COMSYS Report Calls Hughes Dominant Force in Satellite Networking Industry

Research Cites Company's Agility, Technology and Market Leadership

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Feb 06, 2012, 07:00 ET

GERMANTOWN, Md., Feb. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite solutions and services, has again been cited by COMSYS, one of the satellite industry's leading research organizations, as the dominant provider in both enterprise and consumer industry segments by a wide margin.

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Just released, the 12th Edition of the COMSYS Report on the VSAT (very small aperture terminal) business credits Hughes with 49.8 percent market share in the global enterprise terminal market—double its nearest competitor—attributing it to:

adaptability in the face of changing market demands;
vertical integration―from manufacturing its own terminals to providing customer service; and
flexibility and application power.

According to Simon Bull, senior analyst at COMSYS, "Hughes' presence casts a shadow over almost every player in the market. Its dominance of the enterprise VSAT industry is remarkable in the fact that the company has been able to sustain its lead for over 20 years and that it has rolled with the punches and constantly responded with new developments which have kept it at the forefront of an intensely competitive market."

In the North American consumer market, the report shows Hughes with a 48.4 percent share, almost 12 percent more than its nearest competitor, and notes that its satellite Internet subscriber base is steadily expanding while that of competitors has stalled. Hughes operates the world's largest satellite Internet service, HughesNet®, with more than 620,000 subscribers in North America, and is the world's largest Ka-band network. The Ka-band spectrum provides higher bandwidth and delivers more capacity at faster speeds to smaller dishes than previous-generation Ku-band networks.

"One of the most gratifying aspects of this report is recognition that we're not sitting on our lead. Customers come to us and stay with us because they see steady improvements in bandwidth and download speeds. In our case, big does not mean slow and inflexible—it means agile and responsive," said Pradman Kaul, CEO, Hughes.

The report noted, "Hughes is the final word in vertical integration. It builds its entire ground segment (with the exception of the antennas); sells, operates and manages its own service; and now owns its own satellites. It alone has a highly successful service business that fuels its manufacturing arm and challenges its engineers to improve product performance and quality while driving down costs."

To read the COMSYS Hughes Profile & Summary, please visit www.hughes.com. To order the full COMSYS VSAT Report, 12th 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 world's leading provider of satellite broadband for home and office, delivering innovative network technologies, managed services, and solutions for enterprises and governments globally. HughesNet is the #1 high-speed satellite Internet service in the marketplace, with offerings to suit every budget. To date, Hughes has shipped more than 2.8 million systems to customers in over 100 countries, representing over 50 percent market share. Its products employ global standards approved by the TIA, ETSI and ITU organizations, including IPoS/DVB-S2, RSM-A, and GMR-1.

Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Hughes operates sales and support offices worldwide, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS), a premier global provider of satellite operations and digital TV solutions. For additional information about Hughes, please visit www.hughes.com.

SOURCE Hughes Network Systems, LLC