India plans to expand its TV signal reach across major cities. Under this Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) technology in 2025, India plans to expand digital services to millions of Indians through vast availability of D2M technology. 
India smartphone users have surpassed TV users making D2M a major technology for expanding key digital services.
According to PTI and Business Standard, senior officials of the Indian government, including several secretaries and ministers, emphasized that D2M is key to expanding digital access to millions of Indians when they addressed an industry conclave on D2M.
According to the reports, India may launch pilot projects on D2M in 19 cities as early as 2025. Still, it remains to be seen whether the Indian government will mandate D2M support on handsets or implement the measure voluntarily.
PTI quoted Apurva Chandra, the Information and Broadcasting Secretary, saying that redirecting 25-30% of video traffic to D2M would alleviate congestion in 5G networks, expediting the nation’s digital progress and democratizing content delivery. Furthermore, Chandra highlighted the potential of D2M technology in reaching approximately 80-90 million households without TVs across India, as only 190 million of 280 million households possess TV sets at home.
In contrast, the number of smartphone users in India is expected to grow from about 800 million to one billion by 2026, which makes sense for India to encourage TV support on smartphones. India introduced pilot projects on D2M in Bengaluru, Kartavya Path, and Noida in 2023.
India was considering mandating D2M support on handsets, a proposal the mobile industry opposed. In November 2023, the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) sent a letter expressing their opposition to mandating D2M support requirements on handsets as the technology is immature and unproven.
Besides, handset makers believe the requirement, if implemented, will derail the pace of domestic manufacturing and increase costs by about INR2,500 (US$30) on each device. They also mentioned the difficulty of allocating extra spaces for D2M support in handsets when they are already trying to incorporate 5G and satellite communication support within the limited space in handsets.
Last month, during D2M for Bharat – the 5G Broadcast Summit chalked major plans to roll out and promote Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) broadcasting.
What is D2M Technology?
Few reports have stated that D2M architecture and functionality is quite like a FM radio. In D2M technology, a receiver within the device can tap into different radio frequencies. D2M technology is a combination of broadband and broadcast that uses mobile phones to capture territorial digital TV signals. Using D2M, multimedia content, including live TV matches, can be streamed to phones directly without using the internet.
Key Features of D2M Technology are:
- Emergency Alerts are delivered directly, reliably and without dependence on internet/cellular networks.
- Disaster Management audio content is delivered directly and authentically in a targeted manner.
- A terrestrial fallback is available for broadcast of public content of strategic or national importance in the event of catastrophic satellite failures. Valuable spectrum, land, manpower and other public resources are conserved by converging Radio services to a common shared broadcast infrastructure where both audio and video broadcasts can be received through a single interface on smartphones or smart devices.
What is D2M Broadcasting?
D2M broadcasting enables content directly over phones without any use of an antenna or dishes or not even the internet. The direct-to-mobile broadcast or D2M technology simply refers to the convergence of broadband and broadcast technologies. This means smartphones can receive terrestrial digital TV, similar to how we listen to FM radios with a tap. Mobile phones can also receive multimedia content directly using D2M. Unlike traditional broadcasting methods, D2M technology enables seamless and instant data transmission, facilitating real-time interactions and engagement.
References: https://www.wionews.com/technology/explained-what-is-direct-to-mobile-technology-heres-how-it-works-without-internet-624060 | https://www.dreamcast.in/blog/direct-to-mobile-broadcasting-technology/
