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Receivers made in India too

Could you add on the page that receivers are made by BPL in India too? I'm listening to one just at this moment! --fredericknoronha 18:15, 3 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Some background on WorldSpace

I've been following WorldSpace for some time now, and here's a list of articles circulated via me (including those written by others). Feel free to use this as a reference, specially for WorldSpace's involvement in India.

http://www.google.co.in/search?q=worldspace+noronha&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial

--fredericknoronha 18:20, 3 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

An article I wrote

Feel free to use any content from here, if suitable:

JOTTINGS: My (second) love affair with WorldSpace * FN in Goa

Having grown up with radio as company has its own implications. In the 'seventies, we in India thought the radio to be a great tool -- one of the few options available in a largely-closed, un-globalised, non-affluent economy.

Jetking had their tiny sets costing about Rs 130, which could barely struggle to get you the SLBC (Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, who doesn't know that?) Mr Dalal in Mapusa had just put together a Tricity Chetana, three-in-one. We were thrilled that it could actually play 33-1/3 and 45 rpm records

and* also get you some faint stations after fidgeting with

the built-in valves after they heated up sufficiently and glowed red.

    A bias against television -- the idiot box, trivial
    news-bytes, so superficial in its coverage, so
    hogging of one's attention, etc -- means that radio
    is still an option. I recall visiting a priest in
    (emigration oriented) Sirlim in Salcete as a schoolboy,
    and wondering how the they managed to get BBC reception
    almost as if it was next-door All India Radio's,
    the monopoly of the airwaves for long as far as most
    of us in South Asia go. So, the other day, I walked
    into an electronic shop at Mapusa, thinking that I
    was going in to buy a battery-eliminator. Well, I
    ended up buying a (actually, my second) WorldSpace receiver.

What's WorldSpace?

You'll find small ads talking about it, as say on today's (July 6) frontpage of the Herald. (There were times when WorldSpace advertised hugely, including on billboards along the approach to Panjim.) 38 channels for 24 hours in five models? What does that all mean?

It's a satellite radio. Just as you receive TV via satellite, this same technology is now being used to broadcast (is that the right word?) radio. The story is fascinating; the son of an Ethiopian ambassador believes that the 2/3rds world is poor, in significant part, because they're information-poor. So, he goes about and starts this network, that is focussed largely on Africa, Asia, and the Middle-East. See http://www.worldspace.com

What's it like?

When I went into the electronics shop, the first thing that happens is that I run into this oddly-shaped, large fish-like radio set. The first thing, is that reception is crystal clear. "Near CD-quality," as they describe it. I'm already getting bowled over....

The second thing that had me fall head-over-heels over the set was the growing number of talk-channels they had -- NPR Worldwide, BBC Asia, CNN-I, even NDTV 24x7 in its audio format (minus the distracting pictures). For a news-junkie (though not necessarily a *political* news junkie) what could be more interesting?

Next thing one realised was that Kenya-born Adrian (Fernandes, of course, as his tone said it) was over at home. This young instructor at the German-run tech school at Siolim was very comfortable in setting up the WorldSpace receiver. Adrian was over to set up the external antenna. (Made by Kavveri Telecom Products in the tech-confident Bangalore, it requires you to mount the Azimuth/elevation adjustment plate, with a clamp and then adjust gently with their respective plates It and clamps... don't ask what all this mumbo jumbo means.) This time round, I made it a point to go in for the extra Rs 1200 external antenna. So the signal hardly fades in-and-out, as my first time listening experience was plagued by.

    Adrian is from Camurlim ("a village between Mapusa
    and Siolim, hardly anyone knew it once", as he
    told me). We quickly exchanged links and drew
    connections. He studied in SFX Siolim and cartoonist
    Alexyz's wife Tecla was his teacher. He's passionate
    about electronics, and we spoke about radios and
    what not. Who says Goa lacks the talent and
    interest? I say, it just isn't tapped! Listening
    to WorldSpace has been a real pleasure. So far.
    Earlier, they offered a handful of channels free
    of cost. But there was only a limited choice. Now,
    they've gone ahead and made the service almost
    wholly 'pay'. That's not entirely a bad thing. It
    costs you Rs 1200 per year for the silver service
    (which brings all the channels, who wants an
    additional BBC World and Bloomberg at $9 per month?)

The choice is good. On WRN, the World Radio Network, one can hear half-hour broadcasts in English from South Korea, the Vatican, China, Hungary, Romania, Canada, Sweden and elsewhere. A nice perspective to the world in our English, UK/US dominated worldviews.

Asia Development network, run by the Equal Access NGO from the US with whom one had contact in another context, has a lot of regional language programmes (Nepali, Afghani or Dari, etc). One thought they spent a lot (too much) of time on music; but an early morning session today changed that impression somewhat. The Nepali broadcast was indeed nice and foot-tapping! There's a much wider scope to discuss development oriented issues in South Asia, though.

