[3/21/07] WildBlue Communications Inc. has started operations with its WildBlue-1 satellite, which will allow the company to more than triple its customer capacity, WildBlue announced March 20.

Wildblue-1, built by Space Systems/Loral, was placed into orbit in December, and WildBlue expects the additional capacity to be available to all areas of the contiguous United States before the end of the second quarter.

WildBlue launched commercial service in June 2005 using the Anik F2 satellite, and has more than 130,000 customers. The company will continue to use the capacity aboard Anik F2 to provide service.