[cr-india] The rejection of digital radio in Sweden: implications for India?

Thu Mar 17 03:32:31 CDT 2016

Very interesting, because it assumes that the march of technology is both inevitable and opportunistic.
Phones don't just 'get' DAB radios, the hardware costs a little bit, and the interface draws energy. The radios will appear, but only when there are broadcasts. 
And the broadcasts may not appear for the 'right' reasons. The reasons it will happen are, many of them, the same reasons that make it appear the country has no space for the disempowered. I like the idea of the cornucopia of channels opening up voices for all, but the sad reality is doing anything that actually aimed at such a result would be shot down, very quickly, very quietly, and probably for reasons of national security. And business. Or both, given that the business of national security is so lucrative. 
Basically, nothing has changed in twenty years. The government still believes, largely, that it can dictate technology, cherry pick the 'right' choices. By and large, I think (not that it helps) that the cause of this may be the continuing considerable confusion of the purpose of it all. Let there be radio, but no news. No religion, but culture. And no money, naturally. And let's oversee it closely, in theory, even if it takes years to determine whether some language broadcast somewhere might have breached the rules.

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android 

  On Thu, 17 Mar, 2016 at 1:09 am, Sajan Venniyoor<venniyoor at gmail.com> wrote:   Dear Vinod,
Prof. Rahul De writes, "I think the change will come when cheap mobile phones will be able to receive [...] digital broadcasts..." By an odd coincidence, LG has just unveiled a variant of its Stylus 2 smartphone that claims to be the "world's first smartphone" featuring DAB+, a digital radio standard that seems to be popular in Europe and several countries in east Asia. 
As Ram has pointed out, All India Radio has adopted the DRM standard, but this does not necessarily mean that MoCIT or TRAI will force this standard on private radio. In fact, TRAI has on occasion said that it would prefer to be technology neutral, presumably allowing "market forces" to decide which broadcast standard will prevail. This is easier said than done, of course. For instance, for reasons best known to the boffins at MIB and MoCIT, it was decided years ago that all further expansion in radio broadcasting will take place in the FM mode. Why FM alone? Why not AM also? There are a number of circumstances in which short wave and medium wave radio make better sense than FM, especially in hilly and mountainous terrain. But the govt has decided that only FM will be used until we switch to digital radio, and that is that. 
(Since DRM works in all frequency bands -- SW, MW, and even in the FM band as DRM+ -- it would have been a good idea to allow private radio to occupy all these bands, especially the largely unregulated SW frequencies. Possession is nine points of the law).
I am not particularly enthused by the fact that Sweden -- a somewhat irrelevant little country with half the population of Delhi -- has rejected digital radio. (If you type "Sweden rejects" into Google, autocomplete suggests that Sweden has rejected migrants, socialism and low fat diets, at least two of which are problematic). I see no reason why digital and analog radio cannot co-exist peacefully and profitably in India. Both DRM and analog radio can be simulcast on frequencies already assigned to AIR, commercial and community radio, and DAB+ uses a different frequency band altogether. The number of channels available would go up dramatically, and the Telecom Ministry can stop wringing its hands over the shortage of spectrum. As Ram observes, spectrum shortage is largely a myth except in A+ cities, and no doubt many listeners in A+ cities would be able to afford digital radio if, as seems very likely, future smartphones are DAB or DRM enabled. 
I might add that the only 'Made in India' DRM receiver, the Avion DRM digital radio, costs a stupendous Rs.18,000. You could buy a 40 inch LED TV for that amount. 
This is not an either / or situation unless we are determined to make it so. Sooner or later, Moore's Law will kick in and digital radio will become as affordable as FM and -- who knows -- mobile data might become cheap enough to make internet radio almost as affordable as broadcast radio. These are possibilities that we must plan for. As we have seen in the case of satellite & cable TV, and later DTH, (not to mention the internet), technology has an unpleasant way of overtaking us, while policy has to be dragged kicking and screaming to the starting line. 
Sajan

On 8 March 2016 at 19:42, Vinod Pavarala <vpavarala at gmail.com> wrote:

Just to keep this discussion going for some time and get some more ideas into circulation...
Here is a response from Prof. Rahul De', a good friend and close observer of the CR scene in India, who is currently the Hewlett-Packard Chair Professor at IIM-Bangalore, to my post on the Swedish response to DAB:=============================================

Dear Vinod,

Read this interesting note from you. I will largely go with the Swedes, as we in India too have a massive analog infrastructure that will simply not co-exist with the digital one. Besides the digital footprint in India is very limited. I think the change will come when cheap mobile phones will be able to receive (and further relay) digital broadcasts that the governments proposition will be interesting. For many years I have been dreaming about a youtube like platform for radio that has contributory possibility, then radio becomes a truly democratic platform. 

