Satellite hardware equipment maker ViaSat has acquired residential satellite operator WildBlue in a deal estimated to be worth $568 Million. WildBlue, which now has 400,000 rural satellite broadband customers, will become a subsidiary of ViaSat. According to the Associated Press, ViaSat plans to hold consumer prices steady; WildBlue currently offers service ranging from 512 kbps to 1.5 Mbps for between $39.95 and $79.95 a month. Since a belated launch, the carrier has consistently struggled with bandwidth capacity issues, so WildBlue imposes very low usage caps that if crossed result in users being throttled back to less than dial-up speeds.

For a few years, satellite broadband provider WildBlue was limited in the number of new customers they could add, because they lacked the capacity to actually serve them. This has generally been reflected in mediocre reviews (fairly common among satellite broadband carriers) and very low usage caps (pdf) that throttle user connections back to 28kbps downstream and 28kbps upstream. Earlier this month the carrier at least opened the door to more customers, adding a chunk of new capacity courtesy of Echostar. The company now says they've officially passed the 400,000 subscriber mark.

It took a very long time for satellite broadband operator WildBlue to get their first satellite into space, and it wasn't long after that the company quickly began suffering from capacity issues. Back in 2007, resellers for satellite broadband company WildBlue informed us that the carrier had frozen new orders because they were struggling with capacity.

When you've got a captive audience (like say, rural broadband customers with no other options), you can get away with a hell of a lot. Just ask Hughesnet, a satellite broadband company that's managed to stay in business despite offering consistently sub-par service to customers for much of the last few years.

Earlier this week, we noted how satellite broadband provider WildBlue announced they'd soon be testing 18Mbps satellite service. The timing of the announcement comes as Wild Blue and HughesNet are trying to convince Uncle Sam that satellite broadband would be a great way to spend billions in broadband stimulus money. But in conversations with GigaOM's Stacey Higginbotham, Wild Blue reveals top actual speeds offered would be closer to 10Mbps, such speeds are still three years out, and apparently dependent on Wild Blue getting some help from Uncle Sam. If you remember how long it took Wild Blue to get their first satellite into space, you might not want to hold your breath.

WildBlue has announced they'll be demonstrating 18Mbps residential satellite connectivity in Denver this Wednesday. Satellite customers of the two largest satellite carriers (HughesNet and Wild Blue) frequently complain that the carriers often fail to deliver their current advertised speeds, so we're sure many of them will believe 18Mbps when they see it.

Satellite broadband provider WildBlue this morning announced that customers will no longer have to buy hardware outright, and can now lease equipment from the company. According to Wild Blue, this should reduce the upfront cost to new customers by 50% to around $149.95 for a new install. Customers will now pay a lease fee of $5.95 for equipment. "The upfront fee has always been the most challenging hurdle for new WildBlue customers, particularly in this economy", WildBlue quotes a satellite reseller as saying in their press release.

HughesNet has historically been the company with the biggest satellite broadband subscriber base but experts in the industry are predicting that comer-up WildBlue has the potential for 50/50 market share before the end of the year. WildBlue is the fastest-growing satellite broadband provider despite problems with capacity in the past. Announcements that these problems are resolved, rumors that HughesNet may eventually also face capacity problems and WildBlue's ability to offer competitive pricing all contribute to the rapid growth of the WildBlue subscriber base. However, it’s notable that HughesNet offers a nominal maximum download speed of 1 Mbps which is significantly faster than the speeds offered by WildBlue so people seeking faster service may still lean in favor of HughesNet.

Last fall I noted that satellite broadband operator WildBlue had stopped taking new orders entirely in a number of states because they lacked adequate capacity. Resellers told me the ISP stopped taking new orders in Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Louisiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Northern Indiana and parts of Texas.

Caps and traffic throttling are a major reason why the reviews for satellite broadband provider HughesNet are so painfully mediocre. HughesNet customers who exceed the company's daily, rolling bandwidth caps (aka "the FAP"), which range from 200MB to 1250MB depending on tier) find their connections throttled for 24 hours to speeds easily bested by rural American dial-up -- circa 1995 (users say around 7-14kbps).

According to a new report by Pike & Fischer, satellite broadband companies will serve nearly 1.3 million homes by 2012. Given the sorry state of satellite broadband (strained capacity, incredibly low caps, poor reviews) that's good or bad news depending on how you look at it.

As we mentioned in September, satellite broadband providers like WildBlue have been struggling to meet capacity, and have stopped taking new orders in certain parts of the country. ViaSat says that a new satellite that they've developed may help such providers, because it will have ten times the capacity of today's satellites.

Echostar, operators of Dish Network, say they've struck a deal to acquire Sling Media, makers of the Slingbox, for $380 million. Echostar, who was already an investor in Sling, apparently decided simply to buy the operations during funding discussions.