The National Association of Broadcasters is thrilled that Nokia is including FM radio as a feature on its new cell phone, the 7510.
The carrier for the new phone is T-Mobile. In a letter to T-Mobile President/CEO Robert Dotson, NAB President/CEO David Rehr noted that several of Nokia’s cellphones include FM radio as a feature. Rehr would like to see all cell phones include FM.
Rehr and RAB President/CEO Jeff Haley attended the recent CES show to promote placing FM chips on cellphones and other personal digital devices.
In addition to FM radio reception, the T-Mobile Nokia 7510 Supernova Quad-Band Cell Phone features a 2 megapixel camera, Micro SD memory slot and Changeable face plates.
“FM radio is a proven and effective method for providing emergency alerts to cellular subscribers, which is available now, and does not require lengthy and costly upgrades to the cellular network infrastructure,” Rehr wrote. FM can also provide incremental revenue for cellular network provides through RDS song tagging and stations can provide “significant” promotion for new handsets with FM reception capability, according to the NAB chief.
One observer who has been vocal in calling for FM chips in cell phones is Bobby Adams, president/CEO of Global Security Systems. He told Radio World: “Being in the FM alerting industry two years after 9/11 as well as the FM RBDS committee since inception, I am very pleased to see that the president of NAB recognizes the importance of saving lives utilizing FM in cell phones; but also as important is FM radio in all consumer devices for alerting via analog voice and FM RBDS text messaging.”
