DIRECT-TO-MOBILE (D2M) BROADCASTING
- The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and India’s public service broadcaster Prasar Bharati are exploring the feasibility of a technology that allows to broadcast video and other forms of multimedia content directly to mobile phones, without needing an active internet connection.
- The technology, called ‘direct-to-mobile’ (D2M) broadcasting, promises to improve consumption of broadband and utilisation of spectrum. The technology is based on the convergence of broadband and broadcast, using which mobile phones can receive terrestrial digital TV.
- It would be similar to how people listen to FM radio on their phones, where a receiver within the phone can tap into radio frequencies. Using D2M, multimedia content can also be beamed to phones directly.
- It can possibly be used to directly broadcast content related to citizen-centric information and can be further used to counter fake news, issue emergency alerts and offer assistance in disaster management, among other things.
- More so, the content should stream without any buffering whatsoever while not consuming any internet data.