WildBlue has announced they'll be demonstrating 18Mbps residential satellite connectivity in Denver this Wednesday. Satellite customers of the two largest satellite carriers (HughesNet and Wild Blue) frequently complain that the carriers often fail to deliver their current advertised speeds, so we're sure many of them will believe 18Mbps when they see it. Judging from the press release and select reports, WildBlue/Hughesnet are making a joint play for broadband stimulus funds, so they're busy chatting up satellite broadband's future:Increased capacity might ease the incredibly low usage caps imposed upon customers, though upgrades obviously can do very little about miserable latency. In contrast, the usage caps of 5GB on 3G services seem robust by comparison, and we've slowly seen 3G operators eroding satellite broadband's already narrow market share.

HughesNet/WildBlue want stimulus funds used to pay for consumer-side satellite broadband hardware, though it probably makes more sense for Uncle Sam to subsidize more robust and lower latency connectivity options. In addition to high latency and low caps, satellite broadband is an extremely expensive option for consumers, with just 1.5Mbps/256kbps (with caps) running $90 a month.