Mexico Mandates FM Chip Activation on Smartphones James Careless - Radio World
go to original July 31, 2017

In a victory for FM radio listeners in Mexico, the country’s broadcast regulator, the Federal Telecommunications Institute, now requires smartphone manufacturers to activate their phones’ built-in FM radio reception chips.

“This makes Mexico the first country in the world to compel smartphone makers to activate their phone’s FM radios,” said Paul Brenner, president of NextRadio. The NextRadio app interfaces with the phone to allow listeners to hear FM radio broadcasts on their smartphones via traditional RF broadcasts rather than via streaming using costly data plans.

“In emergency situations, Mexicans will be able to get public safety information via FM on their phones; even if their cellular service is down,” he said.

The good news is “With Mexico in the lead, the rest of Latin America will follow,” said Brenner. “This means about 400 million subscribers will eventually be able to tune directly to FM on their smartphones, rather than having to stream audio via their service providers. It is not clear if this rule will apply to Apple phones due to their design, but it definitely applies to Androids.

”The bad news however is that the rest of the world is not likely to follow suit; at least not for the foreseeable future,” Brenner said. “This is because there are too many forces arrayed against requiring FM chip activation on smartphones — especially carriers with a vested interest in consumers paying for streaming audio rather than listening free — and too many regulators not willing to stick their necks out.”

Read the rest at Radio World

Photo: Tech Times

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!