HMD, Lava to Launch Direct-to-Mobile Phones in Partnership With Tejas Networks, FreeStream

HMD announced on Monday that it will launch Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) phones in collaboration with FreeStream Technologies and other D2M partners. The announcement was made ahead of the upcoming World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025, which will begin on May 1. Lava International, an Indian OEM, is also set to introduce D2M feature phones in the country. Some key features of the Lava handset have been teased by the company. The field trials of the D2M technology will take place in India soon.

HMD, Lava to Work With FreeStream, Sinclair, and Tejas Networks

HMD, in collaboration with FreeStream Technologies, Tejas Networks, and Sinclair, will unveil Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) phones in India during WAVES 2025, which will be held at the Jio World Centre, Mumbai, the company said in a press release on Monday. 

Lava said that its in-house R&D team and Tejas Networks have developed a feature phone that runs on the MediaTek MT6261 SoC with an integrated SL3000 chip by Saankhya. It will come with a UHF antenna for TV reception, GSM for voice calls, a 2.8-inch QVGA display and a 2,200mAh battery.

D2M is claimed to be a "next-generation broadcasting technology" which delivers OTT as well as live TV, video, audio, and text messages directly to mobile phones, without Wi-Fi or internet connectivity. The collaboration is said to support the 'Make in India' and 'Design in India' initiatives in the country. Large-scale field trials of the technology as scheduled to begin soon.

HMD also said that the upcoming devices will be low-cost feature phones, smartphones, and tablets that are powered by Tejas Networks. The technology is said to have been extensively tested in "live networks by Prasar Bharati in collaboration with IIT Kanpur and Tejas Networks."

Tejas Networks Executive Vice President Parag Naik said that the upcoming HMD D2M phones will use Saankhya Labs' SL-3000 chipset and will be equipped with a "Core Network platform for targeted ads, CDN offload, educational content, emergency alerts, and more."

Sinclair Inc., an American telecommunications firm, said that the phones will use ATSC 3.0 technology, which is touted to be the next-generation digital terrestrial television broadcast standard. The company is said to be working on "the next version, Broadcast to Everything (B2X) technology," with a focus on future 6G needs.