WildBlue Communications announced Tuesday that Liberty Satellite & Technology [OTC:LSTTA], Intelsat, National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and David Drucker, WildBlue’s chairman, have finalized their $156 million investment in the satellite broadband venture. Liberty Satellite, Kleiner Perkins and David Drucker are existing shareholders. Intelsat and NRTC are new investors in WildBlue and will join the board of directors as part of this investment.

WildBlue plans to deliver two-way broadband services via satellite, direct to homes and small offices throughout the contiguous United States in 2004. WildBlue initially will offer its services using its license for the U.S. Ka-band payload aboard Telesat Canada‘s Anik F2 satellite, being built by Boeing [NYSE: BA] and scheduled to launch in late 2003 into the 111.1degrees West orbital location. Based on future financing, WildBlue plans to launch its own satellite, WildBlue-1, being manufactured by Space Systems/Loral, into the 109.2 degrees West orbital location.