India is contemplating a coverage to mandate equipping smartphones with {hardware} to obtain dwell TV indicators with out the necessity for mobile networks. It has proposed use of so-called ATSC 3.0 know-how in style in North America that enables exact geo-locating of TV indicators and offers excessive image high quality.
Firms nevertheless say their present smartphones in India are usually not outfitted to work with ATSC 3.0, and any efforts so as to add that compatibility will increase price of every gadget by $30 as extra parts have to be added. Some worry their present manufacturing plans can be damage.
In a joint letter to India’s communication ministry, Samsung, Qualcomm, and telecom gear makers Ericsson and Nokia mentioned including direct-to-mobile broadcasting also can degrade battery efficiency of gadgets and mobile reception.
“We don’t discover any benefit in progressing dialogue on the adoption of this,” mentioned the letter dated October 17 and reviewed by Reuters.
The 4 firms and India’s communication ministry didn’t reply to requests for remark. The proposal remains to be underneath deliberation and could possibly be modified, and there’s no mounted timeline for implementation, based on a supply with direct data.
Digital broadcast of TV channels on smartphones has seen restricted adoption in international locations comparable to South Korea and United States. It has not gained traction because of the lack of gadgets that assist the know-how, executives say.
The coverage pushback is the newest from corporations working in India’s smartphone sector. In current months, they pushed again on India’s transfer to make telephones appropriate with a home-grown navigation system and one other proposal to mandate safety testing for handsets.
For India’s authorities, the dwell TV broadcast options are a solution to offload the congestion on telecom networks as a result of larger video consumption.
The India Mobile and Electronics Affiliation (ICEA), a lobbying group of smartphone makers that represents Apple and Xiaomi in addition to different firms, opposed the transfer privately in a letter dated Oct 16, saying no main handset maker globally at present helps ATSC 3.0.
Samsung tops India’s smartphone market with a 17.2 p.c share, whereas Xiaomi follows with a 16.6 p.c share, based on analysis agency Counterpoint. Apple holds 6 p.c.
“The inclusion of any know-how which isn’t confirmed and globally acceptable … will derail the tempo of home manufacturing,” mentioned the ICEA letter, reviewed by Reuters.
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