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Wednesday, 25 July 2007 |
Modeo move signals set back for DVB-H in
USA.
In what is seen as a withdrawal from the mobile TV arena and a set back for the DVB-H community’s US ambitions, Crown Castle International has announced that the nationwide spectrum used by its Modeo DVB-H based mobile TV subsidiary will now be leased to a venture formed by Telcom Ventures LLC and Columbia Capital LLC. The news comes one week after the European Commission came down heavily in favour of DVB-H as the single cell phone TV standard for that region, in the process extolling the global attractions of the technology.
The spectrum, 1,670 to 1,675MHz, will be leased for a US$13mn annual lease fee beginning this week and continuing until 01 October, 2013. On the expiration of the initial term of the lease, the lessee will have the right to acquire the spectrum for US$130mn or to renew the lease for a period of up to ten years on the same terms, subject to the annual lease fee increasing to US$14.3mn.
Failure to find carrier partners seems to have been behind the
Crown
Castle move. MediaFLO, the rival
US mobile TV standard bearer, so to speak, has seen commercial service launched by Verizon in partnership with Qualcomm subsidiary MediaFLO
USA, with a second commercial service offered by AT&T in partnership with MediaFLO
USA scheduled for later this year.
DVB-H continues in the
USA in the form of trials being planned by the HiWire subsidiary of Aloha Partners, the largest owner of 700MHz spectrum in the country. Earlier this month HiWire and satellite communications service provider SES AMERICOM unveiled an initial group of TV content companies and channels that will be part of its overall channel lineup for the parties’ upcoming consumer trials in Las Vegas.
John Williamson |
