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New Player Hopes to Enter Wireless Video Market

7:00 am on April 25, 2006 | Category: Business, Mobile Devices, Wireless Technology

With the backing of a few big cable companies, and even a satellite provider, a new wireless television player by the name of Hiwire is making plans to occupy the airwaves as early as this fall.

The company hopes to compete against the two much-hyped over-the-air television competitors, namely Qualcommâ€™s MediaFLO division, and Crown Castle Internationalâ€™s Modeo LLC.

The Hiwire service will use a transmission technology called DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld), and operate over the 700-Mhz wireless band.

Hiwire has managed to recruit a good number of high profile investors, but has thus far only collected a little over $100 million towards an estimated network build out cost of $500 million. To get the rest of the funding, the company will need to seek additional funding from existing investors and partners, as well as high-yield bond issues. They will likely use their wireless spectrum as collateral.

If all goes according to plan, Hiwire will launch a trial version of its service in Las Vegas this fall. It is not yet clear exactly what kind of video content lineup will be offered through the service.

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