Will make selected shows downloadable for watching offline within a few months.
The plan to offer time-shifted viewing was revealed in April, but at a briefing today in san Diego, ME learned that Qualcomm expects the first programming to be made available shortly.
It won't comprise all shows – live broadcasting will be off-limits for example – but will go some way to satisfying those who want to watch in planes etc.
It will most likely be offered on the short-form and re-broadcast content available on FLO TV.
Eleswhere in the discussion, Bill Stone, president of FLO TV, reiterated the power of the service to help networks tackle the data crunch that's causing such as nightmare at the moment.
"There's a huge spike in mobile data right now, not just because of smartphones, but also e-readers, smartbooks, tablets and so on," he said.
"I see FLO TV as having the potential to meet all these demands because whether it's 1m users to 100m, it doesn't matter... it can take up the 'fat tail' of video transmission leaving 3G to handle the long tail."
This is because FLO TV is a broadcast-based service that pushes data over the TV spectrum rather than the cellular network.
It requires 500 base stations to deliver the same coverage as 100,000 mobile network base stations in the US.
Moreover, the average viewer is watching 30 mins a day or 900 mins an month. That equates to around 900MB of data if the same programming was watched on 3G.
However, FLO TV has not been a raging success to date. Again, Qualcomm would not be drawn on user numbers. It reiterated again that this was for confidentiality reasons with regard to its two US operator partners, Verizon and AT&T.
But FLO TV has launched its own device and subscription service too. It wouldn't disclose numbers for this either, although Stone was candid enough to admit he was 'not happy' with its performance so far.
There again, there is evidence that viewing is on the increase. The World Cup match between Uruguay and Mexico last week broke the record all time record for FLO TV viewing.
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