KDDI Partners with Qualcomm on MediaFLO

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Qualcomm and KDDI "are teaming up to explore broadcasting television programs to cell phones" using Qualcomm's MediaFLO technology. KDDI will own 80 percent of the joint venture. "Earlier this month, Verizon Wireless became the first U.S. carrier to agree to offer the MediaFLO broadcasts."

Michael King at Gartner said, "The deal proves there's a market for MediaFLO. If we're speculating, this could be important because it shows that MediaFLO has a market outside the United States, and secondly, Qualcomm becomes a digital video player above and beyond their home market."

The partnership "will look at licensing the broadcast spectrum that would be needed to build a MediaFLO network in Japan."