EchoStar & DirecTV to sell WildBlue Interent

[CochiseGuy]

WildBlue Signs Wholesale Distribution Agreements with DIRECTV and EchoStar
06/09/2006

High-Speed Internet Service via Satellite to be Made Available to DIRECTV and DISH Network Subscribers Nationwide

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Denver, Colorado - WildBlue Communications, Inc., a leading provider of broadband access to consumers and small offices primarily in rural areas and small cities, today announced that they have signed five year wholesale distribution agreements with each of DIRECTV, Inc. (NYSE: DTV) and EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH). As part of these agreements, WildBlue is the only satellite-based Internet solution that each of DIRECTV and EchoStar will offer to their respective customers for the next 5 years. DIRECTV and EchoStar currently offer digital television entertainment via satellite to a combined total of more than 27 million customers nationwide. WildBlue provides broadband Internet access via satellite to homes and small businesses in communities not currently served, or that are underserved, by other broadband providers.

Each of DIRECTV and EchoStar intends to begin offering WildBlue high-speed Internet service in the coming months across the contiguous United States with further details on availability and pricing of their respective offerings to be forthcoming. The offerings will be provided separately under the DIRECTV and EchoStar brand names, and sub-branded as “powered by WildBlue.” The WildBlue broadband offering will be focused on small town America and rural markets.

“Our agreements with DIRECTV and EchoStar are a turning point for WildBlue,” said David Leonard, WildBlue’s Chief Executive Officer. “We have worked very hard this year to make our affordable broadband Internet service available to every home and small business across the continental U.S., and we are pleased to be working with DIRECTV and EchoStar to further strengthen our presence nationwide and to extend their respective product offerings as well.”

Seems strange DirecTV will be selling WildBlue - I know they moved HughesNet off as a separate company, but I thought there was still some connection. Does this mean The Tate will soon be selling WildBlue as well?

And actually, as an independent WB Dealer & Installer, I'm not real excited about this - to me it probably means more competition from Dish & DirecTV dealers. But, Ce la Vie!

 

[bmar_us]

yea i got the e-mail this morning. we sell dish network and wild blue. about a month ago i went to a seminar about some of the new services that e* was offering and they went through the speil about how hughes has bought out direct tv and now have partnered with dish to sell this product. we were to sell it to the customer and submit the order then hughes takes it out of our hands and does all the rest. wondering how all that is gonna work out now

 

[HCI]

I would love to sell Wildblue, just as another option for the customer. Unfortunately we are bound by contract with Hughes that we can only sell and install their product. We were even thinking about splitting the company into a Directv and Hughes and Dish and Wildblue but Hughes told us if any affiliation who offers any other type of satellite based internet service our contract would be terminated.

bmar_us, some of our guys were at that same seminar if it was the one in Memphis. See we get all orders though P10 who get them from Hughes in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and parts of Tennessee. When you sell it we are the ones who install it. That is why they will not let us sell Wildblue.

One problem right now with Wildblue in this area is the beam is shut down until Sept. or later.

 

[Stargazer]

It seems like WildBlue has a GREAT potential to surpass Direcway/HughesNet and StarBand. I wonder if they will be able to offer better pricing on the upfront costs and the monthly costs if they can get enough subscribers on the system.

This answers the question of whether or not Dish Network was coming out with its own internet service. It is NEVER going to happen through the satellite dish. Dish was lying when they said they was going to offer free hardware and service for under $40 at a meeting almost three years ago that they had for the retailers.

Dish Network and Directv does not want to risk and tie their money into satellite internet themselves as they know that wi-fi / cable / dsl / fios is the wave of the future with internet as they continue to improve their service dramatically.

 

[HCI]

It seems like WildBlue has a GREAT potential to surpass Direcway/HughesNet and StarBand.

I don't see it happening. Hughes has all the major businesses secured. Plus Wildblue does not even have any of their stock on the public market. That may be one reason why the delays in the beginning and the reason why it is taking forever for the other bird to get up.

 

[CochiseGuy]

I don't see it happening. Hughes has all the major businesses secured. Plus Wildblue does not even have any of their stock on the public market. That may be one reason why the delays in the beginning and the reason why it is taking forever for the other bird to get up.

Actually I see WilBlue not having publicaly traded stock as a plus. Shareholders have a nasty habit of expecting ROI (Return on Investment) sooner rather than later. Private investors more readily grasp the concept of "OK, here's our investment cost in equipment, infrastructure. etc. Here's the return we can expect in xxx number of years, and here's the return (interest rate) we pay you unitl the ROI starts rolling in".

I see WB easily surpassing Starband. Not sure about Hughes. But at least 2 major players in satellite broadband is a good thing, just as it is for satellite TV. Competition=Choice=better for the consumer.

 

[HCI]

I did some more research on this and it seems to me that this is not great deal for E* or D*. It will help get Wildblue's name out greatly, but I don't expect we will be seeing either of the two company's doing a great deal of marketing for Wildblue. The reason being is both the company's will have to charge their own price for the service with Wildblue being the wholeseller "kind of like what Pegasus did". If you remember they did offer a Satellite based internet service "that failed" but Direcway was the wholeseller. They ended up having to sell all of the customer base back to Direcway.

They are also locked into a 5 year deal with them so they cannot even think about offering another type of Satellite internet product.

Maybe however this will push Hughes to drop their prices and we will all be happy in the long run.

 

[Stargazer]

Maybe one will buy out the other. If Dish and Direct is going to do the Wi-Fi / Wireless thing then they will do it in five years, otherwise all of these other Wi-Fi groups will be up and running by then and FIOS will be in lots more places than it is now. There would have been major headway made by then.

