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Campaign Demands Telecoms Unlock the FM Radio Found in Many Smartphones (www.cbc.ca)
An anonymous reader cites an article on CBC: Your smartphone may include an FM radio chip but, chances are, it doesn't work. Now, an online campaign has launched in Canada, putting pressure on telecoms and manufacturers to turn on the radio hidden in many cellphones. Titled, "free radio on my phone," the campaign says that most Android smartphones have a built-in FM receiver which doesn't require data or Wi-Fi to operate. The U.S. arm of the campaign believes iPhones also have a built-in radio chip but that it can't be activated. Apple wouldn't confirm this detail. The radio chip in many Android phones also lies dormant. But the campaign says it can easily be activated -- if telecom providers ask the manufacturers to do it. In Canada, however, most of the telecoms haven't made the move to get the radio turned on. They'd prefer that you stream your audio, depleting your phone's costly data plan, claims campaign organizer, Barry Rooke.
I wonder how much of this is actual consumer demand for listening to ads and the same songs every hour to avoid data overages vs. FM radio's last desperate gasp to remain relevant now that streaming is offering an alternative?
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Your smartphone may include an FM radio chip but, chances are, it doesn't work.
This must be some Canadian specialty. I haven't seen a phone with the FM radio deactivated yet.
Ezekiel 23:20
that is one more reason you don't buy from a provider.
FM radio functionality is built right into Windows Phones. It's pretty great, so long as you use wired headphones. The phones use the headphones as antenna, so it doesn't work with Bluetooth, unfortunately.
I don't respond to AC's.
fuck the radio. and fuck network and crappy cable television.
But guess what? It's not free. The telecom providers got these devices cheaper because things like the FM receiver were disabled.
I haven't listened to FM in 15 years due to the obnoxious commercial load. If this were enabled on my phone, I would not use it and couldn't care less if it were available or not.
My ~$20 Alcatel has a built in FM tuner; it works OK.
Of course, I'm now a pay-as-I-go. After 15 years of monthly-plan/2-year-lockin-crap, I finally decided that I just needed a phone to be a phone. The FM tuner and Digicam are nice extra features, but I wouldn't miss them if they weren't included.
(Yes, I also have an iPad with Cell/GPS. I use the GPS bits.)
That would seriously hamper my ability to choose a smartphone, as i do not want to pay GIS tax. In Austria you have to pay monthly if you have a device that is capable of receiving TV or Radio over DVB.
Many fight this out of principle, because you have to pay even if you don't consume state TV and Radio. Having a capable device is enough to be extorted. Even though it would be really trivial to just encrypt the DVB stream and let people opt in.
If only Android would let you send the audio to bluetooth. My bluetooth speaker doesn't have an audio in socket and I'm not buying another one. (And yes, I know you need the headphones to act as an antenna, but that shouldn't prevent sending the audio to bluetooth. You can send the audio to the phone's speaker, but not to bluetooth).
Apart from that, I've never seen a phone with an FM chip that wasn't activated but maybe its lower end phones.
If it were the carriers, wouldn't Google's unlocked Nexus devices offer FM radio? Seems like there might be more to it than the evil carriers.
I have a Moto G, 3rd generation. Stock, it comes with an "FM Radio" app. It claims to use the headphones as an antenna.
The phone was less than $200 unlocked. It's not a budget phone, but it's far from a high-end phone. Perhaps if your phone doesn't have FM Radio available, it's time for a different vendor.
I do some safety consulting for disasters etc. This would be very helpful for disasters. You could even have an app that just tunes into the local emergency FM frequency. It's way easier to broadcast emergency instructions over FM to three million people in a metro area, than to support three million active streams over a data network, especially in an emergency.
Just because I can hook a shark from a boat, I do no offer to wrestle it in the water.
That would be awesome to have an FM radio in a cell phone.
Sure, many integrated WiFi/BT chipsets also include an FM receiver. But turning it on, in a phone that wasn't shipped with it turned on, is not just a software matter. With the LO powered up, you'll need to repeat conducted and radiated emissions tests. And if the phone wasn't intended to be shipped with the radio enabled, the necessary passives to connect it to the earphone jack as an antenna likely won't be on the PCB. And in the case of Apple, since they absolutely never intended to use the FM capability, I'd be amazed if the relevant pads from the WiFi package are even led out to traces.
Well, you certainly have covered all 1000 use cases.
because having a RADIO is not the same as MP3's on your device.
RADIO is crucial in emergencies, particularly weather-related ones. cell towers could be down, the internets could be unreachable, but the RADIO would rely on neither to provide important news and weather information. there is a reason why a RADIO is crucial component of first aid, emergency and weather kits, not a fucking smart phone.
