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posted by Fnord666 on Monday February 20 2017, @07:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the what's-the-catch? dept.

In a speech given to the Future of Radio and Audio Symposium (PDF), Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai encouraged smartphone makers to activate FM radio chips, but stopped short of supporting a government mandate to do so:

As you know, the vast majority of smartphones sold in the United States do, in fact, contain FM chips. The problem is that most of them aren't activated. As of last fall, only about 44% of the topselling smartphones in the United States have activated FM chips, and the percentage is lower in Canada. By comparison, in Mexico that number is about 80%. So it's not just that the United States and Canada could be doing better. We could be doing a lot better. It seems odd that every day we hear about a new smartphone app that lets you do something innovative, yet these modern-day mobile miracles don't enable a key function offered by a 1982 Sony Walkman.

You could make a case for activating chips on public safety grounds alone. The former head of our Federal Emergency Management Administration has spoken out in support of this proposal. The FCC has an expert advisory panel on public safety issues that has also advocated enabling FM radio chips on smartphones. It pointed out that, "[h]aving access to terrestrial FM radio broadcasts, as opposed to streaming audio services, may enable smartphone users to receive broadcast-based EAS alerts and other vital information in emergency situations—particularly when the wireless network is down or overloaded."

Moreover, most consumers would love to access some of their favorite content over-the-air, while using one-sixth of the battery life and less data. As more and more Americans use activated FM chips in their smartphones, consumer demand for smartphones with activated FM chips should continue to increase.

I'll keep speaking out about the benefits of activating FM chips. Having said that, as a believer in free markets and the rule of law, I cannot support a government mandate requiring activation of these chips. I don't believe the FCC has the power to issue a mandate like that, and more generally I believe it's best to sort this issue out in the marketplace. For despite the low numbers, we are seeing progress; in the last two years, the percentage of top-selling smartphones in the United States that have activated FM chips has risen from less than 25% to 44%.

Reported at Chicago Tribune and Recode.


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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday February 20 2017, @01:17PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Monday February 20 2017, @01:17PM (#469249) Journal

    Remember rabbit ears on the TV?

    Man, those sucked: just walking past the TV fecked the reception. Sometimes you couldn't sit directly in front of the tv, you had to sit off to the side, shit like that.

    If you held the ears, the reception was great: put them down and you got snow.

    Sucked.

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  • (Score: 1, TouchĂ©) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 20 2017, @03:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 20 2017, @03:47PM (#469286)

    I have those on my television but I don't get snow. I get coloured rectangles.

  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday February 20 2017, @08:51PM

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Monday February 20 2017, @08:51PM (#469432) Homepage Journal

    You either were too far from the stations or had a shitty tuner on the TV. I'm using rabbit ears on my new TV right now, because paying for cable in the digital age is stupid. There's no more snow or ghosts or static in the sound, just a 1080p picture and good sound, with three or four times as many channels as before the digital switch.

    Cable is obsolete.

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    • (Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday February 21 2017, @04:07AM

      by dry (223) on Tuesday February 21 2017, @04:07AM (#469569) Journal

      Digital uses the high frequencies that don't travel as well. Here, with a good outside antenna, went from 10 or 11 channels with 2-3 having close to perfect reception to zero when they switched over. If cable existed here, I'm sure the wife would demand it. Be handy for internet too.