Iowa Woman who is the 400,000th Customer Bids Farewell to Dial-Up
Denver – WildBlue Communications, provider of broadband Internet to rural America via satellite, surpassed a significant milestone last week: 400,000 customers. In the span of only four years, the company has gone from an unknown brand with no customers to the leading provider of high-speed Internet services to rural households in the U.S.
“WildBlue is a true American success story,” said David Leonard, CEO of WildBlue. “We saw an opportunity to serve a market no one else was serving—the large contingent of remotely-located families and businesses in rural America who need broadband Internet just as much as people who live in urban areas. In four years time, we’ve put three satellites into service for satellite broadband and added more than 400,000 customers. It’s a testament to the American ‘can-do’ spirit as well as the men and women who pour their heart and soul into this company.”
WildBlue identified its 400,000th residential customer as Marlene Collins from Honey Creek, Iowa. “I’m tickled pink with my new WildBlue service,” said Ms. Collins. “It’s so nice to open my email account in less than one minute. It was taking up to 40 minutes with dial-up!” In addition to the honor of being the 400,000th customer, Ms. Collins also received three free months of WildBlue service along with WildBlue gear for her and her husband.
Collins purchased the service through Johnston Communications of Villisca, Iowa, a local retailer which sells and installs WildBlue broadband Internet service throughout Iowa and the Midwest. “It’s a great business to be in—WildBlue offers a service that is absolutely essential to our customers,” said Theresa Johnston, owner of Johnston Communications. “Once people try WildBlue, they can’t wait to leave their dial-up service behind and get true broadband Internet in their homes. In fact, we’re providing hands-on demonstrations of WildBlue at the Iowa State Fair right now.”
WildBlue continues to aggressively add capacity to its network to serve additional rural customers throughout the U.S. The company recently activated services on a third satellite in early August, and has applied for federal stimulus money to help fund a next generation satellite with the ability to serve an additional 1.5 million customers in the rural U.S.
