DirecTV Stops Selling WildBlue – May be Working With Dish/Hughes On New Option
<a href="http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/DirecTV-Stops-Selling-WildBlue-118203″>
DirecTV has traveled a <a href="http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/80262″>somewhat rocky road when it comes to offering broadband, their effort at <a href="http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/24579″>being a DSL provider failing rather spectacularly in 2002. They’ve flirted with several options since then, though aside from some <a href="http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-DirecTV-Testing-LTEBased-Home-Broadband-111773″>finished fixed residential LTE trials with Verizon, ultimately settled on just reselling satellite broadband service from WildBlue. Interestingly, DirecTV is sending out an e-mail to customers saying they’ll no longer be selling WildBlue satellite broadband service. More interestingly perhaps is the fact that DirecTV may replace this with a broadband service from HughesNet/Dish:
More interesting, however, is that the company says not offering an internet service “is a temporary situation” for resellers to manage. “Stay tuned for a DIRECTV satellite broadband bundle offering coming soon!” (Original emphasis.) While it is unclear how DIRECTV plans to launch such a service, rumblings from the dealer chain hint at a possible deal with HughesNet. Yes… Hughes. As in DISH’s Hughes.
Dish is also eager to go beyond just satellite broadband, and is currently working on plans to deploy an LTE network. It seems inevitable that one or both companies start seriously exploring a fixed residential LTE service to bundle with satellite TV. While it still wouldn’t seriously compete with landline broadband, such a service would likely offer faster speeds, lower latency and even more reasonable caps than current satellite offerings.