Mobile TV Firm Modeo Dies

Another one bites the dust: Modeo, a broadcast mobile TV provider that conducted a service trial in New York City a few months ago, just had its network spectrum yanked out from under it.

According to RCR News, Crown Castle International Corp. is spinning off its Modeo business, agreeing to lease Modeo’s nationwide spectrum for a dedicated mobile broadcast network to a pair of venture capital firms. The company “will take a one-time hit of $10 million in ‘operating and general administrative costs’ related to its aborted Modeo business, and will write off all its Modeo assets other than spectrum in the third quarter of this year,” the report said.

It’s not technically the end of Modeo since it remains to be seen what happens to the assets. But it’s essentially the end of Modeo. Modeo’s Web site is already gone; the URL links to Crown Castle now.

“In the US, as of now, MediaFLO [another mobile TV broadcast service] is on the verge of running away with the market,” said Vinod Valloppillil, VP of product marketing for Roundbox Inc., in the article.

Crown Castle bails from mobile TV effort, Modeo’s fate unclear [RCR Wireless News]

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