Cheers

Rahul

Hewlett-Packard Chair Professor

Quantitative Methods & Information Systems AreaIndian Institute of Management Bangalore.https://www.edx.org/course/innovation-it-management-iimbx-is110x==============================================================================
best,Vinod
On Tue, Mar 8, 2016 at 7:17 PM, Ram Bhat <ramnathbhat.13 at gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Vinod,
Thanks for this. Although Indian digitalisation is confined to AIR (for now) it will have indirect and negative consequences for others on FM band. We should have started worrying a few years ago. I think Sub-Group of Planning Commission came out with first report on this topic as far back as 2006-07. I have written on these issues a couple of years ago but the issue hasn't had public purchase. It's perceived as a purely technical issue best left to engineers.
Spectrum scarcity is a myth in national context. There is scarcity only in A+ markets. In the rest of the country, it is the exact opposite. Even AIR's FM footprint is about 40%. Community radio will soon have good numbers but low footprint because of low power transmission. Commercial FM is structurally confined to urban or semi urban areas. 
Lobbying for digitalisation has been intensifying globally, and India as a large market is particularly attractive. People are enamoured of all the bells and whistles around digitalisation. A clear-headed look at the political economy of digitalisation is much needed. 
Examples like Sweden are extremely useful in building evidence against digitalisation. Would be great if you could invite a couple of people from Sweden to come and help us with advocacy here. 
Best,Ram

On Tue, 8 Mar 2016, 18:05 Vinod Pavarala, <vpavarala at gmail.com> wrote:

 via mail from Gunnar Bergvall, Chairman, Public Service Council, Sweden"In December 2014 a Digital Radio Coordinator assigned by the government presented a roadmap on how to digitize terrestrial radio in Sweden.  It was proposed that a transition from FM to DAB+ should be implemented in the 2016-2024 period.  In June 2015, after an extensive consultation process, the government rejected the proposal after an overall negative response by relevant authorities, academics and organizations. Adding to this, the National Audit Office presented a critical report on the proposal. The case was formally closed by an unanimous Parliament decision February 3, 2016 confirming the government assessment of the National Audit report.  The attached memorandum from the Public Service Council of Sweden gives the full story."
Some of the key points, without reproducing the technical detail, are:
1. Ten million FM receivers must be scrapped and consumers will be forced to replace those with new DAB+ compatible receivers.2. The Total Defense system and Emergency Alert system will be put at risk.3. Lack of coverage.  Digital radio may not reach the whole country.4. No consensus between the two commercial network companies how to allot broadcast permits.5. Public demand highly unclear.6. FM is still the world standard for terrestrial broadcast radio in more than 200 countries.7. There are estimated 6 billion FM receivers in the world vs. 40 million DAB receivers. There are 44,000 terrestrial radio stations; most are FM and few are DAB.8. The FM band is not ”full”. In Sweden there are approximately 200 vacant frequencies for new FM channels. Still more channels can be released by a re-‐planning procedure. 9. No significant consumer demand in any country. No comprehensive market research reports or analyzes have been published anywhere. No consumer complaints regarding FM radio performance have been recorded.10. Few countries have presented a specific plan for an eventual FM switch-‐off and Norway is so far the only country in the world with a set switch-‐off date.11. An FM switch-‐off has been strongly opposed by community and local radio associations in Norway and Sweden. The retention of FM radio for small-‐scale broadcasting has been strongly endorsed by the two European organizations for community radio; AMARC Europe and Community Media Forum Europe as well as The Association of European Radios (AER).
More details can be found in the memorandum attached.
In India, as some of you may know, the standard being preferred by the government is DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), and not DAB.  About 27 MW-AM transmitters have been installed for AIR across the country, making it, in the words of DRM India, "the world's largest digital radio deployment." Prasar Bharati says this on its website about the plan for migration to digital radio in the country as a whole: "A study group called "sub- group on going Digital"was set up by planning commission to study the digitaization of broadcast industry. The sub-group was headed by the Member Secretary, Planning Commission. The sub-group has laid down the migration path from analog transmission to digital domain. Year 2017 has been given the target for complete switch over to digital mode."
But, the all important question for us, community radio practitioners/activists/advocates in India is: what are the implications of this plan for community radio in India? Do we need to start worrying and prepare for a systematic response?
best,Vinod-- 
Prof. Vinod Pavarala
Head, Department of Communication &
UNESCO Chair on Community Media
Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication 
University of Hyderabad
Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500046
Phone: +91-40-23135501/23011553
http://www.commuoh.in/http://www.uccommedia.in/
http://www.communityradioindia.org/

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-- 
Prof. Vinod Pavarala
Head, Department of Communication &
UNESCO Chair on Community Media
Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication 
University of Hyderabad
Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500046
Phone: +91-40-23135501/23011553
http://www.commuoh.in/http://www.uccommedia.in/
http://www.communityradioindia.org/

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