Sat rivals contract with WidBlue

Satdude

Sat rivals contract with WidBlue

After years of stumbling efforts on their own to provide high-speed Internet services, Echostar and DirecTV have signed separate agreements with fledgling satellite firm WildBlue Communications to jump into the same segment. The WildBlue service relies entirely on satellites for uploading and downloading data and is as much as 30 times faster than basic dial-up. But many customers would have to install an additional satellite antenna to use the service.

DirecTV and EchoStar are playing catch-up to rivals such as AT&T Inc., which is manoeuvring to offer comparable services in the same arena. AT&T last month announced its own deal with WildBlue to use satellite and fixed wireless technology to provide Internet connections to rural households that can't get them over phone lines.

For EchoStar, of Englewood, Colo. -- which previously bankrolled a WildBlue project for 10s of millions of dollars but then abandoned it as a money loser -- the move is a U turn. Last year, EchoStar Chairman Charles Ergen reiterated his reluctance to make a big investment in such efforts because he predicted "a narrower niche" for the service "than I would have thought three years" before.

David Leonard, chief executive of WildBlue, of Greenwood Village, Colo., said the latest partnerships "are a turning point for WildBlue," which was resurrected from the brink of bankruptcy by some big-name media players including John Malone's Liberty Media Corp. Also backed by a rural telecommunications cooperative and satellite operator Intelsat Ltd., WildBlue has invested some $500 million to establish a market for so-called Internet-in-the-sky services.

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