Hughes Continues Market Leadership in Satellite Network Industry According to Latest COMSYS Report

Satellite industry analyst company confirms Hughes leadership globally with over 50% market share of VSAT terminals sold

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Hughes Network Systems, LLC

Feb 01, 2010, 09:00 ET

GERMANTOWN, Md., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite networks and services, today announced that according to the 2009 COMSYS VSAT Report, Hughes has continued its leadership position in the VSAT (very small aperture terminal) market, having shipped almost 320,000 VSATs across its product lines in 2009—over 26,000 each month. In the enterprise VSAT market, the report confirmed that Hughes has sold more than 165,000 terminals over the past two years, approximately half the total enterprise terminals sold globally and twice that of its nearest competitor. COMSYS is one of the satellite industry's leading analyst firms.

The 2009 report stated that Hughes maintained its market leadership because of significant new developments on both its HN System and HX System platforms, including introduction of the HX260 mesh and multi-gateway product, and its new product sales strategy centered on the flexibility and advanced features of the HX System.

According to Simon Bull, senior analyst at COMSYS, "Hughes is the 800 pound gorilla of the VSAT market…The fact of the matter is that VSAT is Hughes and, in many ways, Hughes is VSAT. The company lives and breathes the technology at all levels from chipsets to installation, not least because it lays claim to having started the industry with its work in the early to late 1980s. As its positive financial results have demonstrated every quarter since it went public in 2006, what sets the company apart today and drives its growth is the service business. Beyond technology and product innovation, over the past several years Hughes has successfully morphed into being the world's leading broadband satellite service provider, as well as supplying a growing list of operators and service provider customers in the rest of the world with its broadband technologies and products."

In the satellite consumer market, COMSYS noted that the company's HughesNet® high-speed Internet service had reached 433,000 subscribers in the U.S. by the end of 2008, over 50 percent of the North American market. Hughes just recently reported that it had crossed the 500,000 subscriber mark.

"We are very pleased to once again be recognized by COMSYS as the market leader in the broadband satellite industry for our innovative technology and our highly successful HughesNet service business," said Pradman Kaul, chairman and CEO of Hughes. "With our announcement of plans to launch Jupiter, a high-throughput, multi-spot beam Ka-band satellite for North America, with over 100 Gbps of capacity, we are well positioned to continue our leadership in this industry."

To read the COMSYS Hughes Profile & Summary, please visit www.hughes.com. To order the full COMSYS VSAT Report, 11th Edition, please visit www.comsys.co.uk.

About COMSYS

COMSYS, based in the UK, is a specialized telecommunications consultancy company with a core expertise in satellite and VSAT technology. COMSYS produces a wide range of reports and custom advice in addition to developing conferences, workshops, and seminars around the world. For additional information, please visit www.comsys.co.uk.

About Hughes Network Systems

Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) is the global leader in providing broadband satellite networks and services for large enterprises, governments, small businesses, and consumers. HughesNet encompasses all broadband solutions and managed services from Hughes, bridging the best of satellite and terrestrial technologies. Its broadband satellite products are based on global standards approved by the TIA, ETSI and ITU standards organizations, including IPoS/DVB-S2, RSM-A and GMR-1. To date, Hughes has shipped more than 2.1 million systems to customers in over 100 countries.

Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Hughes maintains sales and support offices worldwide. Hughes is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: HUGH). For additional information, please visit www.hughes.com.

SOURCE Hughes Network Systems, LLC