This is also a large transfer of wealth from the consumer to the broadcasters. Their $100M is a small amount relative to the extra costs of providing this to consumers that could care less. If this gets any traction in the government we will all need to make our voices heard.

>”And while critics claim that a radio receiver would drastically drain a cell phone’s battery; that claim is simply not accurate. A typical cell phone with an FM radio chip could provide the cell phone subscriber with 10 or more consecutive hours of radio listening on a single battery charge. Given typical radio usage and the fact that the typical cell phone subscriber charges their phone on a daily or every-other-day basis, an FM radio chip would have a negligible effect on battery life.”

Begging the question. Instead of stating how much power the FM chip consumes, he claims it can provide ten consecutive hours of radio, but even that is pure speculation. He relies on typical” conditions and avoids giving actual examples.

>”But don’t tell that to our critics: They’d rather you believe — simultaneously — that a) no one wants an FM feature and b) an FM feature would be used at such extended lengths that it would drain the device’s battery. One reporter for a respected industry trade publication may have said it best when he wrote, “If FM radio is so outdated and consumers are not interested in having it, then it won’t take away from their broadband plan usage, nor drain battery power because they won’t be listening to FM much, right? So what are they afraid of?”"

That assumes that FM tuners seamlessly integrate into all electronics. That is simply false, because an electronic component requires a particular circuit in order for it to operate. What should happen when electronics advance too quickly? FM tuners would utterly become an annoying burden in electronic design. Ergo, this ultimately restrains innovation. Consumers would then deal with having something they do not want in place of something they would rather have.

Furthermore, he suggests no way in preventing battery drain due to the FM tuner other than not using it at all, which absolutely conflicts with him asserting that all consumers should have it. It can also be said that he assumes electronics will remain the same, because there is no mentioning of the future for FM radio technology whatsoever, which also has implications in power consumption.

>”Radio capability is common on many other innovative devices. If, as our critics claim, radio capability on cell phones represents a lack of innovation, what do radio-capable MP3 players represent? The U.S. MP3 market enjoys a 70 percent penetration of radio capability. Indeed, even the iPod nano contains FM capability.”

Music players generally play music from various audio formats, including radio waves. Radio capability in this case is thus not even remotely innovative.

All that remains is his “solution” for an emergency response system, but quite frankly, it is ludicrous. Everything else seems to be advertisement for music on radio, and that is invalid reasoning for forcing FM tuners in all cell phones.

We don’t need Washington-style meddling in our phones because battery life is already short enough and we just don’t want it.

While before I had a choice, as you could pick up a couple of local station you could pick the best one.

“The head of the National Grilled Cheese Sandwiches Association says, ‘Eat more grilled cheese sandwiches!’”

Deal or no deal?