WildBlue ViaSat1 the real scoop

[Chris Conant WildBlue]

Hey gang, im new to this forum. I am a WildBlue rep for 5 states in the Midwest. Before we start down this path my disclaimer would be there a lot of information i can provide and some i can not and will not be able to.So, here we go,
ViaSat1 is up and from what i hear its flawless so far. It wont cover the entire US but rather 60-65ish% of the total household-count in the US.
Viasat1 capacity is in excess of 140GPS and matches capacity of all satellites over the US combined today..
ViaSat1 is only half the battle as our patented intelligent software that resides in the brand new gateways and modems are the other half of the battle creating a fiber-like browsing experience
WildBlue is looking at a very Large 2012 and is in need of new dealers and installers. Remember the local launches in your local area's for PayTV??? this is what can be expected in 2012 if you prepare now. I like to call it a nest egg maker for the Dealer or installer that wants to Focus and work it!
Installers will need to be certified and that starts here wildbluedotcomforwardslashtraining
In VS1 coverage you can expect 10 times the speed. (disclaimer - subject to change)
With the speeds coming early 2012 this will double the customers you will be able to sell to. Unserved and under-served US (underserved= slow DSL/Cable/WISP -> lots of this out there.
So this is a start. What questions do you have for me? (i wont be able to publicly state pricing yet)

 

[dewzan]

At what PRICE? I already pay $50 /mo. for too little bandwidth and at a speed... well it's better than dial-up.

 

[Chris Conant WildBlue]

At what PRICE? I already pay $50 /mo. for too little bandwidth and at a speed... well it's better than dial-up.

Gee's, -> from above (i wont be able to publicly state pricing yet)

 

[stardust3]

What about bandwidth. The rumors I've heard say everyone is going to get the same speed and just pay for their allotted usage. Also will this be available for NE TN, SW VA & western NC?
I might be interested in the installing part of it, but want nothing to do with the dealer side of it. Installing for Hughesnet currently doing fulfillment. Wildblue certification expired a couple of years ago. What's it take to get it back?

 

[stardust3]

The retailer I work through doing D* & E* might possibly be interested in becoming a dealer. It will depend on several things. Feel free to pm me.

 

[bmann]

Say when will you have it for Ohio and Kentucky

 

[dewzan]

IF it is at or near the same price and they would AT LEAST double the the 7500mb limit i,d be all for it. But I live in a hilly area of rural eastern Iowa and even the wireless rural internet is directed toward the towns not the rural area's. Cable and DSL executives talk of millions of dollars in bonuses and in the same breath say they can't afford to expand into rural area's. then satellite internet companies, knowing that most of these people don't have access to anything else, take the opportunity to...well maximize profit. And most don't care who they take advantage of.

 

[Chris Conant WildBlue]

What about bandwidth. The rumors I've heard say everyone is going to get the same speed and just pay for their allotted usage. Also will this be available for NE TN, SW VA & western NC?
I might be interested in the installing part of it, but want nothing to do with the dealer side of it. Installing for Hughesnet currently doing fulfillment. Wildblue certification expired a couple of years ago. What's it take to get it back?

Good Question Stardust3. Yes, its all the same speed but usage will be in the range of 7.5G-25G with instant options of buying more in a one time basis or reoccurring. Also for the dealer we are eventually going to have an easy way to figure customer needs with a tool that you plug in usage habits and it picks one of the 3 different data allowance packages for you. (we are speaking of our own dealer program not Dish or DirecTV)
ViaSat1 will cover some but not much of NE. No worries as we are about to crank up the speeds of Anik and WB1 due to a major upgrade to Surfbeam 2. All of US will be requiting the use of Surfbeam 2 hardware. Areas not covered by VS1 and are Anik and WB1 will be called legacy. all of the rest of your area's are 100% covered by VS1...
Training: I fully understand the issues of the past and many or in some cases most have blown off the installer re-certifications. You will have to go through all of it once again. 4-6 hours of online and then a hands on class.

WB certified installers are going to be in great demand and its going to be a bottleneck for the hands on classes. I currently have multiple HNS subs doing the online modules. Whats you situation? Are you a part of a larger fulfillment company?

