SAN DIEGO -- AT&T Inc.'s Cingular Wireless will use Qualcomm Inc.'s new MediaFlo wireless network to deliver broadcast television to mobile phones by the end of this year, the companies announced Monday.
The deal is a victory for Qualcomm as it tries to establish MediaFlo as the leading technology in mobile TV. Last month, Verizon Wireless said it will launch the MediaFlo service under the name V Cast Mobile TV in at least one market by the end of March.
Terms of the agreement between AT&T and Qualcomm were not disclosed.
AT&T has not determined pricing, which programs will be broadcast, or where the service will be launched first, said spokesman Mark Siegel. Subscribers who buy the service will need a new handset that can pick up the broadcast signal in addition to the regular cellular signal for phone calls.
Albert Lin, a securities analyst at American Technology Research, said AT&T's move deprives Verizon Wireless of a chance to get a huge jump on the U.S. market.
It also marks a setback for Crown Castle International Corp., a cell tower operator that has launched a trial of a live TV network for cell phones but has yet to announce carrier customers.
The Crown Castle venture, dubbed Modeo, uses a rival technology called DVB-H. That platform -- backed by Texas Instruments Inc., Nokia Corp., Motorola Inc. and others -- has been embraced by wireless operators in Europe and elsewhere that already use a non-Qualcomm technology known as GSM to connect phone calls.
First Published: February 13, 2007, 5:00 a.m.