Satellite broadband service provider Wildblue expects to have more than 25,000 subscribers by the end of the year, according to a letter from company CEO Dave Leonard that appeared on the Wildblue Web site Dec. 15. The company launched its service June 2.

Leonard attributed the subscriber figure to a high customer satisfaction rate, with nine out of 10 subscribers saying they would recommend Wildblue to a friend or family member. “That high customer satisfaction rate has helped us expand our customer base more quickly than we anticipated,” he said.

The demand has created capacity constraints in certain areas, Leonard said. “We are in the process of updating our network to match the increased demand in these spots, and we should be able to resume full installations nationwide in 2006,” he said.

To reach its target, Wildblue would be adding on average a little more than 4,000 subscribers per month. In comparison, competitor Hughes Network Systems LLC is gaining between 5,000 and 6,000 net adds per month for its Direcway satellite broadband service, HNS Chairman and CEO Pradman Kaul told sister publication Satellite News late last month.

Wildblue provides service via Telesat‘s Anik F2 satellite and is on track to launch its Wildblue 1 satellite in the fourth quarter 2006.