MP3s don't have the features of FM (live announcements, local news bits, etc.) along WITH the music that you don't have to pick (how can you easily discover music if you only hear your same old MP3?)
Personally, I'm rarely outside wifi range-- but when I am, I never use data *at all*. I would much appreciate FM.
Not all phones have the FM Chips, but the campaign misleads us into thinking all phones have them, and the carriers just disabled them. I use a Nexus phone. There's no chip. My wife's LG does have a chip. According to the campaign website, Sprint already allows it, and T-Mobile has stated they will support.
If you purchase your phone and it is unlocked, the carrier is irrelevant. You can do what you want with it (provided it has the chip). If you bought a locked phone through a carrier, then you're at the whim of what they want to allow you to do with your device. Why is this news?
I may be missing something here, but I don't fully understand the emergency beacon type responses. Yes, of course I understand that the more options available for getting emergency information out the better. Of course that makes sense. But I get emergency beacons every once in a while on my phone today through either text or SMS (I've never investigated the mechanism). OK - now I've done 13 seconds of google-fu, and they apparently are not text messages and are specifically designed to not be bogged down during emergency periods with high congestion:
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/...
Are WEAs text messages?
No. Many providers have chosen to transmit WEAs using a technology that is separate and different from voice calls and SMS text messages. This technology ensures that emergency alerts will not get stuck in highly congested areas, which can happen with standard mobile voice and texting services.
So having FM radio for emergency broadcasts would be good. But we already have emergency broadcasts using our cell phones - even the ones like mine that do not have an FM chip. The argument for carriers to unlock because it's a security concern seems a bit like fearmongering. It might just work, and I would applaud if all carriers unlocked the chips so we can use them. But we did sign contracts with our carriers when we bought the phones, and they control what we can do, so I'm not sure what leg we have to stand on. Unless you paid full price and bought an unlocked phone.
To avoid using cellular data to download the aforementioned mp3. I don't think the mentioned smartphones have AM band enabled either.
It can be a decision made by the carrier.
For instance, the Galaxy S7, definitely a higher end device, has FM receiver hardware. Sprint enabled it when the S7 was shipped; T-Mobile enabled it during an S7 system update; Verizon has not enabled it as of this posting.
And of course, I enjoy FM, and my S7 came from Verizon.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
IF I was able to receive DTV broadcasts and/or digital radio and be able to record shows to my phone directly I can say I'd probably watch more shows as they would be on my phone ready to watch when on a subway, back seat of car, etc. Too bad the broadcasters can't convince the smartphone people that is worthwhile...
You should write your sig on the studio wall.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I listen to a lot of podcasts. I don't use cellular data. I usually don't even use wifi. I download them on my computer.
and if its erws, talk, or sport then you're better off with the AM band.
Unless you want more than three channels in your own language, of course.
Because I like listening to the DJ's of my local rock station, that's why. They're interesting and funny and talk about local events and stuff.
And yet of the 5 Android phones I've owned, none of them have FM chips...
Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them
I believe that all of the (not so many) cell phones I have bought since my first one, around 2003, have had FM radio capabilities. And it's always been one of the features I have most used. Except for the Nokia N95 I bought in 2008, my phones have always been at the cheap end of the category — I currently have a "Verykool" (yes, that's the brand) that costed under US$80, bought it because it's a dual-SIM, unlocked, decently-recent-Android, decent-camera phone.
Anyway, a FM chip is probably one of the cheapest functions to implement in a phone. I never doubted that every phone should carry it, as it brings value that many of us still use. One more thing to check when my phone finally gives the ghost — hopefully a couple of years from now.
While the whip antenna on a car is short, it has a substantial ground plane to work against (the body of the car.) This increases the signal level developed between ground and the antenna input. Sometimes the actual antenna is not as short as you might initially think, either; look closely, and on many car antenna systems, you'll see a fine wire that spirals up the outside of the whip; that's the AM broadcast band antenna, not the whip itself. The whip is just used as a mechanical support when receiving AM. This approach provides significantly stronger signals to the radio.
In order to obtain signals of a similar strength in a portable radio, the usual approach is to wind a lot of wire around a ferrite core and make it resonate with the appropriate matching capacitance. With proper design, this can result in a highly effective narrow-band (just a few channels), tunable, directional antenna capability.
