• A compact, well-engineered system that is simple and well engineered.
• A highly reliable network and fairly reliable system that behaves more like a real broadband network.
• An affordable, high-performance system.

WildBlue has expanded their capacity. WildBlue now uses two satellites - ANIK-F2, launched in 2004 and WildBlue-1, launched in December 2006. See the What's Up There section in the Educate Me area of this website for details. This newest satellite, designated WildBlue1 effectively triples WildBlue's capacity. Thus, while other consumer-grade satellite Internet providers are rationing their bandwidth and/or oversubscribing their network capacity, WildBlue is aggressively expanding theirs.

High installer/dealer standards - in theory. To their credit, WildBlue tries to enforce exacting standards with respect to their installer/dealer network. Training consists of online courses, classroom work and a hands-on lab, all of which are rigorous, cost $200 and must be passed with a minimum score of 80%. No outcome-based education or social promotion here. All WildBlue authorized installers must periodically re-certify as well. While much of the coursework is focused upon the technical and practical aspects of WildBlue installation and setup, considerable emphasis is placed on the importance of customer service and good customer relations. But there are several factors that work against this.

It is worth noting, however, that despite WildBlue's best efforts, the overall quality of installations has declined considerably over the last two years. This is a direct consequence of WildBlue's decision to alter their original marketing strategy. They have done two things:

• Mega-Dealers. They created what they call mega-dealers - internet-based boiler-room operations that cold-call into a market area, offer a great deal, and then try to find an installer to service the new account or to perform after-install service calls. The installer is paid very little for what can often be difficult work.

• Satellite TV Dealer Alliances. They have also created alliances with the two major satellite TV outfits - Dish Network and DirecTV. These outfits bundle TV service with WildBlue and they do it at prices that we - StarLAN -  cannot match. They do this by paying their WildBlue installers at TV installer rates. This is usually piecework, and the installer is expected to use his own supplies  - cable, connectors, etc.

A WildBlue installer certification is necessary to perform the work - as an installer, you can't activate a site without a valid installer ID. And just how many of the installers that these dealers send out actually have WildBlue certifications?  Every certified WildBlue installer has a photo ID  - ask to see it. Obviously, it’s a problem that WildBlue recognizes as witness the recent new dealer agreement. Here's the problem: the TV fulfillment and internet-based outfits work on very narrow margins. They have high installer turnover characteristic of any low-paying job and thus experience poor retention of qualified - and more importantly, certified -  talent.  So when a certified installer quits, there goes $200 plus travel plus time off for the training going out the door. I have heard from other installers that two local outfits here in northern Idaho ‘lend out’ their installer IDs to unqualified individuals. One company operates out of Post Falls; the other, out of Sandpoint. They do poor work like that shown in the photos below. The problem: bad mount location and no support arms plus substandard cabling. Needless to say, this customer is NOT getting the speeds or the reliability they paid for.

So now WildBlue isn't happy with install quality – a problem that they created themselves. The $12.00/hr or piecework TV installer types the mega-dealers and TV fulfillment outfits send out are by and large the ones responsible for the overwhelming percentage of bad installations. So WildBlue is now threatening their installers with $100 charge backs for bad installations. Let's remember: because of the way they are paid, installers have absolutely no stake in the installation nor are they interested in long-term customer relations. They basically don’t give a damn. And that’s why nothing’s going to change regardless of what WildBlue holds over its installers’ collective heads. The dealers - the ones responsible for dispatching installers to the site - escape responsibility in this scheme of things. So they have no incentive to correct this problem. From the mega/TV dealers'  perspective, a bad installation is no big deal. Why? They're not taking the $100 hit, they can always find another installer and they only receive $1.00 (yes, that one dollar) per month from each site in the way of residuals.

But it IS a big deal for you.

A Sub-standard WildBlue Installation

This site still looks like this as of November 2008, by the way, and it’s been like that for a while. It’s on Hwy 95 just north of Athol, ID. And it’s just one of many. We don't do that kind of work, as our installation page shows. We want 100% referenceable accounts and customer retention – that’s our goal. Now WildBlue went from a ‘Silver’ rating on http://www.Broadbandreports.com to ’sucks’, and more than 95% of that drop is installation related.  Hire us - not them.