Satellite Radio TechWorld: How To Save A Billion

A Way to Save a Billion Dollars or More?
via http://satelliteradiotechworld.blogspot.com, Mar 6

We were recently asked how technically Sirius and XM might merge their services. We can only speculate. Sirius and XM indicate that each will have its own transmission for years to come. How will they achieve cost savings and continue to operate two satellite constellations? One way would be if they didn’t have to.

The Sirius satellites should operate for at least another 7 or 8 years. In a few years, they will have to think about committing to contracts to replace them. They already have a contract to build a geo-stationary satellite. If they didn’t have to replace any satellites, this could be where they could save in the order one billion dollars or more. They could likely cancel the contract for the geo-stationary satellite as soon as the merger is approved for a penalty.

However, the only way they could do this is if they could use XM’s satellite to transmit the signal for both XM and Sirius. They wouldn’t have to do this until it came time to replace Sirius’ satellites; however, there could be cost savings by doing this earlier than later. It is unlikely that Sirius’ satellites would be of any use to any other entity. They could simply decommission them.

Although we can’t provide a link at present, it was said that Parsons indicated that XM’s satellites could broadcast over the entire satellite radio band. ITU filings seem to indicate that this is true. As we understand it, it takes 4 transmitters per satellite for XM to broadcast its signal, two feeds to each of the two antennae. However, to add the Sirius signal, XM would need only two spare transmitters per satellite capable of being tuned to the Sirius frequency, one for each antenna. In addition, each satellite would also have to have sufficient power to support the additional carriers....read more: here

3/07/2007 05:35:00 AM

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1 Comments:

• As I recall it was said at the hearing that BOTH XM and Sirius satellites could transmit over the full 25 Mhz S Band. As far as reception in Canada and the mountains of America Sirius has the preferred constellation.

  By  Anonymous, at March 07, 2007 10:58 AM  

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