Antennas aside, most car radios don't have very good AM sections. Just as with home stereo and theater receivers, manufacturers tend to not treat AM seriously. Historically speaking, there have been exceptions. For instance, Sansui produced an AM / FM tuner that had a pretty good AM section in it; early tube receivers also typically tried to do a good job. A good AM band receiver has control over IF bandwidth, and in a truly modern design, this is done with a software defined radio, so that the bandwidth is precisely controllable and essentially devoid of roll-off.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
FM radio was working on my Samsung Galaxy S2, Motorola G2 and now my Zenfone2 (I just realised I have something with the number 2...)
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
Or the "FM transmitter?"
How do we know a device isn't broadcasting data from its "FM receiver"?
(except for the initial device of the series, the Z10) - built in, just as someone mentioned about Windows phone. Just use a wired headset/earbuds/patch cable to whatever aux input. Works great.
And leave you trackable.
The FM radio comes with an "app" where you can "share" with people what you're listnening to. This tells me it a) wont work if the data link is down or b) is shitty quality and c) they're using "free" FM radio as just another way to monitor what you're doing.
At low frequencies, yes, it is.
It has to do with the wavelength of the signal, and the approach to the EM field. A ferrite antenna (actually a particular case of a loop antenna) couples to the magnetic field. A whip couples to the electric field. You can learn more about loop antennas and the differences from whip and dipole and other antennas via Google, if you're really interested.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Unless these chips somehow share the antenna of the Bluetooth or 3G system -- which is unlikely as the wavelength is vastly different -- you would only pick up the strongest of signals.
I agree though that having a basic analog receiver in every phone could be very handy in emergencies and in rural areas where low power FM is normal and 3G/whatever isn't.
Plus I would just like to use it for music and news.
download the .MP3s to your phone
Download? What is this, 2010?!
Summation 2
Last report was over 28,000,000 subscribers with an average of two receivers (I personally have 4). Comcast has fewer customers.
That's because the big C's (Comcast, Cox, and Charter) have chosen to divide the cable market up among themselves by city. Sirius, on the other hand, has a single nationwide market. To compare them fairly, you have to add all C's.
Radio stations let you listen to a random sampling of music you probably don't own, without a subscription fee.
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
I want this not for the awful radio stations we have left, but for use when at a drive-in that uses FM radio for the audio. We typically sit on lawn chairs and use a boom-box, but if the FM radio chip in our phones work, I could use it.
Nearly all Windows phones have the FM hardware (wired headphones required for an antenna) since Windows Phone 7 days, but the software to use it has been hidden, but still present in the base OS. You just need to load any third party FM radio app from the store, then you can save shortcuts to your stations once the radio is playing and can remove the third party software, basically the third party software just calls the underlying OS included FM radio functions. MS has said they are removing the software from their upcoming "anniversary release" of Windows 10 in July though.
Instead of campaigning for vapid, advertising filled pop music, how about a campaign for NOAA Weather Radio? This could actually be useful as during severe weather, cell service is easily knocked out. Listeners could be alerted to severe weather events in their area: tornadoes, flooding, etc.
just download the .MP3 s to your phone and listen to the selection of music that you want
Uncoil your back. Lift your head. Try to focus your eyes on something beyond your front paws, if you still can. There is a lot more going on in the world than just listening to recorded music. FYI.
AM is a no-go; antenna problems. They do news, talk and sports on FM too, just so you know.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
Just because the chip can do it, doesn't mean it's configured so. Most phones that have the combo chip do not have the necessary supporting hardware to use the FM receiver, like the coupling network to connect the antenna port to the headphone jack. No amount of software tinkering or legislative decree can change that.
Not to be pedantic, but the FM circuitry is actually built into the baseband chip. This is the chip that has 2-3 ARM cores, CDMA bit twiddling, graphics, and in fact is about 80% of the phone's capabilities. The ones I worked on had a baseband chip, a PMIC (power management IC), and a chip to handle the RF signals.
Now that I think about it, the circuitry probably has to be in both the baseband and the RF chip.
Until LTE became widespread, subscribers had to buy from a provider because two of the major U.S. carriers (Verizon and Sprint) used CDMA2000, not GSM/UMTS. CDMA2000 allows a carrier to choose to either issue removable CSIM cards or program the subscriber identity directly into the handset. The U.S. CDMA2000 carriers chose the latter and generally refused to activate any handset that they did not sell, ostensibly because no other phones supported the correct bands. Last time I checked, LTE-capable phones on Verizon and Sprint still needed a CDMA2000 subscriber identity for voice calls, text messages, and use in areas that do not yet have LTE coverage. Though LTE-capable phones have a slot for an access card, I don't know whether such phones for the North American market store the CDMA2000 part of the subscriber identity on the card or on the handset.
when walking carrying your computer, how do u handle the wired ethernet? do you have someone carry a large spool of wire? just curious
Then why are phones more expensive if you buy them from a mobile network provider?
