BRAND NEW DELHI: India is pressing tech giants to make smartphones compatible with its home-grown navigation system inside months, worrying the likes of Samsung, Xiaomi plus Apple who anxiety elevated costs plus disruptions as the move requires hardware changes, according to two sector sources and authorities documents seen by Reuters.
Consistent with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s drive regarding self-reliance, India has over the years expanded the use of its regional navigation satellite system known as NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation).
The Indian government wants to reduce dependence on foreign systems, such as the widely used US Global Positioning System (GPS), and says NavIC provides more accurate domestic navigation and that the use would the actual economy.
Cina, the European Union, Japan and Russia have their very own global or local navigation systems to competitor GPS. Operational since 2018, NavIC’s uptake is minimal; it is mandated in public automobile location trackers, for example.
But government and industry paperwork show Modi’s management and space authorities want to broaden its use, and have this year pushed smartphone giants to make hardware modifications to support NavIC, along with GPS, in new phones they will sell from January 2023.
In private meetings in Aug and September, representatives of Apple Incorporation, Xiaomi Corp, Samsung Electronics Co Limited and others pushed back, citing worries that will making phones NavIC-compliant would mean higher study and production costs.
The adjustments would also require more testing clearances, which with a Jan 1 deadline might disrupt businesses plus planned launches, according to two smartphone market sources and files.
Samsung dropped comment on the conferences, while Apple plus Xiaomi did not react to requests for opinion. India’s IT ministry and the space agency ISRO that are each involved in the project also did not respond.
Samsung in particular voiced concerns during a Sept 2 closed-door conference between top smart phone players and chipmakers with Indian THIS ministry and area agency officials, based on the meeting’s minutes evaluated by Reuters.
Samsung’s India executive Binu George cautioned of cost worries, telling officials that will NavIC support needs not just new smart phone chipsets but also many other components.
“This would add to cost as it requires equipment design changes and extra investments to support devices specific to India. Further, the companies have already prepared for models to be launched within 2024, ” the minutes quoted your pet as saying.
George did not react to a request for opinion.
The smart phone players have wanted time until 2025 to implement the changes, and an ultimate decision is expected within coming days, a senior government recognized said.
The minutes said the Indian space agency will provide technical support meant for implementing NavIC within new smartphones, incorporating another meeting may be called.
India vs others
India’s space agency has said systems like GPS NAVIGATION and Russia’s GLONASS are operated by their countries’ defence companies, making it possible for civilian provider to be interrupted.
NavIC, it states, is fully underneath the control of the Native indian government, which one day wants to take it global like GPS.
India would not become the first country to push smartphone manufacturers to add support for the native navigation system.
Russia has wanted to mandate addition of its own GLONASS system in mobile phones sold locally to reduce reliance on GPS NAVIGATION, which Washington may switch off for civilian subscribers as it did during military functions in Iraq.
China’s Beidou had been completed in June 2020, and, though not really mandated, the official Xinhua news agency offers reported that in 2021, 94. 5% of China-made mobile phones had Beidou assistance.
Xiaomi plus Samsung together be the reason for 38% of the smart phone market in India, the world’s 2nd biggest after Cina. Apple’s more expensive smartphones have a roughly 3% share in Indian, data from Hong Kong-based research company Counterpoint shows.
Other Chinese makes making up a further 28% of the market had been also present at the Sept. 2 meeting, government minutes display. China’s Realme, which has a 16% market share, failed to attend, and neither did smaller manufacturers.
Apple’s web site says it currently supports the five global and local navigation networks which includes GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou in current iPhones. The Indian native directive could force it to add a new one.
A vital concern for players like Samsung plus Xiaomi remains the larger cost of so-called dual band chipsets they will need to support both GPS and NavIC, as these companies are leaders in the sub-US$200 (RM920) category in India’s price-sensitive market, the smartphone industry sources said.
Chipset concern
For procuring NavIC-compliant chipsets, most smartphone makers are usually reliant on global giants such as ALL OF US chip designer Qualcomm Inc and Taiwan’s MediaTek Inc.
Voluntary use of such chipsets has been restricted in India because phone manufacturers stay hesitant to add the additional components – plus cost – necessary to make it work, said Parv Sharma, senior semiconducter analyst at Counterpoint.
India’s room agency said that by mid-2021, only about two dozen mobile handset models in Indian had NavIC capability. In total there are around 300, Counterpoint has said.
During the September 2 meeting, MediaTek said all of the carrier’s chipsets for 5G phones would support NavIC, with “some cost enhancement” and additional hardware. MediaTek additional that it expected regarding 80% of cell phones to be 5G-enabled in two years.
MediaTek declined to comment on Reuters queries. Qualcomm in a statement stated it has been working with the Indian space agency to enable NavIC on its chipsets for a long time and will continue to do so.
Another lobbying push from smartphone players is to encourage the Indian federal government to make NavIC on the so-called L1 satellite frequency that is already used by GPS NAVIGATION, and not only over the L5 frequency utilized by New Delhi.
That, executives state, will make it simpler for manufacturers in order to integrate NavIC in chipsets which mainly support the L1 band the world over, curbing separate development costs for NavIC.
Indian space company ISRO told the Sept 2 gathering that was not instantly possible, as NavIC was likely to be available on the L1 music group only by 2024-25, after more satellite television launches, the meeting’s record shows. – Reuters