# WildBlue Closer to Launch



## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

WildBlue may be a step closer to launching its satellite broadband offering with the upcoming launch of the spacecraft that will support the start of its service.

Arianespace reported that the Ariane 5 launch vehicle set to carry Telesat Canada's Anik F2 satellite is targeted to launch July 12 (some also suggested the satellite could launch as early as June 9). The vehicle recently transferred from the integration facility to the final assembly building at Arianespace's Spaceport in French Guiana. With this move, the nearly complete Ariane 5 is ready to receive its Anik F2 satellite payload, the launch services entity said on its Web site.

Anik F2, which has on board Ka-Band capacity, will support the WildBlue service in the United States. The satellite will be located at 111.1 degrees.

WildBlue's backers include the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, Liberty Media and Intelsat.

http://www.skyreport.com (Used with permission)

To learn more about Wildblue, see this link:

http://www.wildblue.com


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## blakejames3000 (May 16, 2004)

does anyone know how it will compare as to current satellite internet providers as far as speed and will it get like "drop outs" or "rain fade" or not because its going to be using ka-band is that less likely to have problems with rain?


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## xxxx (May 25, 2002)

blakejames3000 said:


> its going to be using ka-band is that less likely to have problems with rain?


Ka is more likely to have rainfade. The Anik F2 ka service is really just a test of Ka capabilities. If it is successful and the demand grows for the service, additional Ka capable satellites will be launched to 109.2 and 118.7 slots


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## jamullian (May 7, 2004)

blakejames3000 said:


> does anyone know how it will compare as to current satellite internet providers as far as speed and will it get like "drop outs" or "rain fade" or not because its going to be using ka-band is that less likely to have problems with rain?


Rain Fade I could cope with; we only get about 5" of rain a year here. It's the current "Starband Fade" that I'm dealing with constantly that's a problem.


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## BarryO (Dec 16, 2003)

Great news. I'm already signed up on their website to be notified when they start offering service.

I looked into what DirecWay has now, and it's pretty unappealing. Uploads are no faster than dial-up, and the way they do download packetization, VPN is no faster than dial-up, either: so it's worthless for work-at-home applications. Wildblue says they'll do better.

I really don't care too much about rain fade; 'just need to put up a bigger dish if it's a problem. And there's no other choice for broadband here: Comcast stops a few miles away, and Verizon, while they could offer DSL in ths neighborhood and in fact have most of the equipment in place to do so, won't provide DSL here for political reasons (and everyone in the neighborhood is real p*ssed at them because of it).


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

I hope this will give the satellite broadband some serious competition, Starband is and has been on their last leg and DirecWay is expensive. After I get a few things paid off I was planning to get broadband via Earthlink Cable. Road Runner runs $60 a month from TW for non cable TV subscribers, Earthlink cable uses all of Time Warner’s equipment but costs $42 a month. Unfortunately after a little research Earthlink cable is not available in my area. DSL, forget about it, I'm 20 miles away from Verizon's Central Office. If I lived less then a mile up the road from where I do now, I'd have a different exchange and phone company and would be on the edge of eligibility. I would like satellite internet, but DirecWay is $60 a month and the hardware is too expensive. DirecWay via Earthlink is $70/month. Earthlink Cable would have been my perfect solution, but looks like Earthlink Dial Up will be my home for the next few years, or at least until Wild Blue gets launched.


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## Chris Freeland (Mar 24, 2002)

Steve Mehs said:


> I hope this will give the satellite broadband some serious competition, Starband is and has been on their last leg and DirecWay is expensive. After I get a few things paid off I was planning to get broadband via Earthlink Cable. Road Runner runs $60 a month from TW for non cable TV subscribers, Earthlink cable uses all of Time Warner's equipment but costs $42 a month. Unfortunately after a little research Earthlink cable is not available in my area. DSL, forget about it, I'm 20 miles away from Verizon's Central Office. If I lived less then a mile up the road from where I do now, I'd have a different exchange and phone company and would be on the edge of eligibility. I would like satellite internet, but DirecWay is $60 a month and the hardware is too expensive. DirecWay via Earthlink is $70/month. Earthlink Cable would have been my perfect solution, but looks like Earthlink Dial Up will be my home for the next few years, or at least until Wild Blue gets launched.


