Radio chips in all mobile phones - H.R. 848

Just got this update in a newsletter, thought I'd share. The part about the radio chips in all mobile phones made me think "Big Brother". A way to track people...

Today’s extraordinary meeting of the NAB Radio Board and other group executives in Washington produces this set of “proposed terms under consideration”, as a response to the pending “PRA” bill in Congress: #1, “a tiered rate of 1% or less for all net revenue (roughly $100 million for the industry) which is permanent and cannot be adjusted without changing statute or by mutual agreement.” #2, Permanent removal of Copyright Royalty Board jurisdiction over rates for both terrestrial and streaming. #3, Streaming rate reduction from current rates. #4, inclusion of radio chips – FM – in all mobile phones.

source: radio info

Thoughts on this?

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[edit on 6-8-2010 by againuntodust]

[edit on 6-8-2010 by againuntodust]

I haven't read the entire bill so forgive my ignorance.

But isn't this simply an initiative of the radio broadcast industry since now everyone is going satellite and they are running the risk of completely going under and becoming even more obsolete?

Yet another reason I am glad I do not own a cell phone. Don't get me wrong, I love new tech, but the level of "Connectivity" out there is kinda scary. You must be within reach at all times to all people. Tie that into Facebook and Twitter and you've got the death of privacy.

reply to post by lpowell0627


The radio chip in all mobile phones is scary. Here's the issue. The record companies are lobbying for broadcasting companies to pay them more money when songs are played, calling it performance royalties. The broadcasting companies are against it because it will change their business model, which is already struggling, by increasing their payout to artists. That means they will need to up the prices of their advertisements, or play less music. They instead want to, I guess you could say, "settle", for less drastic terms instead of an outright payment of royalties. One of those terms being chipped cell phones... the implications are Big Brotherish in my opinion.

if there were no chips in mobile phones i would be out of a job :-)

i make them working in a clean room Fab we have just had a $20,000,000 order and we seem to be pulling away from your normal chips to doing more complicated what we call non switch where one wafer full of chips (about the size of your normal CD costs £3000 GBP.)

[edit on 6-8-2010 by discobiskit]

Seriously? Am I the only person who considered this information common sense? Something that transmits, obviously has some sort of radio chip.

I don't know what to say about Big Brother, except, WHO CARES? Should it really effect your day to day life? Fight the system, or just continue on your way, you don;t have to worry about them or fear them. Are they really going to show up at your house? And if they happen to, then you know then what you have to do in life.

Live a righteous life and you shall not fear any evil comes your way.

actually, just the opposite.
they alredy transmit...so the addition is nefarious
they can track even when it's turned off
thus making that fact the only reason to add it

[edit on 6-8-2010 by GBP/JPY]

Unless I am reading this wrong the whole FM chip is nothing more than an FM radio receiver in the phone so that peoples new cell phones will have the ability to listen to public FM broadcast stations.
Where's the conspiracy in that? Sounds like a nice added feature to me.

All the items listed were on a "wish" list. This wish list is more about money and who shares the greed than any other nefarious conspiracy.

The FM chip allows the cellphone to receive FM stations. Nothing more.

You can already be tracked with your cellphone, there is nothing needing to be added to make this happen. A cell tower pings your phone every minute or so, so you are being tracked when you have your phone on. Now the questions arises, who would care where you are and if you are worried about this, what are you doing to raise a suspicion.

As far as the FM chip broadcasting your inner most secrets, don't worry, your cell phone already does that as it is nothing more than a radio to start with.

This is an innocuous feature that some people may use on their phone.

Originally posted by hinky
All the items listed were on a "wish" list. This wish list is more about money and who shares the greed than any other nefarious conspiracy.

The FM chip allows the cellphone to receive FM stations. Nothing more.

You can already be tracked with your cellphone, there is nothing needing to be added to make this happen. A cell tower pings your phone every minute or so, so you are being tracked when you have your phone on. Now the questions arises, who would care where you are and if you are worried about this, what are you doing to raise a suspicion.

As far as the FM chip broadcasting your inner most secrets, don't worry, your cell phone already does that as it is nothing more than a radio to start with.

This is an innocuous feature that some people may use on their phone.

Well then I guess move along, nothing to see here.

with my old blackbery, whenever it was low on power, i would get a message stating that there is not enough power to keep the radio transmitter going. it also explained to me that this transmitter is what allowed the phone to ping the cell tower. this just seems like a bit of standardization to me.

Good info! I didn't expect that one bit. H.R. 848 sounds creepy anyways!