[Satellite TODAY Insider 11-18-11] Hughes Network Systems reported that a considerable number of its subscribers were unable to continue paying for their service and were disconnected in the 2011 third quarter, which caused zero growth of its subscriber base during the period ending Sept. 30.

   In a Nov. 17 conference call accompanying the U.S. broadband and satellite company’s latest financial results, Hughes President Pradman Kaul said his company’s third quarter performance represented a temporary slowdown and that management expects the trend to change in the coming months.

   “An equal number of new customers signed on during the same period, permitting us to report at least no decline in its subscriber base. However, the amount of subscribers we added during this most recent quarter is close to the highest we’ve seen recent years.” Kaul said during the conference. “The number of customers we removed from the HughesNet service also was unusually high, due to credit reasons that we believe have been driven by the very difficult macroeconomic climate. We have introduced several enhancements to the pre-activation process including a more detailed credit assessment.”

   EchoStar Corp. acquired Hughes in June 2011. According to an EchoStar filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Hughes maintained approximately 626,000 consumer and small-business subscribers in the United States. Hughes received a $59 million grant under the U.S. government broadband stimulus package that provides discounts to unserved and underserved broadband customers in rural regions of the United States. Hughes did not report how many customers were added under the stimulus program.

   Hughes’ all-Ka-band Jupiter broadband satellite is scheduled for launch in the first half of 2012. The company has spent the past two years migrating its subscribers to its own Spaceway 3 Ka-band satellite, which can accommodate as many as 600,000 subscribers, said Kaul. “Jupiter utilizes a less-flexible satellite design but one with 10 times the raw throughput. Our estimates show the satellite will be able to accomodate between 1.5 million to 2 million subscribers.”

   Kaul added that could commission a Jupiter 2 satellite for Latin America, using orbital slots recently purchased at a Brazilian telecommunications regulator auction. Hughes paid $98 million for both positions at 45 degrees West and 68.5 degrees West. In the SEC filing, EchoStar said the transfer of rights to those positions would follow the resolution of a protest made by one of the losing bidders of the orbital slots.