In Spain we have suffered a mass blackout that has left most of the country, with the exception of the two archipelagos and the two autonomous cities, without electricity. The reasons are not yet known They have caused an energy oscillation, but it has become clear that communications are one of the main affected, unable to put the TV or use the Internet. And that’s when FM radio He has shone again.
A few years ago it was normal for mobiles, in addition to having bluetooth or wifi connectivity, they also had a processor that would allow them to connect to the radio modulated frequency bands. It was not uncommon for the vast majority of smartphones to have FM radio. It is one of those functions that many miss.
It is true that to be able to use it It needed to connect a cable headset, since it worked as a radio antennabut once placed it could be used as an audio output or use the hands free of the device. The one that the majority of current mobiles do not have radio has meant an inconveniencewith many people going to buy transistors to stores. In addition, many of the terminals no longer have a 3.5 mm port for headphones.
The advantage of this type of communication is that it is more reliable than the cable networks that Internet gives us, And that can be used with devices that do not need light, either because they use batteries, such as transistors of a lifetime, or because they use batteries, such as current mobiles. The communication problem has not been so much because mobile phones have run out of battery as if the telephone antennas and fiber optic networks had run out of electricity.
It is true that to transmit on radio, light is also needed, but the reach of this form of communication is greater and uses a lower amount of energy, which is why there were more people informing themselves on the radio than by TV or by other means. The situation was the same throughout the Iberian Peninsulasince this has also affected Portugal and southern France.
Hopefully, after this incident, manufacturers argue that perhaps It is a good idea to maintain the inclusion of FM radio in its mobilesespecially because it is not something expensive, but an element that is used rather little but that can be critical in emergency situations. And it would not be the first time that they implement something like that, as Apple has demonstrated with the satellite connectivity of its mobiles only for critical situations and that Android has copied.
