Direct to mobile broadcast: Direct to mobile pilot project may start soon. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting can soon start the pilot run of this project in 19 cities of India. At present, talks regarding the pilot project are in the early stage, the government has not yet fixed any time for it. For those who do not know what D2M is, let us tell them that in D2M, multimedia content is broadcast without data and you can watch live TV, movies etc. on your mobile for free. This technology works in the same way as now you can enjoy Dish TV for free.
Prasar Bharati’s network will be used
Information and Broadcasting Secretary Apoorva Chandra said that talks for a pilot D2M broadcasting project in 19 cities have begun and will be completed using Prasar Bharati’s digital terrestrial transmission network. That means the test will be done directly to mobile on Prasar Bharati’s infrastructure. Broadcasting Secretary Chandra said that there are many challenges in this project which include opposition from telecom companies, a chip for mobile phones, consumer usage patterns etc. He said that at present he is not giving any instructions to any mobile company or telecom company because right now this is a pilot project. If the project is successful, then mobile companies will have to install a chip in their smartphones through which multimedia content will be broadcast.
Why are telecom companies protesting?
A senior telecom industry consultant told Mint that due to Direct to Mobile, telecom companies will suffer losses as people will not use the subscription based services provided with the plans and this will make a difference in the revenue of the companies. Telecom companies as well as chip makers have opposed it because it is not as easy as installing a chip in a smartphone.
D2M will increase data consumption – Chandra
Information and Broadcasting Secretary Apoorva Chandra said that D2M will benefit the people of the country. He said that at present there are about 280 million homes in the country, out of which only 190 million have TV. This means that about 90 million homes still do not have television. At the same time, the number of smartphones in India is 800 million, which is expected to increase to 1 billion. Apoorva Chandra said that this is why D2M broadcasting offers tremendous opportunities and it can also lead to an increase in data consumption which could reach 43.7 exabytes per month this year. He said that about 69% of the data consumption is due to streaming of video content. It happens through. If even 25 to 30% of this can be offloaded to D2M transmission, it can go a long way in reducing the load on 5G networks and people will get better services.
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