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Setback for Qualcomm PR offensive as Europe's leading mobile nets trial IP Wireless TV

The technical advantage of the technology provided by IP Wireless is that it is part of the planned rollout of standard UMTS - hence today's announcement of mobile TV tests by Orange, Vodafone, Telefonica (including O2) and 3UK - using IP Wireless unpaired spectrum.

The political advantage of IP Wireless technology, however, is that it's the alternative to the Flarion-developed Flash-OFDM high-speed wireless broadband technology. And Flarion is now owned by - Qualcomm.

This is not to say that political considerations outweigh technical ones. IP Wireless unpaired spectrum technology has been tested, and found to work just fine - especially for streaming applications. Nobody can deny that TV is a streaming application.

By contrast, Flarion's technology has the advantage of extremely good latency - a great deal lower than any other mobile system can manage, down to the levels of ISDN wired latency. Latency, obviously, isn't that crucial for streaming technologies, and if you want streaming, there's obviously no problem in ignoring the latency issue.

Nonetheless, the test will be seen by anti-Qualcomm lobbyists as a deserved smack in the face for the US intellectual property giant.

Qualcomm has been quietly building up its profile as a Good European, since the Flarion takeover. It has been sending engineers - free of charge! - to help mobile operators deal with the quirks of 3G wireless (for example, if you have poor reception for 3G wideband CDMA transmitters, you do NOT turn the power up!) and allowing former Flarion staff to take a high-profile role in the European arm, apparently calling the shots.

The reality, however, is that after years of mistrust, Qualcomm still has a long way to go, even having bought the goodwill that Flarion generated in Europe before it was acquired.

"Ask Qualcomm why their 'European President' is someone who actually reports to the US sales manager, not the board," said one source, when asked how the Qualcomm charm offensive was getting on.

Some way to go...