FLO TV sell-off will boost operator's 4G plans.
Qualcomm has confirmed that it will shut its FLO TV business and network in March next year, having agreed to sell its Lower 700 MHz D and E Block Spectrum Licences to AT&T.
The price? A cool $1.925 billion.
AT&T plans to use the spectrum as 'supplemental downlink' for its 4G network. The operator has faced complaints about its 3G network's quality, as it took the strain of being the exclusive iPhone carrier in the US.
Qualcomm says it will be integrating the necessary carrier aggregation technology into its chipset roadmap too, to help other operators around the world use 'unpaired' spectrum bands to boost their networks.
Is this the end for Qualcomm and mobile TV? Not necessarily. In a statement, the company said it will use its FLO learnings to develop 'LTE multicast technologies' for high-bandwidth video and multimedia content instead.
"This is a positive outcome for Qualcomm and our stakeholders," says chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm.
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"Carrier aggregation, supplemental downlink and LTE multicast technologies are an exciting evolution of next generation wireless systems to economically support increasing consumer demand for mobile TV and other rich media content."
The spectrum deal must be approved by both the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice before it can go through - likely in the second half of 2011.
