AT&T Delays Mobile TV Launch in the USA

AT&T announced that it is delaying the roll out of its planned MediaFLO mobile TV service in the USA to the beginning of 2008. Originally, the service was scheduled to start by the fourth quarter of 2007. The company didn't give a specific reason for the delay, other than stating that they want to make sure that the service meets customers' expectations.

Mobile TV Subscriber Forecast Breaks 2B Mark

According to a new market research report published by Telecom Trends International, the number of global mobile TV users will grow from 20 million today to over 2 billion by 2013. As far as I recall, this is the highest subscriber number forecast published by a market research firm to date. The previous record was set by ABI Research, who predicted last year that the global number of mobile TV users will grow to 514M by 2011.

The Telecom Trends International report also sets a record for mobile TV revenues, predicting that by 2013 the global revenues from mobile TV will reach $134.5B. This figure is more than 10 times higher than any other mobile TV revenue figure published by market research firms in the past.

Aloha Networks Sells Mobile TV Spectrum

Aloha Networks, the parent company of US Mobile TV operator HiWire, has sold its 700 MHz spectrum to AT&T for $2.5B. It is not clear yet whether AT&T plans to use the spectrum for mobile TV broadcast services, or for wireless web access enabling combined voice/data/video services. It seems that the second option is more probable, since AT&T has already signed a deal with MediaFLO for using its mobile TV broadcast network. In that case, the deal signals another hit to the global mobile broadcast TV market, after the shut down of the Virgin and Modeo services earlier this year.