Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) is apparently keen to use its MediaFLO technology for services other than mobile TV. I’ll just quote Kamil Grajski, vice president of engineering for Qualcomm and president of FLO Forum, talking to Telephony Online: “A good example is Yahoo.com. Every time you look at it, it is a little different. Well, mobile network operators and maybe local broadcasters in the US would like to provide something similar on the phone. There is a lot of IP data pushed to your phone, so how could you do that cost effectively? If you had an IP data-streaming service, you could do [customized home pages]. There are a lot of ways to do that. Super-geeks could configure and personalize every item or they could sell a pre-set, “I’m a young busy urban professional” profile they subscribe to. Set an application that filters things to you. It is a low-cost technology, and the filtering is done at the edge of the network.” If I understand this right it involves sending a variety of content continuously over the network and having people decide which bits they want to actually show up on their screen. It’s technically possible, but I’m not sure it’s the best way to go (but I’m not an engineer). In any case, it looks like Qualcomm has a plan B in case the whole mobile TV thing doesn’t take off quite as much as they thought.

• CTIA: Qualcomm: Enabling Mobile Ads And Payments; Hoping To Accelerate MediaFLO
• MediaFLO’s Mobile TV Service Not Gaining Traction Company Wants
• Industry Moves: MediaFLO Hires New Managers For Content And Marketing