While most people now listen to their music through music streaming apps like Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, etc, there is still a huge number of people out there who would like to have it the old school way, particularly if they are careful with the amount of data and battery they consume. That is why having an FM chip on smartphones is still a great idea, and now T-Mobile believes in it too and have said yes to a campaign by NextRadio to encourage carriers and OEMs to activate theirs.

International smartphones mostly have this FM chip that can allow users to listen to traditional FM stations through apps like NextRadio. However, when the smartphones are released in the US, the chips are either disabled or completely removed, probably because they think that people wouldn’t want to use them anyway. But having the option to listen to radio on your phone will actually lead you to save your data as compared to using music streaming apps. It also doesn’t consume as much batter life as when you’re using streaming.

So T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted out that they were saying yes to NextRadio’s #sayyestoFMchip campaign. Not only that, he also promised to push their OEM partners to do the same for their devices. This isn’t really surprising as Legere and his company have the reputation of going against the flow.

Still, this is a good move for the self-proclaimed “uncarrier” as people would like to have that choice to either listen to FM Radio or the more convenient streaming music apps. This would be important in situations where there is poor cellular signal but good terrestrial radio coverage, or if you just wanted to listen to actual, real radio every once in a while.

VIA: TMO News

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