WildBlue Communications, Inc., a provider of broadband Internet over satellite service throughout rural America, today announced it has completed a $50 million equity financing to support its continued growth. The financing was led by Liberty Media [Nasdaq: LCAPA/B, LINTA/B and LMDIA/B], Intelsat, the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative and the private equity firm of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, however, terms of the financing were not disclosed.

The proceeds will fund WildBlue's recently launched customer equipment leasing program, enabling the company's service to be offered to new customers throughout rural America at the lowest upfront price in the company's history.  WildBlue will also expand its workforce in the areas of customer care and field service operations.

WildBlue estimates that there are over 11 million households in areas throughout the United States where DSL or cable broadband services are not available and that over seven million of these households are still accessing the Internet through a traditional dial-up connection.