Dish will launch a nationwide broadband service under the brand dishNET, hoping to add a new revenue stream on top of its pay-TV business starting 10/1. It will cost anywhere between $39.99 and $69.99 a month for customers who also take its TV service. Remember, DISH introduced Dish Broadband, a DISH-branded service powered via a wholesale relationship with Viasat, during the CES Show in January.
This is an expansion of Dish Broadband to now include Hughes Satellite, which launched its Echostar XVII/Jupiter 1 satellite on 7/5. This takes that offering nationwide.
“14.5 million underserved rural residents no longer need to wait for broadband build out,” says DISH in a release.
dishNET is a high-speed Internet service via satellite nationwide. It will offer customers one bill, one installation, one customer service number and a $10 monthly discount when bundled with DISH’s popular TV programming packages.
Ideal for rural residents underserved, or unserved, by wireline broadband, dishNET offers 4G-level speeds that are about 50% faster than the typical residential broadband connections in American homes.
The service offers rural residents download speeds up to 10 Mbps. These speeds are fast enough for typical Internet applications, including social media, telecommuting, music streaming, online video streaming and even Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.
DISH CEO Joseph Clayton is unveiled dishNET at the flagship Cowboy Maloney’s Electric City retail store in Jackson, MS, the historic retail launch site of digital satellite TV and satellite radio services: “Today, we are launching a revolutionary consumer broadband service that delivers high-speed Internet available in metropolitan areas to rural markets nationwide,” Clayton said. “With nearly one-in-four rural residents lacking a high-speed connection, reaching these underserved markets is vital. Our mission is to provide broadband at an outstanding value with fast speeds and large data plans.”
In August, the FCC reported 19 million Americans lack access to high-speed Internet, including 14.5 million who live in rural regions. The FCC highlighted that 23.7% of rural residents lack broadband access.
RBR-TVBR observation: The service will not be as fast as cable or fiber optic broadband, so when these services do reach the areas DishNet has customers, they may bail. Satellite broadband provided decent speed on the download (12Mbps), but only 3Mbps on the upload. So uploading videos on FB or Twitter will be markedly slower. But it’s certainly better than dial up!
