DirecTV and satellite-data provider ViaSat are both marketing a double play of satellite TV and Internet -- touting ViaSat’s Exede speeds of up to 12 Mbps as an alternative to “slow DSL,” even as DirecTV continues to resell DSL services through existing partnerships with telcos.
The two companies are offering a $10 per month discount for the first 12 months and waiving ViaSat’s normal $50 setup fee for subs who also take a DirecTV video package.
The broadband service is available in Internet tiers priced at $39.99, $69.99 and $119.99 per month, with monthly data-usage caps of 10, 15 and 25 Gigabytes respectively.
Dish Network also has a deal with ViaSat, reselling the satellite broadband service under its dishNET brand, and like DirecTV offers a $10 per month discount to bundle subscribers. Dish offers a 10 Mbps downstream plan capped at 20 GB per month for $49.99 per month.
Also like Dish, DirecTV is targeting the ViaSat service at rural and other “unserved” regions. In addition, the two satellite TV operators each have reseller deals with EchoStar’s Hughes Network Systems for satellite broadband.
"By teaming up with Exede to offer this bundle of broadband packages of up to 12 Mbps, customers in rural and unserved markets no longer have to settle for slow DSL or dial-up service," Shannon Campain, senior vice president of sales and marketing operations for DirecTV, said in a statement. "By delivering the most robust bundle offering of any video provider, we open up more opportunities for further growth in these largely unserved areas."
Meanwhile, DirecTV continues to offer DSL as part of bundle packages with AT&T, Verizon Communications, CenturyLink, Cincinnati Bell and Windstream Communications. "ViaSat is the bundle option when the telco partners are not available," DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer wrote in an email.
ViaSat offers more information about the DirecTV bundle offers at www.exede.com/internet-packages-pricing/directv-bundle-offer. However, the bundles cannot be ordered online; customers must call ViaSat or DirecTV to order them.
ViaSat’s Exede service became fully available in March 2012. The Via-Sat1 satellite that it uses to deliver the service provides coverage of 70% of the U.S. population, including the most populated areas of Alaska and Hawaii, according to the company.
The DirecTV-ViaSat bundle offer is available only to customers who have not had DirecTV service during the previous 24 months and who are also new Exede Internet customers with approved credit. Customers must agree to separate two-year service agreements to receive both DirecTV and Exede Internet services.
ViaSat’s bundle offers are set to expire on Jan. 31, 2013, while DirecTV’s offers end on Feb. 6, 2013.