Until about 2013, buying a phone separately and using it on VZW, AT&T, or Sprint was hundreds of dollars more expensive because there was no discount for not taking a subsidized phone. The carrier would still add $20 or so per month to your bill even after the contract ended or even if you brought your own device. T-Mobile's "Un-carrier" ad campaign in 2013, which promoted the fact that T-Mobile itemizes the service and the installment payment for the phone separately, forced the other carriers to adopt similar price cuts. (T-Mobile had already been doing this for years under the name "Even More Plus", but it wasn't well promoted.)
We don't want this, please stop trying to do it, thank you, carry on.
If you want it unlocked get a Windows Phone. They don't bother to lock it on those.
FORCE
My Samsung Galaxy something-or-other has FM radio and it works fine as long as you have headphones plugged in.
I'm in Canada, my phone is on Telus. I don't have data on it, it's too bloody expensive.
...laura
The word "radio" is not an acronym and should not be in all-caps. If you merely meant to emphasize the word, I'd like to introduce you to <b> and <i>. They can create bold or italic type for you. Don't forget to close them with the corresponding </b> or </i> tag. Use them like a highlighter, starting and ending a span of text with them.
Your main point stands, though. A radio is a good thing to have. But don't think it's infallible. It relies on a tower, just like cellular service. It just has a larger coverage area and a simpler type of interaction, requiring fewer towers and drastically reducing the chances that any given weather event could take down that tower. It also relies on a signal source, which could also be incapacitated by weather. And then there's the trasmitter site link, linking the signal source to the transmitter at the tower. That's also a radio link in most cases, and is a point of failure. It's been a long time since the broadcast booth was in a building at the base of the tower. Radio has a statistically lower chance of being knocked out by weather, but it has many more points of failure and many fewer backups than a data network, including cellular.
TL;DR: Don't get cocky. Radio has its problems.
My MotoG 3rd Gen has it enabled.
I haven't used it much, but when I have its been, average enough.
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
I would never use it, free radio is worthless to me. Radio is 70% advertisement and 30% music I don't want to hear. If I don't have my phone to stream or listen to my playlists I never turn on the radio. Radio is like having somebody else push their agenda down your throat the whole drive.
Enabling the FM receiver chip would be very useful for emergency situations, like terrorist attacks or dangerous weather. It would be most useful in the southeastern United States where there are hurricanes and tornadoes. You don't really see a lot of those in Canada, so I can only imagine that the reason for the campaign is consumer rights.
And you prove GPs point. If they had the government funding that some people think they wouldn't need to partner with HBO to fund a popular show like Sesame Street.
Same goes for CBC/BBC and Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). In fact the incumbent governments of each nation are attempting to cut funding because they don't report the government line.
I was just told about this thread - so this may be old. But, I've done a lot of research into Verizon and the Sony Z3V, which has an FM chip.
TLDR: The chip is not disabled. The OS is altered to mute FM output.
I have three Sony Z3V phones. All three have an FM chip. I can check to ensure the FM chip works by using the Sony diagnostics tool. Dial *#*#7378523#*#* and you get a diagnostics menu. Select hardware tests and test the FM chip. If it was disabled, it wouldn't work. It does work. Just type in the frequency to tune to and you get radio. The problem is that this screen will timeout. When it does, the radio goes away. Also, there's no volume adjustment. It is at max volume only.
In the original OS distribution, Verizon simply didn't include an FM app with the phone. You could download one (such as Spirit FM) and listen to the radio. With the 5.1.1 update, the radio stopped working. But, there was a catch. If you used Sony's FM app - which you have to download from a "trusted source" and install as an untrusted third party app - it still worked. You could listen to the radio. Then, there was the second update to 5.1.1. Instead of "disabling" FM, Verizon went another route. They mute the FM audio. So, you can download just about any FM app. You can run it. You can tune it in. You can see that it has a signal. You can see the over-the-air identification text, which is usually the song being played. But, there is no audio.
Now, controversy: Verizon has quoted multiple times that it would cost up to $100/phone to "enable" the FM chip in the phones. The chip is enabled. They are spending effort in muting it. Verizon has also quoted multiple times that an FM tuner interferes with normal phone operations. Before the upgrade to 5.1.1, I listened to the radio on my phone all the time and never had any trouble with any other operations. In my opinion, Verizon simply wants you to use data to listen to music. They don't want you to listen to music for free.
The previous comment is purposely vague and generalized, but all of the facts are completely true.
I still remember the fake iphone factory story, and the factory worker crying after seeing an iphone in use. I thought it was bullshit when I heard it, and it turned out it was. I haven't forgiven NPR since then. There are talk radio stations in the AM band, you can sometimes find a decent radio program.
