The Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) technology is going to arrive soon in India, as pilot tests with Prasar Bharti infra are already in the plans. Being developed in collaboration between Saankhya Labs and IIT Kanpur, the technology is set to enable users to see satellite TV content directly on their smartphones. You might be wondering if you can do that already using live TV apps, well, the D2M is quite different. The live TV you see on your phone right now is IPTV (Internet Protocol TV), but with the D2M, there's no need for an internet connection. You can watch live TV content even if you don't have an internet pack or are connected to a Wi-Fi network.
Here's everything you should know about the D2M technology in simple words.
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What is D2M?
The D2M is a new content delivery method which removes the need for a data connection. The satellites can deliver the content directly to your smartphone, the way they do to your Set-Top Box (STB). There will be an assigned set of spectrum or frequencies that will be used to deliver the content to the consumers.
This would enable consumers to watch TV directly on their phone and won't even have to worry about recharging with an internet pack. Apurva Chandra, information and broadcasting secretary, said that the government will reserve the 470-582 MHz spectrum for D2M content delivery.
Think of a future, where you can watch high-quality cricket match broadcasts on your mobile screen without an internet connection. Sounds exciting right?
But what are the other use cases of the underlying technology here (which is to be able to send content directly to the consumer's phone without establishing a data connection)?
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Use Cases of D2M
Indian consumers, on average, consume a lot of content in the video format on their phones. As per the Indian government, 69% of the content that is consumed on 80 crore phones in the country is in video format. Thus, the D2M can help the government in disseminating emergency alerts or important information in the form of an engaging video.
Further, there is a notion that the D2M tech would help in decongesting the mobile networks which mostly contain video traffic and improve the overall mobile experience for consumers. But it would be a bad thing for the telcos in the long run as they would lose out on people recharging with data packs to consume more data.
