portfolio), not getting involved in another new mobile TV technology may be a wise choice for the carrier.
For more on Sprint's move to pass on MediaFLO:
- see this article [1] from RCR News
Links:
[1] http://www.rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070216/FREE/70216007/1019