You are in the same situation I am in, I have Centurytell for my phone service and if DSL reached my home I could get it for $34.95, the problem is at this time I do not think it does. I can get Comcast Internet which is faster then the cheap DSL tier (but satisfactory for me), however Comcast charges $57.95 if you do not have cable TV and $42.95 if you do, however I could get Limited Basic cable TV for $9 and my total would be $51.95. I have read about rumors of E* doing Satellite Internet next year for under $40, since no one in my family are internet gamers or trade stocks on the internet for a living, latency would not be a bother for us, I would consider this if the rumors come true.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Chris Freeland said:


> ...I have read about rumors of E* doing Satellite Internet next year for under $40, since no one in my family are internet gamers or trade stocks on the internet for a living, latency would not be a bother for us, I would consider this if the rumors come true.


Just for the record, satellite latency is NOT an issue for daytrading. I mean, we act fast, but an extra half-second simply doesn't matter. 

They just say that because they don't want people B*ing at them if the link fails.


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

I was really thinking about satellite internet once the price dropped but after hearing about the latency issue which would cause issues with gaming and voice over ip/voice chat it makes me wonder if it would really be much better than dialup with broswer excellerator unless you download a lot. One might as well have dialup for uploading and satellite for downloading for the service.


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## Neutron (Oct 2, 2003)

Wildblue could have the best service around but it will still have the same latency problem that everyone else has. You can thank the geosynchronis orbit of the satellite for that. Gaming and VOIP are not recommended on satellite internet anywhere. That's why I'm forced to stick with cable internet which sucks.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Jacob - browser acceleration is usually done by over-compressing graphics, and you know what that means.


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## HappyGoLucky (Jan 11, 2004)

Steve Mehs said:


> I hope this will give the satellite broadband some serious competition, Starband is and has been on their last leg and DirecWay is expensive. After I get a few things paid off I was planning to get broadband via Earthlink Cable. Road Runner runs $60 a month from TW for non cable TV subscribers, Earthlink cable uses all of Time Warner's equipment but costs $42 a month. Unfortunately after a little research Earthlink cable is not available in my area. DSL, forget about it, I'm 20 miles away from Verizon's Central Office. If I lived less then a mile up the road from where I do now, I'd have a different exchange and phone company and would be on the edge of eligibility. I would like satellite internet, but DirecWay is $60 a month and the hardware is too expensive. DirecWay via Earthlink is $70/month. Earthlink Cable would have been my perfect solution, but looks like Earthlink Dial Up will be my home for the next few years, or at least until Wild Blue gets launched.


It's not really broadband, but have you checked into ISDN? When I lived in Virginia (where I grew up) back in '97-'00, I was way way way out in the boonies, 30 miles from the nearest town. The nearest cable tv outlet was about 20 miles away and that system was still a 24 channel analog service! Needless to say, DSL was out of the question. I had looked at the satellite services but the prices were simply out of my reach.

Then, I asked the local phone company about ISDN. Surprisingly, they told me I was eligible for ISDN and the price for a 2B1D ISDN line was only $47 per month. That was cheaper than having two POTS lines! So, they installed the ISDN connection, I bought a nice US Robotics ISDN terminal adapter, and away I went. My ISP allowed me to connect via both ISDN channels which gave me 128kbps up and down. If I wanted to make or receive a voice call, the terminal adapter automatically dropped one data channel (making the internet connection 64kbps) while the voice call was in session. As soon as the voice call was done, it automatically reconnected the second channel. Reconnection took all of 1 second, not the bleep boop kssshhh for a minute that a dialup modem takes.

It wasn't broadband, but it sure beat regular dialup! Note, the ISDN terminal adapter had POTS connections which allowed me to still use all my regular phones, answering machine, etc. I simply ran a cord from the POTS jack on the TA into the houses phone jack, which then made all the other phone jacks "live". The ISDN line came in on a seperate line straight to the terminal adapter.

