News and musings on Sirius, XM, DirecTV and the DISH Network.

Satellite ISP delivers top-notch speed and service

Can’t get cable or DSL where you live? Look up. The answer is circling the globe above you.

Reliable high-speed Internet connections will be available across the entire lower 48 states beginning July 1 via the newly rebuilt and re-launched Wildblue satellite Internet service.

And this isn’t like any satellite Internet service you’ve ever seen before. While previous incarnations like DirecTV’s DirecWay were slow, unreliable, and outrageously expensive — both for the required equipment and the subscription — Wildblue’s offering is pricey, but still more in line with traditional wired broadband options.

The equipment still isn’t cheap, but it’s better: $299 for the purchase and installation of a rooftop dish and a modem-like and -sized interface box that gets you online. The monthly service runs $49.95 for a 512-kilobit package, $69.95 for a 1-megabit package and $79.95 for a 1.5-megabit package. The last is roughly equal to most home DSL speeds.

The good news: It delivers.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2005 at 7:18 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.