EchoStar / Hughes Network Systems Q2 2022

In its 2Q 2022 financial results, satellite operator EchoStar and its subsidiary Hughes Network Systems reported:

• Hughes’ long-awaited Jupiter-3 satellite is pushed back again – now expected to launch in the first half of 2023 instead of the most recently expected forecast of the 2023 first quarter. Maxar Technologies is building the satellite and has conducting vacuum testing.
• Hughes President Pradman Kaul said he is confident that the satellite will meet this schedule and he expects it to enter service in the first half of 2023 as well.
• Hughes’ broadband business continues to shed subscribers to SpaceX Starlink. The company reported 1,346,000 broadband subscribers at the end of the quarter, a decline of 60,000 from March 31, 2022. Kaul said latency issues are driving some customers to SpaceX “The biggest threat right now clearly, is Starlink,” he said on the investor call.
• Hughes revenue slightly increased in the first half of 2022, compared to the same period last year, with $985,947 in revenue, an 1.8% increase from the same time period last year. Hughes makes up most of EchoStar’s revenue.
• EchoStar overall reported $1 million in revenue in the first half of the year, up 1.9% from the same time last year. Net income in the first half of 2022 was $99,418.
• Hughes is preparing to rollout a service called HughesNet Fusion, that combines GEO and LTE capacity, with hopes it will reduce churn from users who require faster latency