I'm still surprised the phone company (which is Sprint) was able to get ISDN to me considering how remote I was. I was told by one of the technicians that they have to install 7 repeaters on the line from the DSLAM to the SLC nearest my house, a distance of about 12 miles. But since I lived within 2 miles from the SLC, that's why the ISDN was available to me.


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## Neutron (Oct 2, 2003)

They call it IDSL now. They've basically made ISDN a flavor of DSL.


How were you able to get it so cheap with your ISP? I'm assuming you had an always on connection right?


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Actually, Neutron, IDSL is something else entirely. It uses the same basic transmission technology (ie. the cards), but does NOT have voice or call setup.

I had ISDN when I was way out in the boonies myself - but was within 2 miles of the SLC (actually, they lay out the SLC's so that almost everyone is within 2 miles). Qworst told me for 2 years they couldn't do it, but I kept playing CSR roulette and eventually found one that could actually spell ISDN. Qworst has only gotten worse - they are totally clueless about 'pizza box' DSLAMs. There's fiber running all over Colorado just to bring high-speed to the boonies, but Qworst has their head so far into a dark damp place they can't figure out how to use it.

Now I've moved 20 miles closer to the city, and my phone company (CenturyTel) is even worse than Qworst. I couldn't believe it.


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## jamullian (May 7, 2004)

I don't know which phone company would win the Worst trophy nationwide - but I do know what happened when I ordered an ISDN line for here from PacBell/SBC.

They accepted the order, gave me a due date. Then they sent me another due date. I got six in all over a two month period. (That way they never showed up in the statistics at the CPUC as being late on the install). 

During that period I had two visits from installers, who discovered that they could get the cable pair connection to the Central Office - but there was no one at the CO to provision the circuit (in fact no-one there at all, it's just a box). Finally they got the idea to make an advance appointment with the engineer for the provisioning of the ISDN line - and when they called in to the guy at the CO from the cable pair, he told them Sorry, this CO does not have the capability of handling ISDN in any way whatsoever, the switch type is too old. No, we're not upgrading any time soon.

I called a supervisor and "discussed" the matter with her. She told me that there are three separate departments: Sales (who accepted the order), Provisioning (who assigned and activated the cable pair) and Engineering (who said they couldn't do it). It would seem the communication between these departments is somewhat limited ....


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

I don’t know why I never thought of ISDN. I always thought of it as more of a business type service and along came with it were higher costs, both monthly and hardware wise. IDSL is a flavor of DSL that can be delivered to you even if you’re farther away from the CO. It runs at a max speed of 144K down. Somewhere I have an issue of PC World that explains about IDSL. I’ll have to check into ISDN or IDSL one of these days ~128K would sure much better then dial up 56K. Thanks for the thought, I considered it at the time I read it in PC World, but it slipped my mind after a while.


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## Neutron (Oct 2, 2003)

Steve, also look into Wireless. WISPs are popping up all over the place and offer speeds close to if not better than DSL and Cable.


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## larrystotler (Jun 6, 2004)

My understanding is that Starband is offering refurbished units for $299 and service at $39 per month. I don't know the specifics, but will post when I find......hope this helps.


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## xxxx (May 25, 2002)

blakejames3000 said:


> will it get like "drop outs" or "rain fade" or not because its going to be using ka-band is that less likely to have problems with rain?


Telesat White Paper on this

http://www.telesat.ca/news/speeches/speeches00-02.htm


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## HappyGoLucky (Jan 11, 2004)

Steve Mehs said:


> I don't know why I never thought of ISDN. I always thought of it as more of a business type service and along came with it were higher costs, both monthly and hardware wise. IDSL is a flavor of DSL that can be delivered to you even if you're farther away from the CO. It runs at a max speed of 144K down. Somewhere I have an issue of PC World that explains about IDSL. I'll have to check into ISDN or IDSL one of these days ~128K would sure much better then dial up 56K. Thanks for the thought, I considered it at the time I read it in PC World, but it slipped my mind after a while.


