El Segundo, Calif. –
said Thursday it will soon offer broadband service bundles with its
subscription TV services to subscribers across the country, through new deals
reached with satellite next-generation broadband service providers ViaSat and
Hughes.
DirecTV will offer the ViaSat’s
Exede by Hughes’ HughesNet Gen4 satellite broadband services, both of which
provide speeds of more than 10Mbps.
When the services begin later this year, the direct-to-home
satellite TV provider said it expects most early broadband subscribers will be
customers living in un-served, rural areas.
The new offering will give the satellite-TV provider a bundled-services
solution to compete with the triple-play offerings from Verizon, AT&T,
Century Link and other telco providers.
Customers who sign up for satellite broadband through DirecTV will
be able to take advantage of special offers beginning later this year.
More details on the offers and marketing plans will be made
available closer to launch.
“We
look forward to offering every single DirecTV customer access to fast,
affordable broadband options through DirecTV, no matter where they live,” said
Oswin Eleonora, DirecTV emerging markets senior VP. “With greatly improved
capacity and speeds, satellite broadband services provided by ViaSat and Hughes
will fully support our customers’ connected-home experience, enabling them to
access a host of features like YouTube, Pandora, social TV apps and more than
7,000 VOD titles.”
