Qualcomm could suffer from digital TV transition delay

We're honestly beginning to wonder: can Qualcomm catch a break? Between the years of fighting with Nokia and the absolutely abysmal MediaFLO adoption rate, we're seriously beginning to consider that a Qualcomm curse isn't too far from the realm of possibility. With the announcement this week that the impending digital TV transition could be pushed from late February to June 12th (though it looks as if the House has halted those plans for now), Qualcomm has begun to wail. In essence, this delay -- should it still go down -- will force the firm to continue paying fees to broadcasters in order for it to have almost immediate access to vacated analog waves as soon as the cutover takes place. The tab? COO Len Lauer says it'll be in the "tens of millions of dollars," and that's not counting lost revenue that it was surely expecting to pick up between March and June. Here's hoping one of those "breaks" finally catches up with it here.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 29th 2009 11:16PM]

Didn't this bill already fail today??

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 30th 2009 12:08AM]

yeah... sheesh, engadget... get the story straight :)

Pretty strange though how the vote to delay got tons of press..but when it got killed, it's hard to find any mention of it. Stupid politics.

Here's the one link I could find (AP through google)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hyGXXrrCMCMoD-f9t5TPPFSH0CeQD960F5M00