AT&T Buying Qualcomm’s FloTV Spectrum for Nearly $2 Billion

After failing to find a big enough market for its mobile television service, Qualcomm announced Monday it is selling to AT&T the one part of the service that is truly valuable–the spectrum that it had acquired to run FloTV. AT&T will pay $1.93 billion for the wireless capacity, which is in the lower 700 MHz range and should help the carrier offer additional next-generation services, like video. Qualcomm had said it would shut down FloTV next March and would give customers their money back. It had also said it was exploring strategic options, including selling off the spectrum.