Activation of new unregistered Sirius unit from USA

[ianc]

Many Sirius units are available from US sources and few yet from Canadian sources.

The question is ...

Can the US units be activated in Canada? or are they locked out.?

Is there a "unique to Canada chip" in the Canadian units?

[RiseStar]

No, US systems cannot be activated on the Cdn service and viceversa unfortunately. Its doubtful that there is a chip involved, rather its likely that the Cdn units have unique module numbers that are flagged in the activation center.

You would need to activate it via the US service for now. However I expect that they may offer a trade in offer in the near future to boost their numbers and purge some of the gray market units out there.

[bigyeti]

So, if I purchased a Canadian unit and registered it in the U.S. would I still receive canadian content?

[RiseStar]

A canadian unit would need to be registered with sirius canada or a us unit with sirius (USA)

I dont believe that sirius has announced if they plan on making the cdn channels available to their US subscribers. I suspect they would need to have it approved by the FCC first.

But at the moment, you can only get the cdn channels from a sirius canada equipment

[kaywjay]

After being told by Sirius USA that all I needed to get the US service in canada was a US mailing address (which I have) I went to Buffalo and bought a US receiver.

I got it home to pluigeed it in and guess what...all I can get is Sirius Canada.

Called Sirius US to ask them what was up and was told that it has a GPS in it that Automatically switches to the Canadian service when I get within 20 miles of the border. WTF?

does this sound possible?

[albert464]

This is the first I have heard of this, but it is possible if they have merged their system together in order to reduce the grey market systems, although it does not make a lot of sense as you would be paying one provider and getting the service from another.

However if true, at least you saved some big bux on the high cost of units here

[DaveFormula]

After being told by Sirius USA that all I needed to get the US service in canada was a US mailing address (which I have) I went to Buffalo and bought a US receiver.

I got it home to pluigeed it in and guess what...all I can get is Sirius Canada.

Called Sirius US to ask them what was up and was told that it has a GPS in it that Automatically switches to the Canadian service when I get within 20 miles of the border. WTF?

does this sound possible?

Did you register it in the US? Did it receive all channels like 100 and 101 in the US and then suddenly in Canada it doesn't receive 100 and 101 but now receives channels above 184; like 193?

[starchoice]

This is strange because I contacted Sirius (Canada) to advise that I was interested in subscribing and told them that many retailers were sold out. They replied and directed me to some US websites for purchase of equipment.

[RiseStar]

I think its good that they are not being stupid over hardware as they had earlier indicated they might be

I mean why should we have to pay $400 CAD for a portable xm player when we could get the same one for less than $275 CAD by buying it in the US (including duties, taxes and exchange)

There is indication that many Canadian retailers are getting with it, looks like there was a big cash grab there when they first came out and are now having to get competitive that people are buying us ones instead of getting bent over on Canadian retailers steep pricing.

[JohnAMac]

After being told by Sirius USA that all I needed to get the US service in canada was a US mailing address (which I have) I went to Buffalo and bought a US receiver.

I got it home to pluigeed it in and guess what...all I can get is Sirius Canada.

Called Sirius US to ask them what was up and was told that it has a GPS in it that Automatically switches to the Canadian service when I get within 20 miles of the border. WTF?

does this sound possible?

I think they are full of it. I have a friend of mine and he had Sirius before the Cdn went live. He has not told me he lost Howard.

But I will check.

[RiseStar]

Its possible that some high end models, such as the portable player may have more advanced features that the others do not have.

I would think it very annoying to be listening to a station which shuts off because you are nearing the canadian border

I think they are full of it. I have a friend of mine and he had Sirius before the Cdn went live. He has not told me he lost Howard.

But I will check.

[rpsundquist]

I have a usa sirius and it works just fine on north
vancouver island.It is registered to a usa address.
This nonsense about built in gps is goofey.

[mikeav]

Hey im in Nanaimo....Tell me how you got the US feed ...I want to get it here...thanks

[penguin44]

Just was in Buffalo last weekend and picked up a Sirius One for the car and a S50 for my GF. I called from my cell in buffalo and got "Welcome to Sirius canada." I hung up, went to a payphone, called the 1800 number. Activated both units with a us address and boom. All USA all the time. We took it up north yesterday, north meaning near Sudbury and had howard all the way. As long as you are activated on a US system in the US, you will be fine.

[Daved64]

It's very simple. You get a US radio, register online at Sirius.com. You'll need a US address to use. Fill all the info out with the US address (including the BILLING address) and a fake phone number (make sure the area code corresponds to the address), but YOUR Canadian credit card. Just got mine going yesterday. F Sirius Canada!:p