WildBlue, NRTC Prepare for June Debut

[Chris Blount]

WildBlue said it will introduce its much-anticipated satellite broadband service in June, and among the first to get a chance to sell the offering will be approximately 300 members with the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative.
Those NRTC telephone and electric organizations serve predominantly rural communities. In addition to selling WildBlue, numerous NRTC members still sell DirecTV, and the cooperative plans to unveil a product that will combine both services.

To help promote the service, WildBlue unveiled at NRTC's InfoComm 2005 this week in Las Vegas a mobile showroom called "Speedy." The trailer will travel around the country at fairs, events and other public gatherings, and will be available to NRTC's WildBlue members.

WildBlue will sell for as little as $49.95 per month, and the service will have multiple service packages including the Pro Pak with download speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps. WildBlue will initially offer equipment to customers for $299 and installation for $179.95.

As part of NRTC's introduction of WildBlue service, participating NRTC members will offer free installation, WildBlue said.

http://www.skyreport.com (Used with permission)

[Jacob S]

They need a free installation promotion to compete with the other two-way internet providers and to attract customers that would otherwise not take their service.

[SimpleSimon]

Well, they're $10/month less, $200 less in equipment, $20 less in installation than DWay.

Of course, the downside is still that it's satellite internet - can't beat the speed of light problem - WAY too much propogation delay to do lots of things.

[jpurkey]

But if you don't have access to cable internet or DSL it is tempting. I wonder what the combined DirecTV+WildBlue service will cost?

[Jacob S]

I doubt there will be bundling deal with WildBlue since DirecTv does not own it. They dont know with their Directway service.

[zmark]

And as with all satellite internet offerings, they will eventually implement FAP like throttling policies that will make the service useless for anything except visiting an occasional webpage.

[SimpleSimon]

And as with all satellite internet offerings, they will eventually implement FAP like throttling policies that will make the service useless for anything except visiting an occasional webpage.
Truth. :(

[deadtired]

satellite internet like sex with a condom just does not feel the same

[Jacob S]

But it can still be good.

[jgoggan]

I actually have this offered to me from my local co-op. I was interested at first when they started advertising, but, now that pricing is out, I'm sticking with my one-way DirecWay. It's significantly cheaper for me.

Granted, if I went two-way with WildBlue, I could drop the second phone line. So, in the end, the monthly would be similar -- but then I'd have hundreds in up-front equipment and installation to deal with. Just not worth it -- especially when DSL could pop up a month afterward (could be a month, could be 3 years here -- no one seems to know). So, I'm not going to commit to a year and/or pay huge upfront costs for something that could be replaced by better, cheaper, faster a month or two from now...

- John...