XM Still Out? Yep.
I've been with XM since early in 2002, shortly after their nationwide debut. I've honestly got to say, I don't know what is going on at this company anymore.
After about 18 hours, many users are still complaining of an outage. This may seem acceptable, but imagine this same length of time if applied to cable or DirecTV/Dish Network.
Apparently, depending on your geographic location you may be able to receive one of the satellite signals. While XM's constellation of satellites is a bit complex, Satellite 1 (actually XM3) is showing as unavailable, as well as terrestrial repeaters depending on this satellite. Some listeners may be able to limp along if they are able to receive Satellite 2.
XM has replaced its original two satellites (XM3 and XM4 replaced XM1 and XM2 respectively, in 2005 and 2006). XM1 and XM2 remain in a gradually decaying orbit to act as a backup. XM is currently blaming a "software glitch" for the problems, however. Let's hope this is the case...
Subscribers received the following E-mail from XM:
Service Degradation AlertYou may be experiencing temporary degraded performance with your XM reception at the present time. XM is aware of the issue and working diligently to resolve it as soon as possible. We anticipate full signal strength will be restored by early Tuesday morning.
Many users reported receiving this email 15 hours into the debacle, and for those who can hear - there apparently hasn't been any over-the-air announcements made. (XM does have the ability to break in on all channels, they did so during the 2003 Northeast Blackout.)
Syndication