 

[bluetrain1]

Ok, tell me about Wild Blue..

wild blue is new to me. So,
How fast uploads?
How fast downloads?
How much $ per month?
One year contract required?
How much for the equipment?
How big a dish?
Can Wild Blue dish be used for TV also?
How bad is the latency? So bad that you can forget about SKYPE or muliplayer gaming?

 

[HCI]

wild blue is new to me. So,
How fast uploads?
How fast downloads?
How much $ per month?
One year contract required?
How much for the equipment?
How big a dish?
Can Wild Blue dish be used for TV also?
How bad is the latency? So bad that you can forget about SKYPE or muliplayer gaming?

www.wildblue.com

 

[CochiseGuy]

wild blue is new to me. So,
How fast uploads?
- from 125 Kbps to 256 Kbps
How fast downloads?
- from .5 Mbps to 1.5 Mbps
How much $ per month?
- from $49.95 ro $79.95
One year contract required?
- Yes, but first 30 days is satisfaction guartanteed (can cancel w/o penality within the first 30 days if not satisifed)
How much for the equipment?
- $299 + Standard Installation $179, currently free installation thru 6/30
How big a dish?
- 28"
Can Wild Blue dish be used for TV also?
- No
How bad is the latency? So bad that you can forget about SKYPE or muliplayer gaming
- As with any 2 way satellite service with the first 50,000 miles out & back in outer space before it hits the internet backbone, there is a couple of seconds latency. VOIP & interactive gaming not supported nor recommended.
- With satellite internet you should also look into their FAP (Fair Access Policy), which limits the toal amount of UL/DL. For WildBlue, it's a rolling 30 day limit from 7 GB to 17 GB DL max. Hughes has a rolling 4 hour limit.

Yes, www.wildblue.com is a good place to start for info. Also wildblue.cc (WildBlue "Uncensored") is a good place for feedback from WB subscribers.

 

[Stargazer]

With HughesNet having a rolling 4 hour limit does that mean that once 4 hours goes by then they do not count the downloading that you have done before against you or do they have the rolling 4 hour limit plus a monthly limit?

 

[bluetrain1]

How will it compete against EVDO and HSDPA?

With Verizon and Sprint offering EVDO broadband at comparable speeds and with very low latency and with Cingular's growing HSDPA providing even faster access (as their network gets built out) I would think that the market for Wild Blue would be very limited. I mean, you would have to be in an area not servered by any of those cell carriers, or by DSL, or by Cable. So, as a connection of last resort maybe, buy the long arm of Verizon does go pretty far, and at least you can take the Verizon or Sprint connection with you wherever you go. Oh, and all the cell phone guys are giving their data cards away for free with obviously no install fee.

 

[Stargazer]

I believe Verizon has their service for around $60 now, was $80, so it is comparable, but its not available everywhere that there is cell phone service. You have to be in one of their special data areas to get that service.

 

[HCI]

With HughesNet having a rolling 4 hour limit does that mean that once 4 hours goes by then they do not count the downloading that you have done before against you or do they have the rolling 4 hour limit plus a monthly limit?

No monthly limit. Not exactly a rolling 4 hour limit persay but you have the idea. Say if you have a 6 hour period and you have a 160MB FAP per 4 hour period.

Say you download
Hour 1 : 30 MB
Hour 2 : 40 MB
Hour 3 : 20 MB
Hour 4 : 60 MB
Hour 5 : 50 MB
Hour 6 : you would be FAP'ed

Hours 1 to 4 you only downloaded 150 but hours 2 to 5 you downloaded 170.

They count the last 4 hours of service.

 

[HCI]

www.skyreport.com

WildBlue may have scored its biggest deals yet to put its dish-based internet offering into the hands of consumers.

The satellite broadband service on Friday announced separate blockbuster deals with DirecTV and EchoStar. The company signed five-year wholesale distribution agreements with the companies, deals WildBlue said would make it the only satellite-based internet solution each DBS company will offer to their respective customers for the next five years.

DirecTV and EchoStar intend to begin offering the high-speed internet service in the coming months across the contiguous United States, WildBlue said. Further details on availability and pricing of their respective offerings will be forthcoming.

The offerings will be provided separately under the DirecTV and EchoStar brand names, and sub-branded as "Powered by WildBlue." The WildBlue broadband offering will be focused on small town America and rural markets, the companies said.

The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative has been selling WildBlue since its launch last year. The cooperative welcomed the DBS companies to the WildBlue business.

"Beginning in 2002, NRTC and our members invested in WildBlue because we knew it would be a great service and would meet a critical need," said Bob Phillips, NRTC's president and CEO and member of the WildBlue board of directors. "NRTC members proved the benefit of the WildBlue business during its first year of operations. It is gratifying to see companies like EchoStar and DirecTV recognize the value of such a great and needed product."

 

[Stargazer]

How long will you have the slower speeds if you get FAP'ed?

 

[HCI]

between 8 to 12 hours @ 56k

During off peak times "2am to 5am" they almost triple your FAP

 

[Stargazer]

That don't sound as bad as having to go that speed the rest of the month (if that is the case) if you go over the speed once with the other satellite providers, or does their FAP work differently?

 

[HCI]

The only time I have heard anything about the Wildblue FAP is last year at the Expo before it was out on the market. If I remember correctly the first time you go over they will cut you back for 2 weeks. The second time the whole month and the third time they would suspend you for good.

This may not be the way it is let me do some research.