EchoStar Communications and DirecTV would sell broadband services

Satellite service providers EchoStar Communications and DirecTV are planning to launch their own broadband services in the market in collaboration with WildBlue Communications. The two companies would be targeting the rural markets where the big ISPs have a smaller presence.

This is huge news for WildBlue as they have a potential combined customer base of 27 million customers who are currently using either EchoStar or DirecTV services. This deal comes after they collaborated with AT&T Inc. last month.

The deal would prevent EchoStar and DirecTV from collaborating with any other satellite-broadband provider for the next five years. The financial details of this deal were not revealed to the media.

WildBlue charges between $50 and $80 a month for their broadband packages with speeds up to 1.5 megabits per second. The retail prices for the customers of EchoStar and DirecTV would differ, as they would have to pay for the infrastructure costs as well.