Bloomberg has a report today that discusses XM's "rogue" repeaters and how they are adding to the scrutiny over the Sirius-XM merger.
The article is sure to focus on the fact that at least a third of XM's 800 repeaters are in violation and these serve 42 percent of XM's network. It goes on to paint a bleak picture about the situation, even though they do allow XM spokesman Chance Patterson to state that "XM voluntarily disclosed these variances to the FCC" and has taken "unilateral action to eliminate many of them."
Regardless, it's brought the focus of U.S. Representative Edward Markey, who chairs the House Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee.
"What is the expectation it will follow through or fulfill any public interest conditions?" Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in an e-mailed statement.
And you can bet all of this comes to the glee of the NAB. They even put the article front-and-center in their daily newsletter today.
"Given their repeated lack of candor in dealing with the FCC, it is astonishing that XM and Sirius would now seek a government-sanctioned monopoly,'' said NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton, in the article.
Astonishing indeed, lest we forget all about that payola scandal.
I can't believe this hasn't been resolved. XM needs to shut these repeaters down immediately, and fix the problem. This is silly.
rjr, they can't just "shut these repeater down immediately, and fix the problem"
As they say in the article, "XM said in December filings that turning off Los Angeles repeaters would have a ``drastic and adverse impact'' on reception and a New York shutdown ``would devastate'' service. "
Anyone want to make the argument again how a geostationary constellation is superior, and how dumb Sirius was to use a moving set of birds?
Sirius shut down 11 repeaters in October and (to the best of my knowledge) none have been replaced/repaired/made-right. So, I doubt it's something that can be fixed quick.
XM has bent over backwards to get this issue resolved....this is just the spin meisters workin it. It wasn't so long ago(pre merge mania) that most folks were appalled that the powers that be were bustin XM's balls about these transmitters....lets face it the WCS has never been a friend to satellite radio.
If XM had "bent over backwards" their repeaters would have been right from the start. I am an XM subscriber so I don't want anything negative to happen here, but to cry about the adverse negative impact now? That should have been thought about before they hung illegal repeaters.
I doubt that the FCC makes them shut them all down but then again they just might. I don't think that XM deserves a pass on this just because I am a subscriber. The repeaters are illegal. Make it right.
dualsub, the WCS coalition has been been after siri/xm about their repeaters since the bandwith was set aside for satrad all those years ago.
When you say "xm should of had their repeaters done right from the start" how is this possible when you have a huge coalition with billions of dollars set against a start up technology?
From day one the WCS(and others) have thrown up road block after roadblock to this industry. When you have a huge coalition against you the kettle is never black.
The cruxt of this complaint is that the repeaters interfere with cell phone service accross the country....something that has yet to be proven (afaik)
This is how the big dogs (at&t etc) keep their strangle hold. They never compete they just work the system and use plenty of dough as a lubricant.
So rkb, let's talk about some of the examples from the article...
One of the repeaters was approved for 490 feet and installed at 900 feet...and your argument is that they "had" to because of WCS?!? A "huge coalition" made them install it over 400 feet higher than approved?
And why is a satellite radio company (one which I subscribe to) unable to supply service to NY and LA without installing illegal repeaters? Don't you think they should have solved that issue at some point? I suspect that in the early days of SDARS, when it seemed like it could be a race for subscribers, XM had a "whatever it takes" attitude. It worked for a long time as subscribers were led to believe they could put a satellite antenna on a windowsill and get strong signal. That is not WCS's fault.
I think the FCC ought to be a generous as they can be when deciding when and how to authorize terrestrial repeaters for both satcasters. But the flip-side of that is that the satcasters need to obey those rules that are in place.