United States
In the United States and Canada, one holding company, Sirius XM Radio, operates the two satellite radio services, after a merger (technically the acquisition of XM by Sirius) in July 2008. A monthly fee is charged for both services. As of 2005, Sirius also offered a one-time lifetime subscription fee of nearly $500 valid for the lifetime of the equipment, and there was a $70.00 USD fee for switching receivers, which could be done only three times. However, as of 2012, Sirius customer service reports that lifetime subscriptions are no longer offered. Some XM music channels have commercials, while Sirius is commercial-free. Both services have commercial-free music stations, as well as talk and news stations, some of which include commercials. XM uses fixed-location geostationary satellites in two positions, and Sirius uses three geosynchronous satellites in highly elliptical orbits passing over North and South America, to transmit the digital streams. The net difference is that the Sirius signal comes from a higher elevation angle in the northern part of the U.S. and even more so in Canada. (This higher angle makes Sirius' signal less likely to drop out on cities, but more likely to drop out in parking garages, gas stations, tunnels, and other covered spaces.)
Both services are available mainly via portable receivers in automobiles, but both have many accessories so one can listen at home through a home stereo, with a portable boombox, or online through a personal computer. Both services now have some form of receiver that is completely portable.
Satellite radio's chief asset is the fact that it is not localized: drivers can receive the same programming anywhere in the footprint of the service. A stop at any truck stop will demonstrate the popularity of Sirius XM among long-haul drivers. In addition, both XM and Sirius carry programming that is simply not feasible on commercial radio stations. Specialty stations cover things such as family talk, radio drama, classical music, and live events.
The footprint of both Sirius and XM is only the United States, Canada, and the upper third of Mexico. Although It does not cover portions of Alaska or the state of Hawaii as satellite TV does, SiriusXM has been given the green light by the FCC to expand its services into the two states in 2011, even though the date as to when it will be available in those states has yet to be announced.
Read more about this topic: Satellite Radio
Famous quotes related to united states:
“In the United States, it is now possible for a person eighteen years of age, female as well as male, to graduate from high school, college, or university without ever having cared for, or even held, a baby; without ever having comforted or assisted another human being who really needed help. . . . No society can long sustain itself unless its members have learned the sensitivities, motivations, and skills involved in assisting and caring for other human beings.”
—Urie Bronfenbrenner (b. 1917)
“What the United States does best is to understand itself. What it does worst is understand others.”
—Carlos Fuentes (b. 1928)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“Of all the nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody’s image. It was the land of the unexpected, of unbounded hope, of ideals, of quest for an unknown perfection. It is all the more unfitting that we should offer ourselves in images. And all the more fitting that the images which we make wittingly or unwittingly to sell America to the world should come back to haunt and curse us.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
—For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)