FLO looks to TIA for standards backing

The FLO Forum is submitting its specification for forward link only mobile TV to the Telecommunications Industry Association in an effort to standardize the technology developed in-house by Qualcomm.

Qualcomm created FLO as a more robust alternative to the Digital Broadcast Video-Handheld standard developed in Europe and other multimedia streaming technologies in Asia. But it developed FLO proprietarily, opting for better performance over a widely adopted technology standard, much the way it originally developed CDMA technology. In order to overcome the standardization hurdle, Qualcomm has chosen to guide the technology from infancy to market availability creating a subsidiary, MediaFLO USA, to build a nationwide FLO network and launch the first commercial service this year.

But in the last year, Qualcomm has made moves to standardize the technology, creating the FLO Forum and inviting other vendors to contribute to the specification. Many of Qualcomm's competitors, particularly GSM technology vendors, have written the forum off as an empty organization intended to give the illusion of a standard, but the forum has recruited many of the Asian vendors who comprise Qualcomm's core CDMA customer base.

Last month, the forum produced its first technical specification for FLO's air interface, which it today announced has been submitted to a TIA subcommittee for review. If the TIA signs off on the specification it would be a legitimate standard in the U.S., though it would have no standing internationally. But forum officials have said they plan to submit the air interface spec and future specifications to international standards bodies in the future.