 

[Chris Conant WildBlue]

IF it is at or near the same price and they would AT LEAST double the the 7500mb limit i,d be all for it. But I live in a hilly area of rural eastern Iowa and even the wireless rural internet is directed toward the towns not the rural area's. Cable and DSL executives talk of millions of dollars in bonuses and in the same breath say they can't afford to expand into rural area's. then satellite internet companies, knowing that most of these people don't have access to anything else, take the opportunity to...well maximize profit. And most don't care who they take advantage of.

Iowa is my state! Are you a customer? either way. once we announce or distribute the package material you will be amazed!

 

[Chris Conant WildBlue]

Say when will you have it for Ohio and Kentucky

Feb is first roll out of services. All spot beams will be very quick depending on how engineering decides to implement.. Spring is King! LOL Ohio may be the first!

 

[dewzan]

Iowa is my state! Are you a customer? either way. once we announce or distribute the package material you will be amazed!

yes, i get WB through dishnetwork (does that matter?) being able to do some streaming would be great. is this going to be an upgrade or will it be a different service? Also will we be informed ahead of time, or just have to figure it out on our own?

 

[stardust3]

Good Question Stardust3. Yes, its all the same speed but usage will be in the range of 7.5G-25G with instant options of buying more in a one time basis or reoccurring. Also for the dealer we are eventually going to have an easy way to figure customer needs with a tool that you plug in usage habits and it picks one of the 3 different data allowance packages for you. (we are speaking of our own dealer program not Dish or DirecTV)
ViaSat1 will cover some but not much of NE. No worries as we are about to crank up the speeds of Anik and WB1 due to a major upgrade to Surfbeam 2. All of US will be requiting the use of Surfbeam 2 hardware. Areas not covered by VS1 and are Anik and WB1 will be called legacy. all of the rest of your area's are 100% covered by VS1...
Training: I fully understand the issues of the past and many or in some cases most have blown off the installer re-certifications. You will have to go through all of it once again. 4-6 hours of online and then a hands on class.

WB certified installers are going to be in great demand and its going to be a bottleneck for the hands on classes. I currently have multiple HNS subs doing the online modules.

Whats you situation? Are you a part of a larger fulfillment company?

On Hughesnet, yes. Then run my TV sales separately through a small retailer locally. The retailer is the 1 I was referring to as far as possibly becoming a dealer. This area as you state is well under served & in many cases not served at all.
Do you have access to list of classes and so forth?

 

[Chris Conant WildBlue]

yes, i get WB through dishnetwork (does that matter?) being able to do some streaming would be great. is this going to be an upgrade or will it be a different service? Also will we be informed ahead of time, or just have to figure it out on our own?

Yes it does matter. Your account is not a Wildblue account rather a Dish High Speed internet powered by WildBlue.. He is how that work's. Once either Dish or DirecTV activate that service that customer belongs to Dish or DirecTV respectively. Look at us in those cases as a ESPN or programmer with our own platform. We cant by contract support those customers. Dish and DTV support those themselves.
what we are talking here is NOT Dish or DirecTV WildBlue services but rather our own.

Does that help?

 

[Chris Conant WildBlue]

On Hughesnet, yes. Then run my TV sales separately through a small retailer locally. The retailer is the 1 I was referring to as far as possibly becoming a dealer. This area as you state is well under served & in many cases not served at all.
Do you have access to list of classes and so forth?

bottom right of wildbluedotcom is a link.. installer training

 

[stardust3]

Forgot to welcome you to the site. This is by far the best place for anything satellite related. It is always a good thing to have someone with some insight & knowledge of their business. Thanks again & looking forward to what WB has planned for 2012.

 

[Chris Conant WildBlue]

Forgot to welcome you to the site. This is by far the best place for anything satellite related. It is always a good thing to have someone with some insight & knowledge of their business. Thanks again & looking forward to what WB has planned for 2012.

Thank you for the welcome...


Lots of good info about our own dealer program at willdbluedealerdotcom

 

[AlanRT]

Hello Chris,

I signed up a couple of months ago and completed the online and hands-on dealer and installer certifications. I sell and service HN residential and VSAT commercial systems in the US, Mexico and Central America. Must say that what WB is promising to offer with the new launch looks very good at this point. Apparently they listened to customers on three key service issues; Video streaming, ability to increase the monthly data cap, and the Holy Grail of residential satellite Internet service; VoIP support. Very exciting time to be in the home VSAT market.

