XM and the 396

On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:17:16 GMT, Maule Driver
wrote:

Jonathan Goodish wrote:
In article ,
Maule Driver wrote:

I'm not sure about the "inactivity timer," but why would you want to
continue to pay if you're not using it?

So it's ready for use when you do decide to use it.


You can call XM and have it re-activated over the phone. This isn't a
$10-$12/month subscription, in many cases folks are paying $50 for the
full weather service.

The implication is that when they de-activate your account for non-use,
they stop charging you for it? A wonderful policy if that's the case
but surprising to this observer of corporate policies and practices.

I doubt it.

I suspect it's something similar to the DirecTV system. They send
down authorization packets for (youraccout/deviceid) every
(onceandawhile). The device receives the packet, updates the expire
date, is happy, and keeps working. If you don't use it in
(morethanonceandawhile) the authorization packet times out and you
have to either ask them to send a packet specifically for your device
to hear, or leave it on for (longenoughtogetanewpacket). They don't
stop charging you for the service because you decide not to use it (or
in the case of DirecTV, have the receiver unplugged) for a month.
Perhaps there is a 'seasonal suspend' feature they have available,
but I have no knowledge of that.