Mexico Requires Smartphone Vendors to Activate Free FM Radio Sevices Telecompaper
go to original May 8, 2017

Mexico is set to become the first country to legally require smartphone manufacturers to activate FM chips included in nearly all the devices available on the market so that consumers can listen to FM radio. The country’s communications regulator IFT last week introduced a legal provision requiring manufacturers to activate the FM radio chip in smartphone with a view to “preserving the right to access information”.

The IFT cited a report by the Mexican Chamber of Television and Radio Broadcasters indicating that only a few smartphones have the FM chip activated because operators “make significant amounts of money from the consumption of streaming data” and would “lose revenue if users had the ability to access the radio for free on their mobile devices."

The IFT’s move comes after the FCC chairman Ajit Pai earlier this year lent his support to activating FM radios on smartphones since the "vast majority" of smartphones sold in the US contain FM chips that aren’t activated. As of last autumn, only about 44 percent of the top-selling smartphones in the US had activated FM chips, according to the FCC chairman, whereas in Mexico he claimed the number is closer to 80 percent.

See the original at Telecompaper

Related: Affordability Makes Mexican Pay-TV Stand Out, Says CIU (BNamericas)

Photo: The American Genius

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