If you do decide to get ISDN, I can sell you my Terminal Adapter really cheap. It's still in its original box, with all original paperwork and accessories. It's a US Robotics/3COM unit with the most advance ISDN services available, has two POTS ports, it connects to the host PC via a serial port or USB port. Its setup and service is excellent. As I wrote, I used it to drive all the other phone jacks in my house (I disconnected them from the outside) and it does the switching and line engage/disengage automatically. I never had any problems with it. It's just sitting in a closet now. Here's the info about it:
http://www.usr.com/support/product-template.asp?prod=3468


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

The launch of Telesat Canada's Anik F2 satellite, which will support the service debut of satellite broadband player WildBlue, has been rescheduled for Thursday.

An anomaly was detected Monday aboard the Ariane 5 launch vehicle that will carry Anik F2 into orbit. That forced Arianespace to postpone Monday's scheduled launch. Today, the rocket and its satellite payload will be transferred from the final assembly building to the launch zone.

WildBlue partnered with Telesat to gain the Ka-Band capacity aboard the satellite, which will be located at 111.1 degrees. In addition to having Telesat as a partner, WildBlue has other key strategic investors: The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, Liberty Media and Intelsat.

http://www.skyreport.com (Used with permission)


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

The launch was postponed Thursday due to weather conditions in French Guiana. 

The launch has been rescheduled for today.


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

Anik F2 Soars, WildBlue Gets a Lift into Biz

Anik F2, the Telesat Canada satellite that will put WildBlue into the U.S. satellite broadband business, lifted off from the Arianespace Spaceport in French Guiana Saturday night.

During the weekend, things appeared normal for the launch mission. The satellite, built by Boeing, is considered the largest commercial telecommunications satellite launched into space.

WildBlue, which is working to debut its satellite broadband service for later this year, partnered with Telesat to gain the Ka-Band capacity aboard the satellite, which will be located at 111.1 degrees. In addition to having Telesat as a partner, WildBlue has key strategic investors: The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, Liberty Media and Intelsat.

http://www.skyreport.com (Used with permission)


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

I wonder how much their hardware and service is going to cost. I have had some people interested in satellite two-way internet service.


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## Chris Freeland (Mar 24, 2002)

Jacob S said:


> I wonder how much their hardware and service is going to cost. I have had some people interested in satellite two-way internet service.


 http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37289
[/QUOTE]The company will begin offering Internet access in early 2005 at a much higher rate than cable or DSL (digital subscriber line) services in urban areas. Service will start at $49.95 a month for a 512kbps (kilobits per second) download speed and 256kbps upstream. On top of that, WildBlue customers will have to pay between $300 and $400 to buy a rooftop satellite dish and hire a technician to install it.

In contrast, cable Internet typically sells for $45 for up to 3mbps (megabits per second) on the downstream, while DSL goes for as low as $30 for up to 1.5mbps. Analysts wonder if the costs will hamper WildBlue's ambitions[/QUOTE]

This pricing scheme of theirs is a mistake, it will limit them to just areas where cable and dsl are not available and to those willing and able to spend $300 - $400 up front for the hardware and instillation.


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

The reason why I ask is because I do not have any high speed internet access available in my area (although Verizon just told me when I called and asked that DSL 1.5 MB was available in my area but I live in between two towns 7 miles away that offers the DSL service). The cable here only has like 20 channels and it is pure analog, no digital, no internet access. There is no wireless available either. Satellite internet is the only available option unless Verizon was correct on being able to get it and they said that they could send it up to 18,000 feet from the main server. Dish Network was supposed to come out with theirs in 2005 for under $40 a month and free hardware.


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## xxxx (May 25, 2002)

Chris Freeland said:


> This pricing scheme of theirs is a mistake, it will limit them to just areas where cable and dsl are not available


That was exactly Telesat's owner, BCE's, business plan for F2 ka. The Government of Canada purchased 1/4 of the Ka bandwidth for 2 way internet service of northern remote communities and then Telesat swapped the use of the US spotbeams for 20% ownership of Wildblue.


