Feature phone makers can do without adding GPS

Feature phone manufacturers have been exempted from compulsory provision of Global Positioning System (GPS) for location tracking, according to a notification by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). This move, according to sectoral experts, is likely to prevent a rise in costs for these bottom of the pyramid devices that are primarily bought by price-sensitive customers.

Amending the existing rules, the latest DoT notification said: ‘With effect from the 1st January, 2018, no smart phone handset manufacturing company shall sell the new smart mobile phone handset in India without the facility of identifying the location through satellite based GPS’.

Earlier this year, the government had issued notifications for all mobile phones sold in India mandating a panic button from January 1, 2017 and GPS — to track the location — from January 1, 2018. However, as per the DoT notification dated November 23, feature phones have been exempted from having the GPS facility.

According to industry sources, compulsory provision of GPS would have particularly hurt the sub 1,000-rupee segment of feature phones, which makes up for around 40 per cent of the feature phone market due to the increase in cost on account of an additional facility.