Hughes Wins 'Changing Lives' Award at VSAT 2015 Global Satellite Industry Conference

International award honors company's role in India's medical education system

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Sep 28, 2015, 08:00 ET

GERMANTOWN, Md., Sept. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 17 at the 17^th annual VSAT satellite industry conference held in London, Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes), the global leader in broadband satellite solutions and services, was selected as winner of the "Changing Lives" award, which recognizes an inspiring initiative that has significantly impacted telecommunications in a community, assisting in alleviating hardship and contributing to subsequent economic and social development.

Hughes has developed an innovative satellite-based training solution, known as the Hughes Interactive Onsite Learning platform, and is working with medical tutoring schools in India to help meet the growing demand for key specialties such as gerontology and endocrinology, as well as to deliver basic healthcare services to rural communities. The solution delivers virtual 3D-quality capabilities enabling direct eye contact, voice interaction, and chat-based queries between students and instructors, and is reaching rural communities across India.

"The quality, cost-effectiveness and adaptability of the satellite-based training solutions developed by Hughes and its partners for medical specialties opens the door to their application in basic health care—such as pre- and post-natal education in the large number of rural communities across India—as well as non-medical areas, such as business practices and engineering," said David Hartshorn, secretary general of the Global VSAT Forum and one of the judges for the award.

Another judge, Robert Bell, executive director of the Society of Satellite Professionals, commented: "Hughes won the award in my view because of the scale of the solution, reaching 25,000 medical students in 50 cities; its targeting of a serious bottleneck in healthcare, which is the physician training in underserved areas; and the fact that it should be possible to reproduce it fairly easily in other emerging market countries facing similar problems. When it comes to changing lives, Hughes has made a big dent in a vital quality-of-life issue for India."

Accepting the award for Hughes was Vinod Shukla, senior vice president International at Hughes, who commented, "Hughes is honored to be recognized by this major satellite industry group for a very meaningful award—which applies the latest technology in connecting people and improving lives no matter where they live or work."

About Hughes Network Systems
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes) is the global leader in satellite broadband for home and office, delivering innovative solutions and a comprehensive suite of HughesON^™ managed services for enterprises and governments worldwide. 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 5 million systems to customers in over 100 countries, representing approximately 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.

About EchoStar
EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS) is a premier global provider of satellite and video delivery solutions. Headquartered in Englewood, Colo., and conducting business around the globe, EchoStar is a pioneer in secure communications technologies through its EchoStar Satellite Services, EchoStar Technologies Corporation and Hughes Network Systems business segments.

For more information, visit echostar.com. Follow @EchoStar on Twitter.

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SOURCE Hughes Network Systems, LLC