I recently had an epiphany on two recent two hour road trips that made me start to rethink my assumption that Satellite radio is more reliable than 3G / 4G radio.  I drove from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara on the 101 Freeway along the coast that notoriously has poor cell reception.  I also drove from Los Angeles to Palm Springs during rush hour and a heavy usage period.

I tested both Pandora streaming on my HSPA+ G2 Android phone and Sirius Satellite radio that comes with a factory installed radio inside my Volvo XC90.  Which did you think dropped fewer signals and had the best streaming audio experience?  Your intuition would make you think the Satellite performed better but you would be wrong.  T-Mobile's 3G HSPA+ network worked excellent the entire way along the coast and on the 10 Freeway without stuttering a song once.

So, why is Sirius XM starting to lose signal in areas that you would least expect.  Sirius also loses a signal in an area you would expect under bridges and in areas blocked by buildings or a parking structure.  Its can be annoying at times when listening to Howard Stern who has funny punch line every few minutes. Is it their terrestrial repeater network that is being congested?  Do their satellites need an upgrade or is it interference?

My speculation is that Pandora does a better job of downloading more content and caching songs ahead of time.  Pandora caches songs so when you enter areas of poor cellular strength you have radio content to stream.  Sirius on the other hand only caches a few seconds of the song or show and therefor if you lose signal you are likely going to lose some of the content.

I also tried something new using my cars new Bluetooth streaming feature that sends audio from my phone into my car stereo speakers.  I used the Pandora app on my G2 T-Mobile phone and it work great.  Keep in mind I have an unlimited data plan with T-Mobile so I am not worried about going over my data plan.  Pandora streaming doesn't use as much data as you'd think so it begs the question, how much data does Pandora use on cell phone?

In conclusion, I think that 3G / 4G / LTE streaming in the car radio has a lot of promise in the future as more consumers realize its pretty easy to do.  However, carriers are going to have to be more lenient and transparent about data caps and usage for customer in order to not scare people off.  Fore those who have unlimited data plans enjoy your Sirius or Spotify mobile apps as much as you want.  The experience is going to have to be cheap for the masses to use it.  Therefore, other services will have to be embedded into the car radio like Direct TV, Navigation or OnStar emergency services in order for consumers to pay a premium.  

We have been noticing a lot more Sirius XM radio signal drops in the last few months.  I was hoping to get a clear technical explanation of why this might be happening from someone knowledgeable at the company.  However, my attempts at reaching the appropriate person at the company have been unsuccessful.  So I thought I would make a blog post about the topic and hope that someone will find us to explain.

The radio signal seems to drop in areas with a clear view of the sky and where you would least expect it.  The signal usually only drops for a few seconds but then it catches up.  I live in Los Angeles and apparently thousands of other people around the US are experiencing similar problems.  I wonder if its a factor of living on the coast of the US?  Do people living in the center of the US have better reception?   I would be curious if any truck drivers can tell us what they experience driving across the Country.

We have two Sirius receivers and one is installed as an aftermarket on the dash.  The other Sirius receiver is factory installed in Volvo XC90.  However, the older aftermarket receiver seems to work the best and the newer more expensive factory receivers seem to drop signal more.  We have conclusive evidence of this since we have leased two Volvo XC90's in the last 6 years.

It would NOT surprise me if Sirius XM management is being cheap with their satellite signal upgrades or terrestrial repeaters on the ground.  It appears Mel Karmazin is trying to screw Howard Stern out of promised money in his contract and now Howard is sewing him.  Sirius is no doubt a penny pinching company it wouldn't surprise me to see a class action law suit if the signal problem gets worse for consumers.  One satellite radio company in the market doesn't bode well for competition and the company's stock price (Nasdaq: SIRI) is not performing well and has a ton of debt.

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Lucas Oil Stadium Indianapolis

AT&T, Verizon and Sprint are getting ready for the huge influx of Patriots and Giants fans for Super Bowl weekend in Indianapolis.  The whole area will experience and huge increase in extra cell phone traffic.  Lucas Oil Stadium holds 63,000 people and it is highly likely there could be 25,000+ iPhones simultaneously trying to share pictures all at once.  The big question is can the carriers 3G and 4G LTE networks handle the capacity?  We will be at the Super Bowl in person to find out and share with you our experiences.

Last years Super Bowl in Dallas it was reported that numerous fans complained about the cell coverage inside Cowboy Stadium for the Super Bowl.  Most networks just don't have the capacity to handle the traffic all at once.  It still surprises me that stadiums have not installed their own Free WiFi networks inside the stadium for fans.  Carriers often partner with the stadium to install WiFi / DAS networks in venues like this in order to enhance wireless connectivity.  We would love to see more PR on this issue from all the sports leagues including the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB.


AT&T has made concerted efforts to enhance the network in Indianapolis.  Not only are they upgrading the network but they are actually showing customers on a pretty map they call AT&T MicroSites.

One of the other things Patriots and Giants fans will see are these "cells on wheels," which are also called COWS.  They are trucks with portable cell towers on top of them. You'll may also see devices hidden in parking garages and other places that will also boost cell power.

Months of planning have gone into the upgrades. "Over the last year, we've made more than 500 improvements in our wireless network alone here in the Indianapolis-metropolitan area," said George Fleetwood.

AT&T isn't the only wireless provider upgrading its network ahead of the big game. Verizon has spent $159 million on upgrades in 30 locations around Indy. Sprint has also beefed up its coverage with several cells on wheels along with major added capacity inside Lucas Oil Stadium.