India calls for all mobile phones to include FM radios
- Reference: 1683781327
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/05/11/india_mobile_phone_fm_radio/
- Source link:
Yes, you read that right: an FM radio.
"It has been brought to the notice of the Ministry that during the last 4/5 years there is a drastic fall in mobile phones with FM tuners feature, thereby affecting not only the ability of the poor to get free FM radio services, but also the Government's ability to disseminate real-time information during emergencies, disasters and calamities," states the [1]advisory [PDF].
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The document next cites International Telecommunications Union advice about radio broadcasts being an excellent medium for communicating far and wide during emergencies, adding: "The availability of vast network of FM transmitters and FM radio in the country played a key role in India's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
[3]
[4]
"In view of the above, it should be ensured that wherever the mobile phone is equipped with an inbuilt FM radio receiver function or feature, that function or feature is not disabled or deactivated but is kept enabled/activated in the mobile phone.
"Further, it is advised that if the FM radio receiver function or feature is not available in the mobile phones, it may be included."
[5]
The advisory ends with a call for the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association and Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology to share the document with their members.
To understand this circular, note that it refers to "mobile phones" and not "smartphones." The distinction matters in India, where feature phones remain common – IDC recently [6]reported 57 million of the devices shipped in India during 2022, compared to 201 million smartphones.
India’s biggest mobile carrier, Jio, offers a feature phone and a year of free calls for ₹1499 – about $18.30. That's an affordable sum for many Indians and an indicator that Jio's ₹4999 ($61) smartphone is out of reach for many.
[7]Google creates 'optimized' Android for one smartphone — that will only be sold in India
[8]Nokstalgia: HMD Global introduces yet another homage to the past – a 4G rework of the Nokia 6300
[9]Nokia 5310: Retro feature phone shamelessly panders to nostalgia, but is charming enough to be forgiven
[10]India to build contact-tracing app for feature phones that still use 2G, don't have Bluetooth and can't run apps
India's mobile data networks also don't yet cover the entire nation, making a smartphones of limited use in many locations.
Note also that the advisory mentions the possible deactivation of FM radios. While the radio chipsets used in phones can handle many frequencies, including those used by FM, many handset manufacturers may have chosen not to enable the function in the silicon they employ.
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MeitY's call for manufacturers to include FM radios in their hardware is therefore recognition that they are needed – by Indian consumers, and to assist with emergencies. And that with a little care, India's feature phones can be made more useful without imposing a formal regulatory requirement on manufacturers. ®
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[1] https://www.meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Advisory%20on%20inbuilt%20FM%20Radio%20receiver%20feature%20in%20mobile%20phones_28.04.2023.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZFy8wdIUv-bpZUPTeR@nvQAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZFy8wdIUv-bpZUPTeR@nvQAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZFy8wdIUv-bpZUPTeR@nvQAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZFy8wdIUv-bpZUPTeR@nvQAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prAP50300423#:~:text=201%20million%20mobile%20phones%20were,the%20total%20mobile%20phone%20market.
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/25/google_jiophone_next/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/13/hmd_global_introduces_yet_another/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/20/nokia_5310_review/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/30/india_to_develop_contact_tracing_for_feature_phones/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZFy8wdIUv-bpZUPTeR@nvQAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: It isn't that they don't enable the FM radio
Ah yes the old "it's not made because no-one buys it".
Is this the flip side of "we never sell those because they're always out of stock"?
Re: It isn't that they don't enable the FM radio
Unfortunately I can only upvote once...
This "we don't sell it because it doesn't sell" self-fulfilling prophecy is one of my pet peeves. It's a random, arbitrary marketing decision, unfortunately very easy to justify afterwards: "See, since we stopped selling it, we didn't sell a single unit! Ergo, we were right to stop selling it, am I not a marketing genius?"...
Re: It isn't that they don't enable the FM radio
Perfect, they'll be forced to bring back the headphone jack universally. Flawless victory.
