India is considering a policy to mandate equipping
smartphones with hardware to receive live
TV signals without the need for cellular networks using ATSC 3.0 technology that allows precise geo-locating of TV signals and provides high picture quality.
Companies however say their existing smartphones not equipped to work with ATSC 3.0, and any efforts to add that compatibility will raise cost of each device by $30.
For India's government, the live TV broadcast features are a way to offload the congestion on telecom networks due to higher video consumption. Digital broadcast of TV channels on smartphones has seen limited adoption in countries such as South Korea and United States. It has not gained traction due to the lack of devices that support the technology, executives say.
