Having paid US$1 million for a licence to deploy Flash-OFDM in 2006, T-Mobile Austria has decided to hand back its 450MHz licence to the telecom regulator. The company had intended to use Flash-OFDM to supplement its HSPA network, but the rollout of the HSUPA would appear to have proved more successful and the need to support two networks was not considered necessary.
While some observers have seen this as a defeat for Qualcomm, who purchased the developer of Flash-OFDM, Flarion, for US$600 million in 2005, the likelihood is that the giant U.S. comms developer will recoup its investment. The patent portfolio for the Flash-OFDM modulation scheme is used in every next-generation technology currently being considered by operators including LTE, mobile WiMAX and UMB.
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