Mobile phone players oppose TEC proposal on direct TV broadcast on handsets

Mobile phone industry body ICEA has opposed incorporation of a new standard for providing direct television service on handsets in absence of its acceptance in global standards.

State-run Telecommunications Engineering Centre (TEC) had floated a consultation paper for television broadcasting directly on mobile handheld devices or Direct to Mobile Broadcasting technology.

In the process, TEC has sought industry views on incorporating a video standard, ATSC 3.0 in the national standard.

According to India Cellular and Electronics Association, whose members include Apple, Nokia, Lava, Foxconn, Dixon etc, India is aggressively pushing for mobile manufacturing in the country and all the major brands are producing and exporting phones from India.

"The design and manufacture of mobile phones to incorporate ATSC 3.0 will adversely impact mobile manufacturing efforts. The inclusion of any technology which is not proven and globally acceptable goes against the market forces and will derail the pace of domestic manufacturing and the most important exports for the exchequer," ICEA said in its comment to TEC.

ICEA expects that the cost of adding ATSC 3.0 chips would incrementally increase the cost per phone, which in turn would have to be passed on to the consumer.

"Moreover, ATSC 3.0 does not appear to be favoured by consumers, if there is a demand for this feature, manufacturers would have responded to that demand. To the best of our knowledge, as ATSC 3.0 is not available in commercial form anywhere in the world, no major mobile handset manufacturer has incorporated this technology across the globe," the industry body said.

ICEA expressed apprehension around the adoption of ATSC 3.0 as a National Standard as it will lead to a regulatory mandate to provide access to this technology in handsets.

"...forcing such a technology in hardware design negatively alters market forces and impedes innovation and technological growth," the industry body said.

When contacted, ICEA Chairman Pankaj Mohindroo said that the industry body always welcomes innovation and standards that provide more choices and better offerings to the Indian customer.

"We have however always taken a stand against mandates of technology adoption especially if they are immature, not proven and increase the cost of ownership of mobile devices for India. We believe any forced mandate at this stage will make the Indian mobile industry a costly experimental ground which we can ill afford," Mohindroo said.