Pay to Play

Michael Hedges May 21, 2008

Technology developer Qualcomm bought a respectable chunk of UK radio frequency spectrum with a plan. The price was reasonably cheap and the possibilities are, perhaps, endless. All new media needs spectrum, somehow, and this could be an interesting experiment.

Qualcomm “effectively bought one of the world's biggest open-air radio-frequency laboratories,” wrote ZDNet tech columnist Rupert Goodwins (May 20), “at an absolute knock-down price.” For €10.4 million (£8.33 million US$16.3 million) can play all it wants, for as long as it wants in the UK L-band, a good piece of spectrum promise land. Digital radio (DAB) is already there. Mobile TV, wireless broadband and satellite radio could be next.   

“Acquiring this spectrum will enable us to explore innovative wireless services and technologies that will benefit European consumers and the wireless industry as a whole," said Qualcomm’s Andrew Gilbert. “We are not on a strict timetable.” How many other companies invest in a laboratory the size of the UK?

Conventional wisdom holds that Qualcomm will use its newly acquired piece of the L-band to roll out, again, its MediaFLO mobile TV technology. The trial with BSkyB last year ground to a halt. The MediaFLO mobile TV standard is in limited use in the United States. In Europe it would compete with Nokia’s DVB-H mobile standard, officially approved by European Info Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding. Last month Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs expressed confidence that MediaFLO would eventually arrive in Europe.

Qualcomm also wants to rent out its new playground to partners. “We will not attempt to become an operator, but if service providers want to partner with us,” said Gilbert, “we are open to talking.” The Financial Times reported Qualcomm in discussions with the BBC and mobile operator O2. Nice, well-equipped lab space is hard to find these days.

UK media and telecom regulator OFCOM allowed the auction of 40MHz of L-band space free of any service requirements. This follows ITU WRC07 rule making that endorsed, at least, the concept of service neutrality. Pay your money and do what you like.

All broadcasters adamantly oppose service neutrality. Traditionally, spectrum allocations have been service specific – radio, TV, radio astronomy, garage door openers, wireless microphones. There are real, unresolved issues about interference. A dense and crowded spectrum could have all sorts of unhappy consequences. (See that story with the nice EBU spectrum graphic here)

Old media, too, is in the midst of a laboratory experiment, more as a subject than as experimenter. It’s one of the most famous lab demonstrations in experimental psychology – the boiled frog. Granted, this experiment is more fable than fact but it remains illustrative.

It goes like this: put a frog in a beaker of room temperature water. Slowly apply heat. The frog eventually cooks. Then, drop second frog in a beaker of very hot water and Kermit jumps right out. 

Old media companies – publishers and broadcasters – have, like that first frog, had long, comfortable lives in the warm and wet. The tech sector – from Nokia and Qualcomm to Google – applied heat. The result is cuisses de grenouilles.

On the other hand, new media enterprises are more like that second frog. Qualcomm could very well provide the lab – breakers, water and a little flame – for new media to find out how much heat they can take. The result could be a new species of frog.

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