Satellite broadband company WildBlue Communications Inc. said Tuesday it turned on for the first time its own satellite, greatly expanding its capacity.
The Denver-based company provides broadband Internet access to rural U.S. homes and businesses, using available capacity on a Canadian TV satellite to beam to dishes similar to those used for TV service.
WildBlue had filled up all available subscriber slots in many parts of the country, particularly in coastal states. The new satellite, WildBlue-1, will let the company accept new subscribers in those areas.
By the end of June, the company’s subscriber capacity will have more than tripled to 750,000, the company said.
WildBlue now has 130,000 customers, who pay between $50 and $80 a month for two-way Internet service with download speeds that are comparable to low-end Digital Subscriber Line service.
DENVER
Furniture Row plans its biggest Colo. store
Denver-based Furniture Row Cos. will build a 94,000-square-foot store housing all four of its brands – Oak Express, Bedroom Expressions, Sofa Mart and Denver Mattress – on the site of its existing Oak Express store at 5770 Broadway.
The store will be the chain’s largest in the state when it is completed. During construction, the Oak Express store will operate out of the Bedroom Expressions store at 5353 Bannock St.
The company will host a demolition ceremony for the Oak Express store on Monday, featuring NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Kenny Wallace.
ARAPAHOE COUNTY
Another condo plan swaps to apartments
Another planned condominium development is being converted into rental apartments. Peter Kudla, head of Metropolitan Homes and investment group Beacon Hill Investments, this week said The Flats at Whisper Sky, near East Mississippi Avenue and South Parker Road, is now being marketed as apartments.
The project originally was conceived as a 212-unit luxury condominium development.
NEW YORK
Two Nuggets have hot jerseys in China
Two Denver Nuggets again made the list of top-selling NBA player jerseys in China, the National Basketball Association announced Tuesday.
Allen Iverson’s jersey was again the league’s second-best seller in China, behind the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant. Carmelo Anthony’s was ranked sixth last year but dropped to ninth this season, the NBA said.
GOLDEN
Coors Brewing shows 2007 ad campaigns
Coors Brewing Co. unveiled 2007 advertising campaigns for its Coors Light, Keystone, Coors, Molson Canadian and Killian’s Irish Red brands Tuesday at its annual distributor convention in Las Vegas.
The Coors Light campaign will feature the new tagline “The World’s Most Refreshing Beer.” An online component of the campaign will remind consumers to “Catch the 4:53 to Happy Hour,” in which a Coors Light Silver Bullet Train “visits” adult consumers at 4:53 p.m. and encourages them to reward themselves with a Coors Light at the end of the workday.
The ads were created by DraftFCB-Chicago, Taxi New York and Avenue A Razorfish.
DENVER
Focus opens 1st phase of rehab project
Focus Property Group LLC said Tuesday it opened the first phase of its Broadway Triangle building rehabilitation project at Broadway and Larimer Street in Denver and signed the first tenant.
Focus Property Group is rehabilitating existing buildings and repositioning them for use by businesses. The project’s first tenant is The 400, a creative-services and lifestyle goods company operated by brothers Randy and Marc Kleiner and Kris Fry.
DENVER
Qwest gets top rating for service providers
Qwest recently earned the highest rating given in the North American Carrier Scorecard, a quarterly ranking of service providers issued by Light Reading, a media company covering the communications industry.
The scorecard noted Qwest’s success at selling bundled services and its “phenomenal growth” in broadband subscribers. Subscribership grew by 44 percent from the fourth quarter of 2005 to the fourth quarter of 2006.
WASHINGTON
United employment drops, Frontier’s rises
United Airlines had about 52,000 full-time equivalent employees in January, down from about 53,400 a year earlier.
Employment at U.S. airlines on the whole declined 0.5 percent year over year in January, according to figures released by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
While network carriers had a decline in employment, regional and low-cost carriers grew. Denver-based low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines had about 4,500 employees in January, up from about 4,200 a year earlier.
BOGOTA, Colombia
Extradition of 8 to be asked in Chiquita case
Colombia’s chief prosecutor said Tuesday he will demand the extradition of eight people allegedly involved with Chiquita’s payments to right-wing paramilitaries and leftist rebels in a region where it had profitable banana-growing operations.
The prosecutor also said in an interview with local RCN radio that his office has opened a formal investigation into allegations that Alabama-based coal producer Drummond Co. Inc. collaborated with paramilitaries to kill union members.
HOUSTON
Report says OSHA failed on inspections
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the U.S. agency responsible for worker safety, failed to inspect plants with enough care and frequency to prevent an accident like the 2005 explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery that killed 15 people and injured 170, the worst U.S. industrial accident since 1990, a government report said Tuesday.
Companies have plenty of safeguards for individual worker’s safety, but have a potentially deadly lack of sound procedures to measure “process safety,” according to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, which released the report.
SAN ANTONIO
Blockbuster CEO to leave with less pay
Blockbuster Inc. said chief executive John Antioco will leave by the end of this year after billionaire investor Carl Icahn led a fight to reduce his pay.
Antioco has been with the video-rental company since 1997 and will receive $8.04 million in compensation before he leaves, 62 percent less than the $21.2 million he was entitled to under terms of his contract, Blockbuster said in a statement.