WorldSpace has channels aimed at different age-groups. The Hop covers the fifties, the sixties and the early seventies. There are channels like Ritmo, Up Country, Maestro (classical), etc. Radio Amore plays some good, old-fashioned slow music; wonder why so much of musical energies have been invested in just emotion the human race knows -- love.

Each of the 'stations' is treated as a 'channel' (much like TV). First, you make your set 'learn' what channels are available via both the satellites covering Goa (and also Africa, the Middle East, parts of Europe ... there was talk of WorldSpace covering Latin America too, but this doesn't seem to have happened yet). Then, on this set, you can 'feed in' ten channels into the memory.

Somehow, the channel for children's stories seems to have vanished from the set; and that's a pity. What with kids around, and a desire to keep off the excessive and easy-to-lapse-into influence of TV. This channe for children's stories was around the last time one heard the set....

Which brings me to my first, futile romance with WorldSpace.

It must have been 4-5 years ago. With some money to spare, and wanting to give myself a birthday present, one went in for the (then) only available Japanese model from CMM at Panjim. It cost Rs 12,000! Within a year's time, the set got ruined -- possibly a victim to Goan humidity. After all, these are sensitive electronic sets.

    Fortunately, the dealers replaced my set. Free.
    Setting up the (mobile) antenna was a hassle, and
    often one would not get any reception at all. Some
    years later, some of the glitches have been sorted
    out, and one has to appreciate WorldSpace's
    doggedness. (Of course, I was was shaken enough to
    hand over the friend to someone who could be more
    careful than me; fortunately they're still using it.)

Today, the sets are made in India, by BPL. My Celeste Vibe model costs just under Rs 4000. Add to that a Rs 1200 subscription for a year's service, and almost a similar amount if you want the fixed antenna (worth it, in my view). This set has mono speakers, but a stereo output, meaning it can be piped through a stereo for better listening.

Maybe the jury is still out; maybe I should be waiting a few months before giving a recommendation. But, at this point of time, I'm hugely enthusiastic and head-over-heels about WorldSpace. One issue remains pending though: can Goa convince WorldSpace to have a channel in Konkani, considering the wealth of music we have in that realm? --Frederick Noronha, Goa. July 6, 2005.

--fredericknoronha 19:45, 3 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Neutrality?

What's the neutrality dispute? There's supposed to be a REASON for tagging something as POV, you can't just tag it and not say anything. Ryan Salisbury 19:59, 14 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Removed. per [1] the addition of the tags needs to be discussed here. They weren't. Kythri 19:59, 3 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Removed? I can't see that edit. Appears to have been tagged since March 2007 without discussion. I've asked the editor to provide some supporting statements. If none are forthcoming, you can remove it again. I've also updated the tag. Your friendly drive-by editor, David Spalding (☎ ✉ ✍) 18:23, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The section under "Finance" that describes the personal aspects of Noah Samara are non-POV. If he is "Renowned as a man of profound conviction and humility" it needs to be cited. The language used for such descriptions is also not encyclopeadic.--KJRehberg 22:02, 29 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Washington DC metro area advertisements

I, for one, am puzzled by the radio advertisements for Worldspace here in the Washington DC metro area. They highlight the disaster relief aspect, whatever it might be, and plug the worldspace.com web site. Thanks for putting the blurb about NGOs and diplomats possibly interested in using Worldspace in their regions because the service is wholly unavailable anywhere near here. There's no news on when Ameristar will ever launch, and that beam will only be availabble for South and Latin America

Interestingly there was supposedly a dispute or conflict with portions of the L-band that are used by elements of the US Military in the regions Ameristar intends to operate--could this be the source of these advertisements? --KJRehberg 22:06, 9 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Turns out the advertisements were apparently lobbying tactics to help get the launch of AfriStar 2 approved for co-location at 21.0 east longitude. I added AfriStar 2 information to the article. --KJRehberg 19:42, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sectionalized

I sectionalized the article to make it more readable and easier to edit. --KJRehberg 21:02, 2 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

weak signal

i have a receiver and when i tried to tune it said there was a weak signal.how do you go about solving this problem. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 195.202.66.170 (talk) 08:55, 12 April 2007 (UTC).[reply]

This is not a forum for customer service issues. Contact WorldSpace directly. --KJRehberg 22:07, 29 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Article moved to 1worldspace

Article moved to 1worldspace due to company's new name. --KJRehberg (talk) 14:48, 23 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Any info on the namechange? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Briantw (talk • contribs) 14:12, 1 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

user 1worldspace seems to be writing press releases.

the revisions of user 1worldspace read like a press release from the company. It's interesting that the user has so far only edited the 1worldspace page.

