Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Qualcomm Confirms FLO TV Shutdown Plans, Layoffs

San Diego-based Qualcomm confirmed Tuesday evening that it is considering shutting down its FLO TV, mobile television service, after reports that the firm is planning to shut off the service. In a statement, Qualcomm said it has been "examining strategic opportunities" for the FLO TV service, and claimed that it is seeing "strong interest" in using the FLO TV network or spectrum, particularly for mobile data and addressing an imbalance between supply and demand of bandwidth, due to tablet PCs, and demand for high quality video and print content. Qualcomm said it is suspending direct consumer sales of devices, and will continue maintaining the service until Spring 2011. Qualcomm said that--if it shuts down the service--it will make "appropriate refunds" and would order some layoffs related to the shutdown.

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