Hughes Europe and Bentley Walker to Provide New Ka-band Services to the Middle East

Bentley Walker extends existing broadband service to military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan with enhanced high-throughput consumer offering

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Hughes Network Systems, LLC

Oct 23, 2012, 08:00 ET

MILTON KEYNES, England, Oct. 23 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Hughes Europe and Bentley Walker will launch Ka-band communications services in the Middle East over the Avanti Hylas 2 satellite, opening up significant new satellite capacity in the region.

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As part of the new agreement, which builds on the companies' existing long-standing relationship, Bentley Walker has purchased three additional Gateway NOCs from Hughes. This includes two of the latest HX System 4.0s, enabling resellers to set up local Virtual Network Operators (VNOs).

This will allow Bentley Walker to augment its existing Ka-band broadband offering, providing broadband communications services to US military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan for morale, welfare and recreation (MWR) purposes. Existing users will be able to benefit from an easy upgrade path to the new Ka-band service, which offers higher throughput speeds at lower cost using a smaller dish.

"With our strong history of success working with Hughes Europe, together with Avanti's reputation for technical excellence, we are delighted to be among the first resellers to take full advantage of the new Ka-band services," confirms Anthony Walker, CEO of Bentley Walker. "This will enable us to offer higher speed packages, allowing soldiers to benefit from consistent broadband delivery at the speeds they choose."

Chris O'Dell, vice president of sales at Hughes Europe, said, "We have unrivalled experience as the largest provider of broadband services to the consumer market in the US and we understand what individual users want. This landmark deal with Bentley Walker will provide enhanced services to soldiers who need reliable and secure communications to stay in touch with family and friends while they are deployed."

About Hughes Europe
Hughes Europe is the European operating and sales organisation for Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) with facilities in Germany, the UK, and Italy. Utilising its satellite hub earth station and network operations centre in Griesheim, Germany, Hughes Europe provides Hughes broadband satellite and terrestrial solutions to large enterprises, government organisations and small businesses throughout the continent, both directly and through a growing family of value-added service providers. These networks support rapid, reliable transmission of data, voice, video, and multimedia content. For more information, please visit www.hugheseurope.com.

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 TIA, ETSI and ITU organisations, 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