First Hughes JUPITER™ Gateway Commissioned and Delivering High-Speed System Traffic

GERMANTOWN, Md., Feb. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite solutions and services, today announced that the JUPITER Gateway and user terminals have successfully completed their factory and field qualifications and are now operational, delivering high-speed, end-to-end system traffic over the AMC 15 Ka-band satellite. Crossing this major milestone paves the way for the launch in Q2 2012 of JUPITER, a next-generation, high throughput satellite, which will deliver HughesNet® Gen4 broadband satellite Internet services across North America.

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Hughes is in the process of installing and testing the infrastructure for the JUPITER system with the initial Gateway providing support for multiple spot beams across the United States. Use of the Echostar AMC 15 Ka-band satellite is enabling Hughes to validate the user experience and high-speed service plans that will be delivered to subscribers starting in the summer of 2012. Designed with more download capacity than any other satellite in the world, the new JUPITER satellite will utilize an enhanced version of the IPoS standard, the world's leading broadband satellite standard approved by ETSI, TIA and ITU.  

"This is a very exciting time for Hughes," said Pradman Kaul, CEO of Hughes. "We are once again poised to push the envelope and bring a sophisticated, high throughput satellite to market, based on cutting-edge industry standards and with capabilities that will maintain our position as the world's leading integrated satellite service provider."  

Employing a multi-spot beam, bent pipe Ka-band architecture, the new geostationary satellite will provide significant additional capacity for HughesNet service in North America. JUPITER's capabilities will augment the successful SPACEWAY® 3 satellite and will be a key element in the delivery of the recently announced enhanced HughesNet Gen4 service later this year. HughesNet is the #1 satellite Internet provider in North America and currently has over 620,000 subscribers.

Contributing to its leadership position in the Ka-band satellite sector, Hughes is providing Yahsat with a Ka-band broadband satellite system including gateway equipment and terminals, as well as a complete OSS/BSS solution for their YahClick broadband services in the Middle East, Africa and Southwest Asia and also is supplying Avanti Communications Group with Ka-band gateways and terminals for operation over Avanti's HYLAS 1 and 2 satellite broadband services across Europe and the Middle East/Africa.

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 2.5 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.

©2012 Hughes Network Systems, LLC. Hughes, HughesNet, SPACEWAY, and JUPITER are trademarks of Hughes Network Systems, LLC.

SOURCE Hughes Network Systems