Satellite radio may help granny tune in

A few weeks ago, I gave advice to a Hunghom reader who was interested in a simple solution that would allow his grandmother to listen to the radio over the internet. Andrew Lee of New York City responds:

Rather than set up a computer for an internet-illiterate grandmother, I'd recommend that he consider satellite radio. The devices are easy to install and work just like radios. There are two major players in the North American market: Sirius and XMradio. It's simple to use, the reception is excellent and it offers a wide variety of channels to choose from. Hope that helps!

Mr Lee's suggestion is certainly interesting and worth some consideration. There are rather a lot of potential problems, however, not least of which is the fact that the two services he points to seem to be available only in the United States.

That may not exclude Canada of course, but the reception maps they show only cover Canada's large southern neighbour. That may not necessarily mean they would not work in Canada, but it would be worth checking.

Also, some of the services require ringing a toll-free '800' number in order to activate them. Although this may be possible in Canada, it does limit what satellite radio is capable of. It would be useless here in Hong Kong.

There is another satellite radio company that claims it is about to launch and it could make a difference. WorldSpace claims to be satellite radio for the whole planet and is supposed to be launching things in 'the third quarter of 2005'. This would seem to have far better coverage of radio stations outside of North America.