Re: It isn't that they don't enable the FM radio
Finally had to get a new phone without a headphone jack. Yes, they still exist, but the Venn diagram of features I'd like, such as more than 6 months support and screen less than 12", has an ever-shrinking intersection, and this is one I thought I could live with the compromise. It is possibly even more annoying than I thought it would be:
1. Bluetooth. Latency issues, duolingo in particular is simply not usable because of microphone switching. Having to stop listening to things because you didn't charge the earbuds today. Most devices can't share audio to multiple devices (no simple 3.5mm splitter for train or plane use), brings us to...
2. USB audio, can't charge while using (natch), unless you get an even more unwieldy PD splitter. Patchy quality of any affordable active converter even from a good brand, crackling I just never had with an onboard jack (with the attendant bafflement that the phone has a 32bit 384kHz DAC but even the official dongle is 24bit 192kHz, okay I don't believe for one moment any dog, let alone human, could tell the difference, but just why?), incompatibility of passive converters (and no charging for you my friend unless you go active anyway). Jack-in-the-box headphone dongle sticking out of your pocket when in use.
Yes, most of these can be fixed by paying a lot of money (apart from the USB audio charging and jack in the box issues), but a decent pair of wired earbuds is £15 and will last decades. A pair of AirPods costs £180 with "up to" 6 hours charge while the batteries are good. Not having a headphone jack allows my current phone to be about 1mm thinner than my old S4mini that had one, while being 20mm taller and 10mm wider, so long as you ignore 1mm of camera lenses. I'm so glad they've been able to save that space.
Re: It isn't that they don't enable the FM radio
I don’t see any possibility of a useful FM antenna inside a smartphone, unless the broadcast signal transmitter is very close. A quarter wave to cover down to 98MHz should vary in length up to about 75cm. Those earphone cable antennae suffered badly from the wearer moving around.
Put a little popper antenna coax cable connector on the outside of the case and then we are in business.
Re: It isn't that they don't enable the FM radio
> Those earphone cable antennae suffered badly from the wearer moving around
YMMV, but back when my phones had this feature I've used it a couple times, and it always worked just fine, phone in my pocket, earphone on my ears or, phone on the table, earphones on the table too. No suffering whatsoever.
I miss this feature (and the earphone jack...), I mean I can stream radio from the Internet, but indeed, this adds several additional potential points of failure. Radio station -> my phone was much safer in case of an emergency (hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, whatever your local environment has thought up to get rid of those pesky humans).
Nice one, MeitY
Ah, feature phones
Those useful little things that could go a week without needing to recharge.
So, there's still a country in this world where the ability to phone someone is more important than the ability to tweet to nobody.
Nice to know.
haha, next it will be, must have a fax machine built in just incase.
Well..
..technically speaking, they *all* contain an FM radio. And most have more than one.
Still waiting for DAB+ in my smartphone
Not everybody wants to stream music from the internet, all of the time.
Re: Still waiting for DAB+ in my smartphone
To be fair in the UK you get better coverage on FM and far longer battery life.
Same they seem determined to shut it down, though in the last year or two I thankfully have not heard the incessant adverts about DAB on the radio.
That's actually a really wise thing to do.
It may be a market-related choice, but I would like to still have the option
Maybe I'm the odd one out there, but I still listen to FM radio stations a lot. That's why I'm still holding out on replacing my Samsung A50, as new models in the same category have lost their FM radio, even those that still have a 3,5mm jack.
On a side note, for what I can see, new Qualcomm based phones have lost their FM Radio capabilities, but most Mediatek based ones still have it (when coupled with a 3,5mm jack, natch)
It isn't that they don't enable the FM radio
They don't want to waste space for the FM antenna inside. IIRC many used the headphone wire grounded by the headphone jack as the "antenna", but since the headphone jack is rapidly disappearing it isn't so easy.
FM's frequency range means a 6x larger antenna is needed for the same gain versus the lowest cellular bands. That's a lot of internal space to waste for something most people don't want (apparently even in India, as this article seems to indicate most phones sold there don't support FM)