Low power FM transmitters proposed to be legalised

2nd August 2006

Ofcom has proposed to legalise low power FM transmitters, such as the iTrip FM transmitter for iPods, which are popular abroad and widely available on the Internet.

The proposed change to the law is meant to allow people to use such low power FM transmitters to transmit audio from devices like MP3 players or computers so that the audio can be received and played back on standard FM receivers, such as car stereos, portable radios and hi-fi systems.

In Ofcom's FAQ about such devices, the transmission power to be legalised is only 50 nW (nanowatts -- 10^-9 W), but Ofcom claims that the range is about 8 metres.