Questions about neutrality

I do not know who to address in reference to the violations of neutrality. There are many negative sections in this article, and some which are blatantly incorrect. The discussion about the stock price of 1worldspace is true, but how many companies include this information on their wikipedia page? The information about receivers are also incorrect, as well as "Worldstar" which is not a satellite name at all. In addition to these findings, the entire first paragraph of the "Philanthropy" section incorrect. The portion I find most troubling is the part of the section, which mentions "low-cost satellite radio services to rural Africa has failed, due to the cost of receivers and batteries, which led to the service being accessible only to expatriates and to the wealthier members of urban African society." The greatest reason for this 'failure' is the switch from a free-to-air (ad based) model to a subscription based model, and despite efforts to remove this defamatory portion, someone has put it back up.

Allow me to say that any information that I add to this page can be found on the company's website or on a reliable news source (i.e. Forbes/ Washington Post). I would like to ask the individual who tagged the article to please remove the violation, or at least explain why. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thetruthtruth (talk • contribs) 20:25, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Rewrite

The article had problems left and right so I went through and straightened it up. I tried to find a common ground between the article as it was and this edit made right before what appears to be an influx of POV pushers. The article as I found it was filled to the brim with unsourced statements, biased wording, and way too many statements that were just not true! I added some factual information where I deemed it appropriate, especially in regards to the financial crisis, which has been getting a lot of media attention lately and took the scizzors to the irreparable problems. I did my best to cite all of the major statements/claims.

Feel free to touch up the revisions and check for NPOV but please don't revert the edit to the mess of an article we had before. Themfromspace (talk) 06:14, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Response to Recent Changes

I am quite shocked to see the adjustments that have been made to this page yesterday. Since, the last time I contributed, I have seen a great deal of negative comments come to the page. Two quotes in particular comes to my attention. "one of the most rancid stocks I've ever seen." With all due respect, does the opinion of a controversy-seeking journalist take priority over a neutral stance? Last I checked, worldspace stock was doing better than Sirius XM, yet I don't find comments like that on XM or Sirius' page. The second comment states, "critical of worldspace's corporate practices and out-of-this-world claims." I am going to delete all 'opinions' like this. In addition, I would ask the authorities and reviewers of wikipedia to strongly consider banning the person who posted these changes; they do not educate or inform, they are simply malicious. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thetruthtruth (talk • contribs) 16:54, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I assume you are referring to my edit? All of my additions were taken from publications from 1worldspace and highly respected third-party sources. I added the negative quotes to give an idea of the notability of 1worldspace's financial situation. Little to no third party coverage of the corporation leaves out mention of their debt. Do a search on google news for worldspace and 1worldspace and see what I mean. Any honest encyclopedia would report this and I felt the quotes were relevant and did a good job at explaining investors' anxiety over the company. You may wish to consult WP:NPOV if you don't understand the need for fair criticism. Also please see WP:COI if you have any relationship to the corporation. Feel free to edit the article, just make sure its NPOV. Thanks. Themfromspace (talk) 17:27, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I am inclined to agree with Thetruthtruth. There is no reason that the finance section should be present. Also, the adjustments that were made to the summary of the company are a bit too brief. I am adding information to the summary, receiver and satellite section, I am going to change the format a bit. All information is brought from the company's website, and public SEC documents. If you have any questions, please mention any adjustments on the talk page first. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Briskfix (talk • contribs) 22:05, 22 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have to agree with Themfromspace that there were some ridiculously biased things in the article. As far as the channels, I decided to add them back because Sirius' page also has a channel description, or at least an overview of many of the channels they offer.

I added a lot of the details about the worldspace system, I feel that some of the more technical information might be good to some of the people who have an interest in how it works. I also had to change the 'ground segment' of the company because it is the most difficult part of the system. I took all of the info straight from their 10-K, and I swear I am not trying to trash the company, that is exactly how it is all defined. If it is difficult to understand, then I'm sorry, but that's exactly how it works.

I moved the controversy section a bit lower, using XM and Sirius' page as an example, the more negative sections are normally lower in the article.

