Qualcomm Reveals Plans for Massive U.S. Mobile Video Network

viper said:
Wait just a minute. Was 3G not supposed to do this for us. Why do we need another network?

Not exactly. 3G is great for video-on-demand, but not so much for live TV content.

We need new networks like this for live TV because:

• Video of any decent quality - even for small screens - is very data-intensive. A 3G carrier's worst fear is a video service becoming too popular, because it could completely clog a network very quickly, even with 3G.
• Spectrum in the U.S. for 3G is scarce. Unlike Europe, we don't have new spectrum for 3G yet - we're will stuck with the same spectrum we've had since the PCS auctions.
• 3G is 1-to-1, not broadcast. This is about broadcast. With 3G, if 50 people in an area are all watching live TV - like CNN, for example - each one of them is using a full video stream worth of bandwidth. 49 of those streams would be redundant. With a broadcast network, there would only be one stream, and everyone would simply tune in, just like regular TV. 3G is still the technology of choice for video-on-demand, but it just doesn't make sense for live broadcast content.
• By creating a separate broadcast network with its own spectrum, that frees more bandwidth for other 3G applications, such as more/better video-on-demand, faster mobile data for laptops, etc.

Who is going put entirely new chips in their phone? That adds cost and the volume potential seems limited in regards to driving cost down.

Why not integrate a digital radio or TV receiver into the phone as TI intends to do. Then you get free content and you can sell lots and lots of digital TV/cellular chip sets?

It's not necessarily a whole new chip. Qualcomm has a habit of building things like this into its core MSM chips.

Regular TV broadcasts - analog or digital - are simply not designed to be received on mobile devices. That's why lots of companies have announced "TV phones", but few have actually come to market. It's just not practical.

This technology, like DVB-H, is specifically designed for mobile devices. Mobile devices have very different requirements when it comes to power consumption, antenna size, etc.