The Telecommunications Industry Association TR-47.1 subcommittee has officially approved publication of the Qualcomm's handset A/V transmission spec, FLO Air Interface Specification, as TIA-1099. The AIS spec defines the radio protocols used to deliver over-the-air multicast services from the FLO network to a FLO device, most likely a handset. The AIS covers delivery of multiple multimedia streams, including simultaneous wide-area and local-area content, over standard TV channel allocation bandwidths, "while ensuring fast service acquisition, fast service, or channel switching times, and robust performance in mobile fading links, and all combined to achieve low receiver power consumption, among many other features," according to a release from the FLO Forum.

The Air Interface Specification, or AIS, was the first technical spec to emerge from the FLO Forum, an association of wireless industry companies with a stake in FLO--forward-only link--technology. FLO members include, among others, Harris, Axcera, Envivio, KTech Telecom, LG Electronics, Motorola, Rohde & Schwarz, Samsung, Thomson and Qualcomm, the originator of FLO.

"Approval of the Air Interface Specification is an important part of the process of developing a complete set of standards based on FLO technology," said Dan Bart, senior vice president of standards and special projects at TIA. "The FLO Forum is playing a key role in making FLO specifications open and uniform for developers."