India semiconductor chip shines at IBC Amsterdam as 5G Broadcast chips delayed till 2028

New Delhi [India], September 15 (ANI): The ongoing IBC 2025 conference being held in Amsterdam has become a stage for Indian innovation in Broadcasting to steal a march over global majors. While India's indigenously designed semiconductor chip for Direct to Mobile, D2M, Broadcasting, demonstrated market readiness with a wide range of devices, the much-touted 5G Broadcast will have to wait for three more years as global major Qualcomm indicates availability only in 2028.
The IBC 2025 is Europe's premier conference for the Broadcasting sector that brings together the global media, entertainment, and technology community to shape the future of the broadcast media industry.
The four-day event being held in Amsterdam from 12 to the 15 September 2025 has become the focal point on the race to bring Broadcast signals to Mobile Phones and other devices.
Speaking on the indigenously developed D2M semiconductor chips from India, Adrian Murtaza a Chief Development Manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, highlighted how the Indian innovation caught the eye of global markets including Brazil.
According to Murtaza, as quoted in a press release, the healthy ecosystem of chipsets to emerge out of India for D2M broadcasting being available on a range of mobile devices makes possible to bring advanced capabilities to consumers.
With Brazil deciding to choose ATSC3 over 5G Broadcasting for its next generation television services, the availability of D2M on mobile devices is of active interest to the Brazilian market setting the stage for a new class of interactive applications in both India and Brazil, the press release noted.
In contrast to the current market readiness of Indian D2M chips, the delayed availability of Broadcast feature in 5G chips by only in 2028 was shared at a panel discussion titled "5G Broadcast: Ready for Launch" as part of the IEEE Future Media Townhall.
The panel was moderated by Thomas Stockhammer from Qualcomm featured panelists from Qualcomm, Rohde & Schwarz, 5G MAG among others.
Speaking on when chipsets for 5G Broadcast would be available to the device ecosystem, Aytac Biber of Qualcomm. according to the press release, made clear that Qualcomm would not be developing a new standalone 5G Broadcast silicon.
Biber also made it clear that Qualcomm's 5G Broadcasting capability would not be available to existing devices and that it would only be available to new release devices.
According to Biber, Qualcomm's 5G Broadcast would be focused only on mobile phones and fixed wireless access devices with the first wave of commercial devices expected only in Q1 of 2028.
He further elaborated on Qualcomm's priorities with the initial target for broadcast feature on 5G chips to be limited to premium phones while support for mid-tier and lower end phones coming only in the following years.
Qualcomm's delayed roadmap for 5G broadcast on mobile devices starting from 2028 is of immense implications to India which has already seen D2M proof of concept and field testing over the past few years based on indigenously developed chips.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Communications Technology has urged the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to expedite policy finalization on D2M in a report tabled in the Lok Sabha on July 24, 2025. According to the press release, the Ministry had earlier informed the committee that Prasar Bharati had signed an MoU with IIT Kanpur for collaborative work in emerging broadcast technologies such as D2M.
Speaking on the current market readiness of Indian D2M chips and the opportunity to boost the indigenous semiconductor ecosystem in India, Arvind Vohra, an independent expert highlighted how the more than 200 million feature phone users in India could immediately benefit.
According to Vohra, who headed Gionee and has been closely involved in developing the indigenous mobile manufacturing ecosystem in India, D2M is a low hanging fruit to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for semiconductors with both the availability of indigenous chipsets and commitments from multiple device manufacturers such as Lava, HMD Nokia and Khushtech Korea.
Vohra also underscored the significant progress already made in developing a device ecosystem for D2M by drawing attention to the fact global chip major Intel had already demonstrated integration of D2M into its AI PC laptop architecture while Khushtech Korea has recently received BIS certification for its D2M enabled feature phone.
This, according to Vohra, makes it a no brainer for India to adopt D2M without further delay as directed by the Parliamentary Committee in both public and national interest as well as to address global market needs in Brazil and the USA.
According to Vohra, 5G Broadcast is not a viable option for India on account of the three-year delay, lack of support for standalone broadcast silicon and Qualcomm's priorities to focus initially only on premium phones. In contrast Vohra pointed out how D2M was inclusive in it design with the more than 200 million feature phone users mostly from socio-economically disadvantaged segments of the society standing to benefit from it.
Indigenously developed Indian D2M chips readiness to support a diversity of different devices such as Feature phones, Smart phones, Tablets, Laptops and aftermarket accessories like the dongle (USB type-B, USB type-C, HDMI), SetTopBox and Home Gateways, will ensure the fruits of India's Semiconductor Revolution are accessible to all sections of society as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in line with the objectives of a Viksit Bharat. (ANI)