That's what The Globe and Mail is reporting at least. The FCC included an interoperability requirement when granting the SDARS licenses to SIRIUS and XM Satellite Radio, but legally they are only required to create the design of this receiver, not actually market and sell one. In SIRIUS' recent Form 10-K filing, interoperability was brought up and SIRIUS considers the FCC requirement to be satisfied.
The U.S. Media Access Project, a group of lawyers that represent consumers at FCC hearings, however disagree.
"The idea of interoperability is to encourage competition between the pay services," Harold Feld, a SVP of the Media Access Project said. "Without it, nobody's ever going to switch, which is of course why the companies don't want to bring it to market because there's not that much in it for them."
A source close to the situation said the FCC originally didn't think the companies would react as they have. In Canada, regulators did not make dual-service receivers a requirement of the licences issued last year.
Jim Collins, spokeman for SIRIUS Satellite Radio told The Globe and Mail and the costs necessary to produce an interoperable unit would be too much for consumers to even consider it:
"We basically worked on this as a result of the FCC asking us to do so. Would it have been something to approach had the FCC not required it? Most likely not. There wouldn't have been any real impetus for it. If these things do in fact get built, there still is a question as to what the cost will be, which at this point we can't speculate. There was no timeline set [by the FCC to develop the radios] other than the fact they wanted both companies to make a concerted effort."
[The Globe and Mail]
Thanks Tim!
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