[EAS] FM Chips Useless???

[Alex Hartman]

It's partially true. Most US carriers make the ODM/OEM not connect the FM antenna section from the chip, so while the hardware might be there, there's no way to get the signal into the phone. This is not true however of "unlocked" or "international" versions of the phones. Samsung is notorious for doing this. My T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phone has the chip, but it's not connected, whereas my T-Mobile HTC Sensation *does* have the FM chip enabled and functioning. 

Carriers do this to force users to use data based services like tune-in or pandora that make them buttloads of cash. Even the iPhone has the same chip, but the FM radio was only ever enabled in one product ever.

At the core, the answer is the carriers, not the manufacturer. The MFGR is only following the bid order from the carriers. Samsung makes the same phone with different things attached. The Note 2 for instance from Sprint is the same phone internally as the Verizon one, with the exception of how the casing was made and the "additional features" such as wireless charging and FM radio.

Go figure... money is always behind it.

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Alex Hartman