I also ran around the article and tried to find some citations to the un-stated articles, unfortunately the person who had added these things to the article should have just taken the time to cite each paragraph, I found all information from the 10-K and the company's website. I hope that this helps. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Enlitened one (talk • contribs) 19:31, 24 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

New changes

There were some nice changes made to the page, it looks a bit more professional. I saw some things that I felt needed to be edited, most notably...you needed to add the citations for all that information about the channels. I also changed the philanthropy section, and pulled the information off the First Voice website. I also added a section about controversies, so any disgruntled journalists or stockholders can vent it out there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thetruthtruth (talk • contribs) 23:02, 22 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The edits are still very biased in favor of the company and I am inclined to think that all the recent additions have been made with conflicts of interest in order to turn an encyclopedia article into a piece of promotional work. Spewing out promotional statistics is not professional at all. I revised a bit of the article and it looks much better now while incorporating the recent additions. A summary of my revisions with explanations follows:

The summary was just long enough before the revision, it shouldn't be an essay in itself but an introduction to the article that follows; see WP:LEAD. I quote from the following: "(the lead) should establish context, explain why the subject is interesting or notable, and summarize the most important points—including any notable controversies that may exist. The emphasis given to material in the lead should roughly reflect its importance to the topic according to reliable, published sources." The introductory statement that "satellite radio service with a footprint that covers over 130 countries including India and China, all of Africa and the Middle East and most of Western Europe - an area that includes five billion people and more than 300 million automobiles." is pure promotional propaganda: per my revised edit it is clear that 1worldspace actually doesn't offer its services within much of its claimed "footprint" and since they aren't allowed to market in China, the statistics about the number of automobiles and people within the footprint are deceptive as to the actual market that 1worldspace operates in. My revisions give the reader a much clearer picture of the company's market as in reality they do not have a monopoly on the eastern hemisphere, which the other edit implied.

Some information regarding the channel content is ok but we must be careful not to make it seem promotional, the article links to their commercial website which lists the content. This is an article about the company itself so we should keep the discussion of content to a minimum and include only what is notable. I kept the basic statistics about the programming and deleted the detailed run-through of the channels themselves.

Regarding the new additions about the system: I cleaned them up to make them less wordy and technical so it is easier to read and comprehend. Keep in mind the article is about this company's system; it is not an article about satellite systems in general, so I removed some non-vital technical aspects that apply to satellite radio companies in general. The lead paragraph was too long and much of the information was covered elsewhere. I readded the deleted information about the plans to add the satellite in the western hemisphere since it caused a minor brouhaha with the U.S. government. Much of the information about the ground sector was overly-detailed and not important to the company itself so I deleted the details while keeping the big picture. I deleted most of the information about the terrestrial repeater network and moved what was relevant to the future plans section, which is a more appropriate place to put speculation.

Throughout the article I cleaned up biased wording and POV statements. I also rearranged the sections of the article. by moving the financial section above promotional information and philanthropy. I feel that the article should begin with the basics of the company and move outward from there. 1worldspace's financials are more solid and relevant than promotional programs they make up, or spin-off philanthropic organizations, or its future plans which aren't set in stone.

Any added information claiming that currently 1worldspace broadcasts to Europe is a flat-out lie! The company currently does not broadcast there and people living in Europe are unable to subscribe to the service. "Operational services" is press speak meaning they have the ability to market there but do not at the present time.

Also a question regarding satellites. New uncited information states the satellites were built to last 12-15 years, and the article says the first was launched in 1998. Since they do not appear to be focusing on recievers over satellites, can anybody find any information on plans for future satellites? That might help in the future plans section.

In the philanthropy section I readded information about the telikiosk because there was an article that discussed it. A user mentioned that it was a fraud and I'm wondering what that refers to, but I was unable to find information confirming that it was a fraud. Any ideas?

I am also confused as to which recievers are available. 1worldspace's website says that the recievers that are available to order are the ones supposedly no-longer being built. The article keeps being changed to say that the current recievers are being built by Delphi, but those are for markets they haven't entered yet. Surely the company didn't stop building the recievers used in India and Africa? Themfromspace (talk) 16:10, 24 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

service in Europe

em...the company does broadcast to Europe, it just doesn't sell subscriptions in Europe anymore. (Because the technology it wants to use for mobile satellite broadcasting is different to the one currently used and will require people buy new radios).

This is sort of explained at http://www.worldspace.com/maintenance/index.html, which the company links to from http://www.1worldspace.com/corporate/faq/# -> coverage map-> "new satellite service available soon (click here to learn more)"

It means that if you happen to have an "old-style" Worldspace radio, you can pick up several FTA channels Griffindd (talk) 12:40, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Note on sockpuppetry

Users Thetruthtruth, Enlitened_one, Briskfix, 65.216.176.5, and 1worldspace have been confirmed as being the same user at Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/Thetruthtruth and Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/Thetruthtruth and have been blocked from editing. All of their edits to the article or talk page should be considered as being from one user for purposes of argument and consensus. Also note the IP originates from the company itself. Themfromspace (talk) 14:04, 3 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's too bad. Perhaps today's bankruptcy filing after this weeks' horrid stock price plummet may give some insight into their motivations. --KJRehberg (talk) 20:33, 17 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Lack of technical info

Not much information in the article about how it actually works. What frequencies it uses. Similarities and differences to DAB-S, Sirus, XM etc. 89.243.4.106 (talk) 22:30, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]