XM Satellite Radio has restored service to its subscribers after a software glitch knocked out the signal from one of its four satellites, affecting an unknown number of the company"s eight million Canadian and American customers, according to Jason Mercier, a media spokesman for Canadian Satellite Radio/XM Radio Canada. The disruption caused some customers to lose service and others to experience "significantly degraded service" from about noon on Monday to 12:45 pm ET on Tuesday.
"The problem occurred during the loading of software to a critical component of the satellite broadcast system, which resulted in a temporary loss of signal from one of the company"s satellites," the company said on its website. XM apologized to consumers in a brief statement Tuesday, and advised users to wait five to ten minutes after turning on the radio to reacquire the XM signal.