American broadcasters turn up the volume on misguided campaign to enable FM tuners in smartphones
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AppleInsider.com reports that millions of consumers have switched off their radios in favor of music and commentary streamed over the internet, a trend that many in the terrestrial broadcast industry allege has been bolstered by device makers and wireless carriers who have conspired to disable built-in radio receivers in a bid to sell more expensive data packages.
Most smartphones — and indeed other connected devices, like tablets — ship with one of a handful of universal wireless communications chips inside, usually made by companies like Broadcom or Murata. They combine multi-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios in a single package, reducing size and increasing efficiency.
In many cases, these chips also pack a third over-the-air option: an FM tuner.
While many low-end devices take advantage of this to tick yet another feature checkbox, flagship smartphones rarely enable it. Apple’s iPhone has never shipped with the ability to natively receive FM broadcasts despite having a built-in tuner, and Samsung largely dropped it from the Galaxy lineup after the Galaxy S3. HTC’s One M9 does come with the feature, as do some Windows Phone models.
This has led terrestrial broadcasters to band together in an attempt to convince carriers and manufacturers to enable the dormant chips.
According to Free Radio On My Phone, a group that includes NPR and the National Association of Broadcasters, “all listeners would have easy access to radio for the entertainment they love and information they need, but wireless carriers are dragging their feet and won’t activate the FM chips that are in every smartphone.”
Broadcasters argue that consumers would benefit by having the option to listen to music without using up their data allowance, or being able to receive emergency broadcasts over the air.
It’s true that some manufacturers have disabled the FM tuners only for specific carriers, though it’s unclear which side of the fence made that call. What’s not true, though, is that carriers could simply enable the feature with a simple software update.
