It is doubtful if we will see MPH receivers in cell phones any time soon if ever. There may be demand for it if MPH
OTA develops a large enough following. It would be handy if you were somewhere in an emergency and the cell tower fell over but the local TV stations was still on the air. Cell companies could offer it as a locked feature, where you pay a monthly fee to have it unlocked, even though with a separate device it would be free.
The only advantage I can think of for the cell companies would be to sell new phones, hence 2 more years of contracts, saying you can get local news and weather on the new phones, but still I doubt it interests them.
But that begs another question. The must carry rules. If cell phones are becoming mini cable companies providing cable channels on cell phones, at what point will they fall under local must carry laws? Up till now they have limited bandwidth to stream video over the cell towers competing with voice and text transmissions for bandwidth. Hence they like early satellite can say, we only have so much room and can't carry locals.
But with the advent of MPH, and miniaturization it will be possible for cell phones to add an MPH receiver in compliance with possible future must carry rules. In other words the
FCC could say to the cell companies you don't have the bandwidth to stream locals over your cell channels but you could add a MPH receiver to cell phones to comply with the law.
When are the first mobile DTV phones coming out?
Linear Mode
