http://satelink.net News and information about satellite-based consumer-electronics products and services for you. Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:42:00 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The United States Department of Justice has just announced that it doesn't view the merger between XM and Sirius as anti-competitive: After a careful and thorough review of the proposed transaction, the [Department of Justice's Antitrust] Division concluded that the evidence does not demonstrate that the proposed merger of XM and ... http://satelink.net/2008/03/justice-department-says-xm-sirius-merger-is-good-to-go/ XM Radio has suspended shock jocks Opie & Anthony for 30 days for their sex-and-violence laced jokes about Elizabeth II and Condoleeza Rice a week ago, according to CBS. It is quite possible that the two jocks won't return at all. NY1 reports that CBS radio canned two other shock jocks ... http://satelink.net/2007/05/opie-anthony-suspended-by-xm-for-jokes-about-queen-elizabeth-ii-and-secretary-of-state-condoleeza-rice/ A Chinese rocket sucessfully launched Nigeria's first satellite, according to BBC News. The satellite will reach its final position in orbit later this year and remain in operation for a decade and half. http://satelink.net/2007/05/nigerian-satellite-to-provide-internet-broaadcast-and-phone-service-in-africa/ Leslie Shapiro at SciFi.com laments satellite radio's limited market penetration: Although it's clear that I love satellite radio, it's equally clear that most everybody else doesn't. I recently bought a new car, supposedly "with XM." The salesman had no clue if there was actually an XM receiver built into the car, ... http://satelink.net/2007/05/satrd-fan-sees-bleak-future-for-the-industry/ Guyana's telephone company is using satellite as backup after the Americas II cable was cut off 15 kilometers off shore. It could take as many as 21 days to fully restore the cable, but thanks to satellite service, voice and data communications will be maintained, albeit at lower capacity. http://satelink.net/2007/05/satellite-to-the-rescue-in-guyana/ Motley Fool contributor Rich Duprey thinks satellite radio will fail because of three glaring product shortcomings: 1) Repetitive playlists. The downside with channels that cater to your musical preferences is that your likely to hear the same songs over and over again. I'm not sure how to avoid this problem. I ... http://satelink.net/2007/05/merger-ot-not-fool-thinks-satellite-radio-is-doomed-to-fail/ Different forms of unwired Internet access are going head-to-head in Florida. Satellite-based Wild Blue recently launched its service in the state, with pricing ranging from $49.95 a month to $79.95 a month. Wild Blue’s service requires the installation of a small satellite dish to receive and transmit the signal. Other ... http://satelink.net/2007/04/satellite-and-wireless-internet-service-provider-battles-it-out-in-florida/ We get frequent requests for GPS pet finders specifically for cats. As far as we have been able to establish, there still aren't any such products available on the market for the reason that cats are too small to carry around the GPS device. http://satelink.net/2007/02/gps-pet-finder-for-cats-still-not-on-the-market/ Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. released its fourth-quarter report this morning and it shows some improvement. Sales more than doubled compared to the fourth quarter in 2005. Last year Sirius notched sales for $193.4 million compared to $80 the year before. Last year's fourth quarter loss was $245 million compared to ... http://satelink.net/2007/02/revenue-up-loss-down-for-sirius/ XM Satellite Radio announced its fourth-quarter erning this morning (Sirius will do the same tomorrow). For all of 2006, XM lost $732 million compared to $675 million. Q4 losses, however, were lower in 2006 than in 2005. [Update: Barron's has a blog post with more numbers, analysis, and comments from XM's ... http://satelink.net/2007/02/mid-day-breaks-are-for-satellite-radio-merger-talk/