Telecompetitor

WildBlue announced that it has secured $50 million in equity financing to fund its continued growth. “The proceeds will fund WildBlue's recently launched customer equipment leasing program, enabling the company's award-winning service to be offered to new customers throughout rural America at the lowest upfront price in the company's history,” said WildBlue in a company statement.

In an attempt to remove one of the biggest barriers for new sign-ups, WildBlue will offer a leasing program for CPE, significantly reducing total upfront fees by over 50% to $149.95. The program also provides for “free” installation of the service. The new lease fee will total $5.95/month. "The Lease Program will help new customers get WildBlue for a significantly lower upfront investment, making our award-winning ...

Hughes announced the launch of ElitePremium, a satellite delivered broadband service of up to 5 Mbps. In a press release, Hughes characterized ElitePremium as the “…fastest consumer broadband satellite Internet access plan ever offered.” The new service will be available August 21. ElitePremium joins other new broadband plans, including Elite and ElitePlus with download speeds of up to 2 Mbps and 3 Mbps, respectively. No ...

WildBlue Communications announced system upgrades that will increase its capacity by 150,000 additional customers. According to a WildBlue press release, the “…upgrades bring WildBlue's total network capacity to over 640,000 customers, with capacity available throughout the entire country.” These upgrades involved the addition of enhanced transmission link hardware and software technologies that enable transmission of 50 percent more information bits through the same existing radio link.

Embarq announced that they will become a reseller of HughesNet, a broadband satellite service of Hughes Network Systems. Embarq intends to target business customers with the broadband satellite service. They will offer download speeds ranging from 700 Kbps to 2Mbps and a price range of $59.99 per month to $179.99 per month. Embarq joins Wal-Mart who has also signed on ...

Wildblue, a provider of broadband via satellite, announced the launch of several enterprise targeted applications. Wildblue has partnered with XipLink and Trispen to provide secure VPN networking for small to medium size businesses. Wildblue also announced a relationship with UDcast for enterprise VPNs.