FCC's Pai wants smartphones’ hidden FM radios turned on, but won’t do anything about it

[Ry]

http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/16/14636508/ajit-pai-smartphone-fm-radio-activation

Pai has for years been advocating for smartphone manufacturers to enable these radios. In his speech this morning, he even says “you could make a case for activating chips on public safety grounds alone,” since radio could enable phones to receive emergency alerts even when wireless networks are down.

But though he now has the power to do something about it, the new FCC chairman doesn’t plan to. “As a believer in free markets and the rule of law, I cannot support a government mandate requiring activation of these chips,” Pai said. He believes the FCC doesn’t have the power to issue such a mandate and says it’s best for the market to sort things out.

 

[Matty]

I personally would love my radio to be activated. I used it on a lot of my previous phones for music. It's so nice having 'Free Data'. Maybe in the future it can be turned on

 

[belodion]

I remember a discussion about this in the LG G3 forum a couple of years ago, in which I described a user with an FM-radio-disabled-by-carrier G3 actually perishing in an imaginary forest fire because he could not get news in a no-signal area. I hope he's still okay.
But it is a serious point.

 

[LeoRex]

Yeah... it's one of those silly modifications that carriers required... the only reason I can think of is that this reduces data usage. Granted, in today's 'unlimited all the thingz' push, one would think that they'd stop the practice.

 

[Golfdriver97]

In my opinion, the argument of the carriers saying that they would get less data traffic is a weak one anyway. Sure they may see a drop off, but not a complete and total data removal. This is little different when cable companies feared the same thing when Satellite TV came about.

 

[kramer5150]

I have an FM radio transmitter/modulator plugged into the line out on my television. So I can hear sporting events all over the house without disturbing my Autistic son with loud volumes. I also sometimes plug the transmitter into the macbook and randomly broadcast my music library 24/7. I use FM radio waves all the time for this and would LOVE to have the FM radio unlocked on my LG-V10.

"... emotional feedback, on timeless wavelength, bearing a gift beyond price almost free...."

 

[Coraya]

There's no way to activate the transmitter at all? There are serious hackers or there. Folks root their phones all the time and enabling the transmitter won't work?