India prepares D2M rollout; phones priced at ₹2,000–2,500 to bring TV, web series without internet

The devices use direct-to-mobile (D2M) broadcasting technology powered by chipsets from Tata Group-owned Saankhya Labs.

More than 200 million feature-phone users in India could eventually access entertainment content without mobile data, according to the paper.

Who can avail the feature?

The content from public broadcaster Prasar Bharati will initially be available on D2M-enabled phones.

Consumers with existing smartphones will also be able to use a separate dongle costing ₹500–600 to access the service, while phone makers are working on integrating D2M directly into future smartphones, the report added.

“This is the very first time that India-made silicon is getting a socket in the phone ecosystem,” ET quoted Parag Naik, executive vice president at Tejas Networks and former CEO of Saankhya Labs, as saying.

The technology will allow users to stream content “without the internet and at zero access cost,” he said.

Rolling out a nationwide D2M network could require an investment of around ₹8,000 crore.

The system would use Prasar Bharati’s existing broadcast infrastructure along with mobile towers operated by telecom companies.

Telcos, however, have raised concerns that free broadcast-style delivery could eat into their data revenues and have sought market-rate spectrum pricing, ET reported.

Pilot trials of D2M technology have already been conducted in Delhi and Bengaluru, and broader commercial tests across 19 cities are expected to begin in the next 6–9 months using Prasar Bharati facilities, before a phased nationwide rollout.

Gautam Dhingra, head of product and GTM at one of the participating firms, said that feature-phone prototypes were ready and mass production could begin once the service went nationwide.

Lava executive Sanjeev Agarwal said the company expected to bring its D2M-enabled feature phone to market within six months at around ₹2,000–2,200.

A proof-of-concept study by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur in 2022 supported the technology’s viability, saying a converged D2M network could deliver unlimited video and data content at low fixed prices without relying on mobile broadband, according to ET.