NEW DELHI: After the “reasonably successful” preliminary trials of direct-to-mobile (D2M) technology — telecast of live TV channels on smartphones without an internet connection — Prasar Bharati has sent a detailed proposal with findings to the government to seek approval for initiating large-scale testing to check its commercial feasibility.The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting officials said the proposal is considered “seriously” and a go-ahead is expected within two months. Initial short-term technology trials have “reasonably” been successful, and now it is only a matter of time before the commercial viability is established, they added.“Short-term trials of D2M have been completed. We need to carry out large-scale trials, which will take two to three years. The project plans will have to be worked out accordingly. The detailed proposal to check commercial viability of the technology has already been sent to the government. With large-scale trials, commercial viability will be tested. That is a major step, so a policy decision is required. The proposal sent by Prasar Bharati is being seriously considered. It will take another two months to get approval,” said officials privy to the matter.After the policy decision, the tendering process for the selection of agencies to conduct trials will begin. The officials, however, said that actual field work might start in the next 8-10 months depending on decision at the government level.Initial trials were conducted in different cities, including Delhi, Noida and Bengaluru last year in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and Saankhya Labs.On the significance of second-stage ‘long-term’ trials, the officials said that during the small-scale trials, by and large, there are no difficulties as they are technology-focused trials. “Small-scale trials give you, by and large, an idea whether the technology will work or not because it has already been tested in the laboratory. In large-scale trials, you get a chance to check commercial viability. On that basis, people make investments,” said an official.
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