Unfortunately, no coverage for the newer high-speed service in my back yard, the Sierra Nevadas of Eastern California. But maybe eventually. Huge white zone there so only legacy service available. Too bad, it's one of the hotter demand areas in the country. Maybe I should move to Iowa?

 

[Chris Conant WildBlue]

Hello Chris,

I signed up a couple of months ago and completed the online and hands-on dealer and installer certifications. I sell and service HN residential and VSAT commercial systems in the US, Mexico and Central America. Must say that what WB is promising to offer with the new launch looks very good at this point. Apparently they listened to customers on three key service issues; Video streaming, ability to increase the monthly data cap, and the Holy Grail of residential satellite Internet service; VoIP support. Very exciting time to be in the home VSAT market.

Unfortunately, no coverage for the newer high-speed service in my back yard, the Sierra Nevadas of Eastern California. But maybe eventually. Huge white zone there so only legacy service available. Too bad, it's one of the hotter demand areas in the country. Maybe I should move to Iowa?

Yes Alan, ViaSat1 and the Augmented Legacy areas will be able to Stream, VOIP, Game whatever. (Gaming-You will loose to good DSL/Cable/Fiber-Small part of total market). So here is the issue for Both Sat ISP's. Its the same service we had since we both launched our satellite's. Problem is customer expectation has changed quite dramatically. Streaming video Big Time. If anyone has gone to any of our seminars we just completed we had a slide that shows just how much Video has grown over the past 5 years. It really is quite amazing. #1 is Video over PC and then a close second in growth is Streaming via TV.
You will be able to use/sell our own VIOP service (hopefully in 2012) and one we will be able to support end to end creating a much more significant QOS. ViaSat wants our speeds to be an average and our current Stimulus package i have yet so hear anything below 1.3-1.8MGS and spikes to 2MGS in some cases. Not bad for a 1MG package right? Wait, overpreforming satellite internet?
So in your specific case. You look to be in a Legacy NON Augmented area, or at least for now. We are probably going to augment those area's in 2012 and at that time you will get the new Augmented/Legacy Surf Beam speeds witch look to be 3-5 time the speed of current offerings. Most of our Augmentation conversion to Surfbeam 2 gives us 40% more capacity! Keeping in mind i have seen our event 5th wheel demonstrate 12 and 18MGS at large industry shows. This year we had a dedicated 12MG pipe (or several of them) at Team Summit. Using our new Gateway technology (remember this is just as important as the new satellite) and we were streaming so fast on a 922 in HD at 1080 it was increasing the buffer. We were also slinging it. and another system was doing video monitoring to our NOC, another system was VIOP and was flawless. Charlie Spend a good amount of time last 2 years in our both and tested all of our new stuff. I didn't personaly check out the VOIP but dealers that did were blown away.
Whats nice for the installer is, SB2 hardware will be easier, quicker. It requires one cable with messenger not 2. Tria is configured when modem is by installer for polarity (no more right and left tria). Tria is more powerful and will be able to have a longer cable run. You will need the APA but peaking the dish is via a squaker, no meter needed.

We understand that Sat Internet hasn't recieved a good rep over the past few years but this will be a significant game changer. With the mature Pay TV business which is loosing subs over the past few years, the experimentation of cord cutters not to mention the possibility of the DBS Video guys working on OTT via Ethernet (where does this put a video Dealer/installer in the next few years??) we will be a primary product to sell!

The Installers out there (and our dealers) are very important to us. lets prepare now.

Our Augmented Legacy beams look to be cranked up in a matter of weeks!

 

[AlanRT]

Yes, the speeds are impressive, and the price points are in line with current residential pricing. WB is positioning themselves well.

Looking forward to the augmented service our area.

Say "Hi" to Gary Delena, from Alan Thompson.

 

[Chris Conant WildBlue]

Yes, the speeds are impressive, and the price points are in line with current residential pricing. WB is positioning themselves well.

Looking forward to the augmented service our area.

Say "Hi" to Gary Delena, from Alan Thompson.

Will do Alan! Gary is much more familiar with CA than a Hillbilly from Missouri (myself)