When will Wildblue satellite start ?

Will this service come to us in May or March of 2005? They wont tell me hopefully next month?

I spoke to the Master Distributor about a week ago and they don't look for service to be available until at least June 2005.  The Sales organization, which will be a combination of NRTC (a rural elect. coop) and two Master Distributors haven't even provided the sales agents with documentation to sell the service yet....it could easily slip into 3rd Q 2005 at this pace.
I will be updating the progress at: www.vsatus if you are interested.

Thanks for the update Randy... Hopefully it won't be later than that.

Wildblue has officially started with the expected ramp up availability of equipment happening as expected, slowly.

I don't object to slippage of start-up dates.  However, after sending an email enquiry about service a week ago, it's as if the message went to Mars.  
 
They should at least respond with a "Not in your area, not yet."  The September "availability" is obviously a pipe dream.  
 
The service and pricing seems to be fantastic.  If not available by the middle of October, I'll have to go with DirecPC or some other.  
 
Dave Thompson

This is what I am thinking, too.  Wild Blue might be vapor ware, I don't know, even if they have the satellite in the sky like someone was saying, that doesn't mean they can make it work in my area in a timely fashion.  Where I live it isn't really remote, but it is rural and the only options are dial up or sat.  I live about seven miles from a town of 12000.  Clearwire is coming to a town about 20 miles from that.  Wish they were here.

Does anybody know about the new Wildblue service launching early 2005.  I read it was faster than direcway

Supposedly faster, supposedly cheaper - both up front hardware costs and subsequent monthly subscriptions. Nobody's had a chance - no consumer group anyway - to test drive their algorithm for rain fade though. Ka-band wavelengths are notoriously susceptible.  
 
But I'm on the waiting list, anticipating start up next year.  If/when I actually get online with WildBlue, I'll be able to give you some first hand impressions.
 
//greg//

Wild blue will 25 to 50 times faster than dial up.

It's going to be shared bandwidth. The speed will be inversely proportional to the numbers of simultaneous users. 25-50 times faster than dialup is entirely possible, but don't look for it to be consistent.
 
//greg//
 

Greg is right on the money.....the big question will be how much spot band technology can be "oversubscribed" and still deliver advertised speeds......it is crucial to the survival of this technology and relatively untested to this point.