From MarketWatch.com today....WildBlue Communications, Inc., the leading provider of broadband satellite service throughout rural America, today announced the completion of a series of hardware and software system upgrades that have increased its total network capacity by more than 150,000 additional customers since the beginning of 2008. The upgrades bring WildBlue's total network capacity to over 640,000 customers, with capacity available throughout the entire country.
"When you're the fastest growing broadband satellite provider, you have to continue to provide room to grow," said David Leonard, WildBlue's Chief Executive Officer. "Our total system capacity to date is now 31 percent above where we started the year which is great news for our retailers and wholesalers who are working hard to bring on new customers."
The most recent upgrade involves the addition of enhanced transmission link hardware and software technologies that enable transmission of 50 percent more information bits through the same existing radio link. As a result, an increase of nearly 50 percent in capacity is realized in beams that were previously upstream (return path) constrained.
And, according to Thad Mazurczyk, WildBlue's Vice President of Engineering, there are more upgrades on the horizon. "Additional upgrades are planned across our network throughout the rest of the year and are expected to result additional capacity, with some beams in our high demand areas enjoying capacity increases of as much as 65 percent since the beginning of the year."
WildBlue estimates that there are over 11 million households in areas throughout the United States where DSL or cable broadband services are not available and that over 7.5 million of these households are still accessing the Internet through a traditional dial-up connection.
