FM Chip

[Mark Bolton]

I would guess that this and Apple disabling the chip is related to how to mnake money from it. When thye figure out how to profit, it will be available.

Thats the general consensus for anyone promoting its activation here in the US. From what I have been told the chip being activated is mandatory in Europe however carriers here are for whatever reasons not allowing the chip to be widely activated. Im not sure if this is a carrier issue or not because it seems that most providers have at least some devices on their network that are activated but perhaps that is some hardware/software issue where these devices are cant be, or are harder to, disable.

The general notion is that carriers are fighting the activation of the chip because they want to sell data. I can surely see that especially where the wireless industry is one of the major opponents. That being said, Im not sure how many people would even take advantage of it and in very informal polls of people I run into the most common response I get is "why the heck would I want to listen to the radio on my phone"?

My feeling is the main traction for ever getting the chip activated across the board will have to be something with regards to public safety/disaster preparedness and so on.

[Bert Kemp]

My republic wireless phone has built in FM, like you said I use the earbuds for the antenna.

[Curt Harms]

FM seems pretty common on unlocked no-contract Android phones on Ebay. Here's one example

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CUBOT-P9-5-0...item4acd91550b

In the U.S. I expect the carriers are saying "We ain't gonna provide nuthin' that doesn't put $ in our pockets". From what I gather, it's more common in the rest of the world to buy your own phone and buy voice & data services separately.