Status Update From WildBlue

[korsjs]

As the year comes to an end, things here at WildBlue have been both hectic and exciting, and we thought it was a good time to share some of our latest highlights with you.



Since WildBlue launched service this summer, things have been progressing very smoothly. We are proceeding with our regional rollouts across the country, and WildBlue is now available in every mainland state through our dealer network and the rural electric and telephone companies of the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC). We currently have over 600 retailers and expect to grow this number to 1,200 by the end of the first quarter of 2006.



Customer satisfaction has also been extremely high, with over 94% of current customers reporting that they are "happy" or "very happy" with their WildBlue service. As you may know, that is an extremely high rating for a service business, especially a telecommunications business that has just launched. In addition, 9 out of 10 of our customers said they would recommend WildBlue to a friend or family member. That high customer satisfaction rate has helped us expand our customer base more quickly than we had anticipated – we will have over 25,000 customers by the end of 2005 even though we are just recently enjoying more complete geographic retailer coverage. Due to the popularity of the WildBlue service, we have seen capacity constraints in certain areas, however we are in the process of updating our network to match the increased demand in these hot spots, and we should be able to resume full installations nationwide in 2006.



Here is one of my favorite quotes from a satisfied local WildBlue customer:



"I love my high speed Internet!!! I live 7 miles out of Parker on 40 acres. I was limited to dial up access. Your service is something that I’ve been waiting for!! The whole installation was very professional, from the phone call to set up the install date, right down to the workmanship." Debbie, Parker CO



Our dealers have been both eager and pleased to add the WildBlue service to their offerings:



"For Harrisonville Telephone Company, WildBlue provides a great addition to our broadband service offerings," stated Craig Hern, Vice President of Internet Operations for the NRTC member located in Waterloo, Illinois. "Now virtually 100% of our area, no matter where customers are located, can enjoy the benefits of high-speed Internet surfing. Our customers’ satisfaction has been very positive and they are excited to finally have a viable alternative for high-speed Internet access."



"Taking on the WildBlue product line has been rewarding and productive. I have seen a great increase in sales and margins by offering high speed Internet service via satellite from WildBlue," said C.Geno, President of Skylynks in Lebanon, NH. "The customers love it!"



Our current satellite ANIKF2 is performing very well. Our second satellite WildBlue 1 is fully built, and plans are underway to launch it in the fourth quarter of 2006. WildBlue 1 has been built to handle an extremely large number of customers, and it will help to ensure that we are able to handle 100% of customer demand into the distant future.



WildBlue also is renting additional space in our corporate headquarters here in Greenwood Village, Colorado to help maintain the infrastructure necessary to meet the growing demand for our service.



2006 will be a very exciting year for WildBlue and our high-speed Internet via satellite business. We look forward to sharing our continued progress with you in the months to come. Thank you for your interest, and on behalf of everyone at WildBlue, I wish you a joyous holiday season, and a happy New Year.



Thank you,



Dave Leonard

CEO

WildBlue

http://www.wildblue.com/company/doPressReleaseDetailsAction.do?pressReleaseID=11

 

[Stargazer]

How does it compare to Directway and StarBand?

 

[korsjs]

i think a few people here might be able to chime in.

 

[BrettTRay]

I've searched a few forums about Wildblue and everyone I've talked to love it. They say its lots faster than Direcway and definitely faster than Starband. I just don't see how Starband is still in business? I think Direcway will end up losing alot of their customers to Wildblue.

 

[JIGGIEFLY]

Wild blue is far better then dway or star band i have had both and even at the entry level with wildblue your performance far out reaches dway and star band equipment cost is only $299 and install is free if ya use your local coop and entry level servce is $49.95 out the door per month witch gives you 512 down load speed & 128 upload speeds i even up graded service after 30 days to pro pack at $79.95 you get 1.5mb down and 256 kbs upload your local at this point of the game has a factor in this as some of the beams have been oversold so you see a slite decrease in purformance during peak hrs but it is still better then the others and customer service from my coop is far the best i've every had in a internet service provider.

 

[jakesnake3037]

I would get skyway-- www.skywayusa.com ---It is only 1-way so you will still need dialup, but it costs $160 for the equipment and you can install it yourself. My brother will be getting it soon, so I will give feedback on performance when he gets it!!!

 

[korsjs]

looking forward to hearing how you like/dislike it.

 

[Stargazer]

They recently called me to sell their product but it seemed to me like they wanted $160 just for the receiver then wanted extra for the box and then extra for the installation if you had someone put it in. It seemed like it was only a deal if you did not have the money upfront and put it in yourself and went with their basic package for $30 if you only needed 356K. Their higher packages does not seem to be competitve with Directway, StarBand, and WildBlue.

 

[M Sparks]

I would get skyway-- www.skywayusa.com ---It is only 1-way so you will still need dialup, but it costs $160 for the equipment and you can install it yourself. My brother will be getting it soon, so I will give feedback on performance when he gets it!!!

$160! I have 1 way DirecWay that only cost $89 5 years ago!

It works just fine...do they still offer it to new customers? Seems like if you're going to go that way, you might as well stick with a company you know will be in business next month.

 

[KE4EST]

I love Wildblue it is far better than Direcway and starband, I have had them and WB is better. I also have been installing them for about 4 months now and I have switched several people over from Direcway. The customers I have talked to, that had Direcway say WOW, faster and cheaper. So they tell their friends and family and we have sold and installed more because of it.

 

[cheebs]

If it uses the AnikF2 bird, I'm assuming that, even though they don't officially offer coverage outside of the contiguous 48, it would still be technically possible to use this service with the right dish?

 

[mallured]

I have had WildBlue for a couple of months. It is definitely faster than my old dial-up (could only eek out 24k). It is not as fast as the numbers seem, thought. When downloading a file the speeds are what you would expect, but in surfing the Internet, I think that cookies and other hidden communications make the latency rear its head. Particularly in the early stages of bring up a web page. There is probably a lot of back and forth communication between the web site and your computer, each direction of which takes a bit longer.
I am also very disappointed that they are making existing customers suffer with a lower total download threshold because they evidently are greedy or didn't plan well. I have only had the service for two months and they are lowering the total allowable download volume by 25% with no reduction in price. This is unconscionable in my mind. They could have lowered it for new customers and left current subscribers thresholds alone. I made the decision to purchase $300 worth of equipment based on the agreements that they had at the time. Two months later they pull a switcheroo. Not very happy, but I have little recourse after making the initial investment.