IP Democracy: Hi-Wire: Mobile TV's Promising Dark Horse

Business Week’s Olga Kharif has this interesting piece on Aloha Partner’s subsidiary Hi-Wire, which is gearing up to take on Qualcomm and Crown Castle in the TV-over-mobile phone space. Hi-Wire, which is reportedly ready to sign up its first big customer, plans to use standards-based DVB-H for the broadcast-to-cell-phone service, just like Crown Castle’s Modeo.

Backed by $100 million in funding, Hi-Wire owns the largest chunk of 700-Mhz spectrum in the U.S., more than Qualcomm and Modeo combined. But Qualcomm’s MediaFLO system has already been tapped by Verizon Wireless and is being tested by Sprint-Nextel, so Hi-Wire has an uphill battle. The rumored trial customer landed by Hi-Wire is Cingular, which would make mobile TV technology a three-way race in the U.S.

Still, because it uses standards-based broadcast technology, it’s going to be a lot cheaper to build out a national network for zapping live video to mobile devices — $450 million according to company estimates, compared to $2.2 billion for Modeo. And Hi-Wire has got some deep cable industry ties, with former cable poobahs Bob Hughes, Amos Hostetter and Burt Stanier all investors. A deal with the cable industry, which is just now working out its mobile TV delivery system, could be in the works.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on August 30, 2006 10:16 AM to IP Democracy