Sirius Satellite Radio plans to start rolling out service to customers early next year.

During a conference with investors and reporters Wednesday, officials said they will roll out the service on Feb. 14 in Phoenix, Houston and Denver. Interim co-CEO and Chief Financial Officer John Scelfo said the cities were selected after analysis of commuter data, spending patterns and spending opportunities.
“All of these markets rank in the top 20 in terms of population and have many commuters on the road,” he said, noting all three cities have hundreds of thousands of commuters, spending at least an hour each day going to and from work.
Scelfo offered no indication as to the exact dates Sirius would roll out the service nationwide, saying the company would announce the exact dates in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but he did indicate the rollout would be completed sometime in the third quarter of next year.
Sirius said it will differentiate itself from XM Satellite Radio by offering 60 commercial-free music channels. $12.95 a month will get the listener these channels plus 40 news and other non-music channels. Officials stressed all of these musical channels will contain entirely original broadcast material, instead of what they called “retransmitted radio stations.” Competitor XM, which rolled out its nationwide service this week, offers 71 music channels, some with commercials, plus 29 other non-musical channels for $9.95.
Both satellite radio service providers have committed themselves to offering programming specifically for truckers. XM has already debuted its “Open Road” channel featuring trucking radio personalities the Truckin’ Bozo and Bill Mack. Sirius announced earlier this year it would feature the "Midnight Cowboy" program produced by WBAP-AM in Dallas.
At one time, Sirius planned to launch well ahead of XM, but had to reschedule due to delays in production of chips needed for their receivers, which differ from those produced for XM. Sirius also needed further testing of its system, which includes a terrestrial signal repeater network. Company officials said production of the receivers will begin shortly by Kenwood, Panasonic, Jensen and Clarion, with full production slated to being in April 2002.
Sirius officials announced at the end of October they expanded in-vehicle testing of their system to complete the evaluation of all aspects of the company's product and transmission, distribution and system capabilities, including retail sales support, installation, subscriber management and billing, customer service and communications.
"The overall results [of the testing] met or exceeded our demanding performance criteria," said Scelfo. "We were particularly pleased with the input from a consumer standpoint, because it overwhelmingly demonstrated consumers' endorsement of our 100-percent commercial-free music and strong news and entertainment line-up."
The company announced it is exploring other opportunities for use of its system in the home and portable radio market.
One of the big concerns for the two satellite radio service providers has been the issue of terrestrial signal repeaters in metropolitan markets. They are needed to help fill in areas where their satellite signals may fade due to obstruction of their satellites from buildings, bridges and overpasses blocking the view between the vehicle and the satellites. Wireless telephone companies and traditional radio broadcasters have opposed the use of such repeaters. Sirius officials say they are satisfied with the recent authority the FCC has granted to them, and they are optimistic they will get final approval of their use.