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## Chris Freeland (Mar 24, 2002)

xxxx said:


> That was exactly Telesat's owner, BCE's, business plan for F2 ka. The Government of Canada purchased 1/4 of the Ka bandwidth for 2 way internet service of northern remote communities and then Telesat swapped the use of the US spotbeams for 20% ownership of Wildblue.


Others have tried this business plan and have failed, before satellite internet can be successful for the consumer they will have to be able to offer their service at a competitive price in both served and un-served areas like satellite TV does today.


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## dfergie (Feb 28, 2003)

Neutron said:


> Steve, also look into Wireless. WISPs are popping up all over the place and offer speeds close to if not better than DSL and Cable.


Got one of these 2 1/2 months ago, I had no other options other than Satellite. my dial up said 43 but on bandwidth tester was actually 31. I wnet from that to 128k (tester said 123) cost was 1 dollar more than what my isp on dialup was. 1 month later I upgraded to 386k for 10 more dollars. It occasionally crashes but I have it networked with my replays and 3 pc's and I'm happy. I'm 9.9 miles from the x-miter according to the software that came with my Wireless box. Before I got it to download a wmv9 hidef file from microsoft took 8 hours, now it takes around 30 or less


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

Well I called Verizon today and they said I was too far away from the central office to get their DSL service. Satellite internet is a bit expensive and has a lot of ping. I would like to do wireless if the cost is not that great and if I do not lose much speed over a distance of 4-10 miles. If I could find someone (in which I know a few people that can get DSL 1.5 MB or Cable 2/3 MB internet service about 7-8 miles from me) then I would take the wireless route and just pay for the service from there since it is only $30-35 a month.

How much would it cost for the hardware that could travel such a range, what kind of loss would I get with the speed, and where could I find this hardware at? I thought about starting my own wisp to my community as some would take this service (particularly those with a second phone line for dialup). I figured if the cost of transmitting a signal to me about 7 or 8 miles cost a bit that starting at least a small wisp would help split the costs among those that would use the service so that we can have an affordable high speed internet service here.


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## dfergie (Feb 28, 2003)

The provider I have (a local cellular outfit) has box's marked Nexnet wireless , it is about the size of a hardback book (maybe 7or 8"x11") and about an inch thick, has a seperate power supply that plugs in and an ethernet port. Ive heard of people that live about 16 miles away in small town using them. (my brother told me one of his co-workers built a water proof box put one in it and mounted on his roof) I paid 50$ plus 1st 2 months and took it home. 128k=24.95 386k=34.95 < mine 512k=59.95 768=89.95 1.5m=129.95 they have spam and antivirus protection web hosting from the 34.95 up and 25 email addresses for the 59.95 up . its called meganet 
info for my ip 
www.plateautel.com/meganet.cfm
sorry to hijack this thread so badly


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Jacob: You're asking questions that entire segments of the 'net can't answer. 

Real quickly, it CAN be done, doesn't cost too much if you have good LOS, but implementation can get complex. I suggest you contact your local computer geeks, but meanwhile, start with http://www.seattlewireless.net


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

When you say implementation do you mean if I do not have LOS? I do have hills and trees here. Perhaps if I knew someone that lived on a hill that could get the LOS to relay it to me then I could get it to work that way, or put up a tower (in which I have) to get the LOS. 

I like messing with signals/electronics and experimenting a little when it comes to satellites as it is my hobby and I also have an interest in wisp although I have not messed with it any further than using a wireless router and my wireless 802.11b card on a friend's high speed connection in town.

I am also curious as to what it would take to get Verizon to get a central office here, how many subscribers they would need to make it profitable and worthwhile for them. I also wonder if get my own service out here how many people I would need to take the service in order for me to break even or make a profit on it and what all is involved in doing so. Basically I want to see what all my options are and see if it is even possible to link some people together (perhaps every mile or two) between where I live to where the high speed internet is available to get it at my house and/or offer it to others where I live.


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