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
Good luck with that.
Most radio sports games are broadcast on AM.
Not any more. We live in an age of HD Radio on the FM band. You can pick up all the big AM stations on the FM band and the major sports are all broadcast on big stations. Even on standard FM, the big flagship stations almost always partner with a local FM station. For example, I can hear every Yankees game on 97.9 The Fan and all Red Sox games on 96.5-2.
Back in Chicago, Bears games are on 105.9 FM and Hawks games on 88.5 (though I think WGN may have sold that FM frequency.
You've got to look around, but you can find the big local sports on FM.
You are welcome on my lawn.
You're weird. I have about 40 podcast episodes on my phone right now. I'll download more before I run out of those.
I've been annoyed by the lack of FM radio on my phone for years now. My Samsung Omnia and Motorola Droid X on Verizon had the basic FM radio (not HD), but my Samsung Note 2 and Note 4 on Verizon do not have a working FM radio. The same phone on Sprint has the radio, and they even advertise it with the NextRadio app. I've seen an HTC M8 with a working FM radio on Verizon. I could have switched to the M8, or maybe it's time to try Sprint, since I had a recent bad sales experience with Verizon.
I've asked about this in forums, and one explanation was that the carrier and manufacturer must pay licensing and spectrum testing fees to the FCC. Some carriers and some manufacturers won't pay the additional cost for the FM radio testing. Another explanation is that HTC left the hooks intact, but removed the radio app, and Samsung actually removed the hooks to the FM radio on Verizon phones, but not in Sprint phones. Maybe it was at the request of Verizon, to force users into streaming radio. Customer service doesn't seem to know anything about this, some don't even know the difference between FM radio and streaming.
I've heard that HD is proprietary and manufacturers don't want to pay licensing. It would be nice to have some kind of digital broadcast available, like they have in Norway. Plain old FM radio at least.
Another argument is that it's not worth the effort since radio listeners are declining. They could leave the FM tuner working and let the owner decide to use it or not. If you don't like it, don't listen. I listen quite a bit, by carrying around a small Insignia HD. A few years ago I won so much stuff on the radio that they sent me a W-2 form, which included $2,404 in cash prizes.
This was discussed on NPR last year:
http://www.npr.org/sections/al...
Beware of the Redittor who loans you a Sharpie.
See, the BBC has toed the party line since 4 score and 7 yonks ago now... FTFY
That wasn't an NPR story.
I hope that FM or analog radio of any kind stays active forever. I find it fun to play with the dial and/or antenna to see what I can pick up. Sometimes when the conditions are conducive to "skip", its possible to pick up a station hundreds or thousands of miles away. I work outdoors for a living and listen to radio everyday. I sometimes work in places with little or no cell reception, so without FM my phone would be useless (luckily it has a working FM chipset and uses headphones for the antenna, but can still play over phone speaker) until I get back into range for streaming. Why is there a huge debate? If its in the phones already, why not just make it useable? You don't have to use it if you don't want to. But, at least the option is there if you do.
Much like someone mentioned of Windows phones, my Z30 has it built right in, works great.
As a Canadian veteran, I support this additional freedom that only Canadians have, while America promises much and delivers little.
FM means Freedom March!
Corporations aren't people in Canada, btw.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Such as with Virgin Mobile, which is part of Sprint.
Bought one of their more expensive android phones because they listed NFC as a feature only to find that it was disabled. The phone is also has FM radio, which was also briefly listed as a feature, also disabled.
Also noticed that all their most pricey phones which are known to have NFC and FM radio, and which were described as having NFC and FM radio on their website, now frequently omit listing these features on their website and disable them on the phone.
I'd say they were acting in bad faith and committing fraud, especially if I had a copy of their web pages claiming the NFC & FM radio they chose to disable and not deliver as advertised.
I thought FM had been turned off and replaced by DAB? It has in the UK at least.
There will be no success on pressuring the carriers. They will only act under law or if it serves their own purposes. The article states that it does not.
Why not let the consumer install their own operating system so the own can decide how to utilize the product they own.
I hate the idea of having to ask permission in order to use my property the way that I want. Therefore, I hate smart phones.
India was always a Nokia bastion since around 1998 till the company's unwarranted demise(in the mobile space). Nokia launched their first phone with an FM radio around 2002 - a feature phone, mind - and since then millions of people listen to FM on their phones (and continue to do so with the latest Androids at various price points from dirt cheap to unlocked iPhone level expensive). It is asinine to have to use up data bandwidth for streaming when there's a perfectly good radio chip disabled for no reason.
"..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."