If you're trying to rock out to the radio on your smartphone, you're undoubtedly using an Internet stream—something like Beats 1, instead of spinning a digital dial to your favorite frequency and pulling in that local morning show you love.
It's not your smartphone's fault. It likely comes with an FM transmitter, which would work great if your device's manufacturer enabled it. Most do not, but AT&T wants to change, on Android devices at least.
According to RadioWorld.com, AT&T is requesting that manufacturers of Android phones designed to work with the carrier's network include a working, FM transmitter on future devices. That's not a hard demand or requirement—manufacturers will be free to ignore AT&T's request if they want, but it's also unclear why they would do so given that most smartphones have an FM transmitter in them anyway.
"Today marks a new beginning in mobile technology with the agreement by a global iconic brand, AT&T, to light up the FM receiver chips in all of its future Android smartphones," reads a statement from the National Association of Broadcasters.
As for why AT&T cares, The Verge noted that AT&T possibly has some kind of deal in place with FM app NextRadio. Said app is fairly innovative—at least, compared to your car stereo—in that it gives you album covers, song names, and station details when you're listening to music. You can even call in or text your favorite radio station shows, assuming their details are on the app.
And, since NextRadio uses your phone's FM transmitter instead of your data plan, you can listen to a lot more music for a lot longer, battery-wise.
"We will be working over the next few months with their smartphone partners to begin the work of activating FM Radio and NextRadio on as many devices as possible. The activation timing is expected for all new Android smartphones releasing in 2016, with a chance of some phones being ready by year-end," NextRadio and Tagstation said in a statement provided to RadioWorld.com.
There's also the simple fact that using an FM transmitter to listen to music instead of your data plan (if you don't care about the specific songs you might get) could free up some congestion on AT&T's network—if plenty of people were to jump on board. FM transmitters also make for a useful way to receive instructions in an emergency when one's data connection might otherwise be unavailable, The Verge suggested.