Qualcomm Says MSTV Argument a Bid to Bar Launch of MediaFLO
Qualcomm accused MSTV of making a last-ditch effort to stall launch of MediaFLO, a service operating in the lower 700 MHz band that would allow transmission of high quality video, audio and data to mobile phones using a limited number of towers at high power levels. Qualcomm, which is working with Verizon Wireless on a launch as early as Oct., is trying to resolve one of the key issues that must be addressed before a nationwide rollout, it said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
“The Commission should dismiss MSTV’s proposals, which are MSTV’s latest tactic to delay a ruling on Qualcomm’s petition and to delay Qualcomm from launching MediaFLO,” Qualcomm said.
Qualcomm bought licenses to offer its service on TV channel 55 in 5 of 6 areas in the U.S. in a 2003 auction, a year later buying the 6th license. Different markets present different problems. In markets where no TV station is broadcasting in channels 54, 55 or 56, service can start immediately. Qualcomm also has negotiated agreements with stations in Orlando, Seattle and other cities.
The filings are the latest in an old dispute between MSTV and Qualcomm that involves markets where broadcasters are active on one of the 3 channels and no agreement has been reached, and where Qualcomm would install more than one transmitter.
On March 31, MSTV argued in a filing at the FCC that Qualcomm’s proposed method for assessing interference is inadequate and doesn’t account for new technology. Qualcomm proposes that in deciding whether its service interferers with TV channels the FCC should allow use of interference tables based on existing DTV methodology -- OET Bulletin No. 69 -- to compute potential interference to TV broadcasts. Use of OET Bulletin No. 69 would let Qualcomm give the FCC engineering studies based on already available software.
MSTV countered that this methodology can be used only to gauge interference between TV stations and fails to account for transmitters operating in a station’s service area or the “aggregate effect of interference from multiple MediaFlo transmitters.”
Instead, MSTV argued, a new mechanism must be established that calculates desired signals (D) relative to each individual undesired signal (U) with a new set of tables for calculating acceptable levels of interference. MSTV said it raised the need for a new mechanism but Qualcomm has “failed to heed” its calls for “more apt interference prediction methodology.”
Qualcomm said in a Mon. filing MSTV effectively is asking the FCC “to start from scratch in determining the proper D/U ratios” for calculating potential MediaFlo interference. Qualcomm called the OET Bulletin No. 69 methodology “a well-understood engineering methodology with which the Commission and the broadcast industry have considerable expertise” which would “give certainty to an accepted methodology for predicting and avoiding interference.”