For years the rumor has floated out there that either Verizon or AT&T would buy DirecTV in order to have direct control of the company's satellite TV operations. Sometimes these rumors are based in conjecture, but more often than not they're based on nothing whatsoever. With DirecTV prepared to get a new CEO (their last CEO just departed to be Rupert Murdoch's right-hand man at News Corp.), the rumors are apparently bubbling up once again. According to Reuters, representatives from both AT&T and Verizon have approached Liberty Media over the last few years about a sale, and the outlet cites sources who believe new CEO Michael White is little more than a "babysitter" until this endlessly-rumored deal can be accomplished.

Satellite hardware equipment maker ViaSat has acquired residential satellite operator WildBlue in a deal estimated to be worth $568 Million. WildBlue, which now has 400,000 rural satellite broadband customers, will become a subsidiary of ViaSat. According to the Associated Press, ViaSat plans to hold consumer prices steady; WildBlue currently offers service ranging from 512 kbps to 1.5 Mbps for between $39.95 and $79.95 a month. Since a belated launch, the carrier has consistently struggled with bandwidth capacity issues, so WildBlue imposes very low usage caps that if crossed result in users being throttled back to less than dial-up speeds.

The Wall Street Journal thinks consolidation will soon be back in vogue, especially after Comcast's recent legal victory against the FCC-imposed 30% TV viewer ownership cap. Without really any sourcing, the company throws out a slew of possible mergers and acquisitions, suggesting that Comcast could show eventual interest in Time Warner Cable and Verizon could buy Dish Network. The paper also trots out one of the oldest acquisition rumors in telecom history, AT&T's supposed interest in acquiring DirecTV:Of course the last thing AT&T needs is to further skimp on their terrestrial network investment -- their decision to milk copper with VDSL already has the telco struggling to keep pace with faster cable DOCSIS 3.0 offerings. The Journal cites antitrust lawyers who don't think the current regulatory climate will prevent additional mergers, particularly if the carriers don't directly compete. What's your vote for the next big telecom deal?

For a few years DirecTV has been tinkering with a service that delivers video to the company's satellite customers via broadband, putting them on an interesting collision course with their cable and phone company competitors. When DirecTV recently extended their exclusive distribution deal with the NFL they included the right to deliver NFL games via broadband, something the company will begin testing this fall in NYC. According to USAToday, the service initially will only be made available to those customers who can't receive a satellite signal, and will cost a whopping $349 per season.

It took a very long time for satellite broadband operator WildBlue to get their first satellite into space, and it wasn't long after that the company quickly began suffering from capacity issues. Back in 2007, resellers for satellite broadband company WildBlue informed us that the carrier had frozen new orders because they were struggling with capacity. This week the carrier says they're adding additional capacity which should help them with some of these capacity concerns -- for now.

According to a new announcement by WildBlue, the company is adding additional capacity in the form of Ka band capacity bandwidth reserved on EchoStar's AMC-15 satellite.