New Delhi, April 29 -- When you watch a live Indian Premier League cricket match or a movie on your smartphone, the device uses mobile data or Wi-Fi to stream the content. But if everyone tries to stream the same event through the mobile internet, the network could potentially crash.

Now, what if your smartphone could stream live TV, emergency alerts or video content directly from satellites or broadcast towers - without relying on mobile data or Wi-Fi - much like how TVs pick up over-the-air signals? That is the promise of direct-to-mobile (D2M) technology, which allows phones to receive broadcast content from satellites or broadcast towers.

India is among the first countries to leverage the technology. Last January, the ministry of in...