What was the original Lifetime Price.

[greg_m]

That makes no sense whatsoever from a technical perspective. The XM satellites are always in equatorial orbit, so there is no north/south difference in signal between the two satellites.

It's true that as you go farther north of the equator, the signal becomes somewhat weaker, and since the look angle is lower, there can be more problems with blockage from tall obstacles. But that's equally true of both satellites. Even if only one satellite were transmitting, the north/south coverage in the continental US would be adequate.

Perhaps, since the signal (from both satellites) is more easily received closer to the equator, they wanted to let that geographic area subscribe first, to be sure there weren't any unknown problems with coverage. Coverage could especially be an issue in large northern cities, where tall buildings can create big dead zones. That problem was ultimately solved by using terrestrial repeaters, but maybe those weren't up and running as of "day one."

[Ryan]

[hallebman]

were they using sattelites to just these 2 cities? how is that possible?

[greg_m]

[Ryan]

[hallebman]

oh okay i guess that makes sense now. becuase i know its not easy to just send a signal to certain area its probably possible but not used

[greg_m]

It's certainly not possible to make a signal cut off abruptly at an arbitrary geographic boundary, like a state line or city limits, especially when it's transmitted from a satellite 22,300 miles high.

So, when you hand in your term paper, will you list xmfan.com in the footnotes?

[Ryan]

[greg_m]

This son of a b**ch just deleted my entire message while I was in the midst of typing a word, and refreshed the page. WTF, over?

[thejfinsocal]

I paid $299 for a lifetime Sirius in the early days (I think). Something like 8 1/2 years ago - what a bargain. Have yet to pay the $75 transfer fee but I have changed radios once about 5 years ago.

[greg_m]

I paid $399.99 for Sirius lifetime in Feb. 2008. My recollection is that I was in a hurry to sign up because they had announced an impending price increase, but I can't document that.

I paid the same price for XM lifetime in March 2009. That was the deadline to lock in and get free streaming as part of the package.

I'd say these were both good investments, except that the sound quality has deteriorated so much that I can't stand to listen to either one of them now. I'm praying that when the bandwidth is merged and 2.0 is fully implemented, the audio quality will improve and I'll be able to use my subscriptions again. But I won't gamble any more money on it, that's for sure.

[thndrstm]

Any suggestions on what to do with my lifetime when I eventually get a new car? Any way to swap the current radio into it? Is streaming through a phone going to an answer as currently there are interruptions in the stream?

[goreds2]

[greg_m]

[Peremensoe]