Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) is the global leader in providing broadband satellite networks and services for large enterprises, governments, small businesses, and consumers. Headquartered in Germantown, Maryland, U.S.A., Hughes has shipped over 1.9 million systems to customers in over 100 countries, representing over 50% market share. HughesNet® is the leading broadband satellite service in the U.S., with over 470,000* consumer/SMB subscribers across the country enjoying the benefits of high-speed satellite Internet access. (*as of June 30, 2009).

Hughes owns and operates service businesses throughout the U.S., Europe, India, and Brazil, delivering continent-wide HughesNet broadband satellite connectivity along with an ever growing range of applications—such as high-speed Internet/Intranet access, distance learning, business TV, digital signage, and Voice over IP (VoIP). Major enterprise customers include many of the Fortune 1000 companies in virtually every vertical sector, including retail, lotteries, oil and gas, automotive, hospitality, restaurants, and financial services.

The Hughes SPACEWAY® 3 satellite entered commercial service in April 2008 and as of June 2009, is providing HughesNet services to approximately 170,000 consumer and SMB subscribers.

SPACEWAY 3 is the first communications satellite with on-board switching and routing, and has the highest traffic carrying capacity of any commercial satellite in operation, approaching 10 Gbps. Together with numerous other technology advances, it is unlocking a wealth of value-added, bandwidth-on-demand services, and has given Hughes the competitive advantage of offering the highest satellite speeds and service packages to individuals and small businesses that were either unobtainable or uneconomical in the past.

The HughesNet service plans enabled by SPACEWAY 3 are available to households and businesses across the U.S. and offer equivalent or higher speeds than from terrestrial DSL or cable providers—with download speeds from 1 Mbps up to 5 Mbps. SPACEWAY’s onboard switching and routing capability has allowed Hughes to bring several novel offerings to market, such as bandwidth-on-demand services; government emergency preparedness and response networks; and private networks for SMBs—a highly secure and easy-to-deploy solution that provides enterprise-grade VPNs for SMBs of all sizes. SMBs can readily enable any communications networking topology among their sites, directly connecting any number in a single hop via satellite for superior performance and reliability, without requiring landline connectivity or a central hub and network operations infrastructure.

In the rest of the world, Hughes supplies a growing family of authorized service providers, government organizations, and businesses with advanced broadband systems and terminals, enabling delivery of privately-operated and branded services and solutions. Hughes designed and manufactured products include satellite Network Operations Centers (NOCs) and gateways; two-way VSATs (very small aperture terminal) and satellite routers that operate in both star and mesh networks; mobile satellite handhelds and high-speed IP data terminals; and broadband wireless systems. Customers include leading fixed and mobile telecom operators and service providers worldwide, utilizing Hughes products tughes o offer “Internet everywhere” access for voice, e-mail, file transfers, and remote applications such as telemedicine, exploration, marine and aeronautical broadband, newsgathering, fleet operations, and emergency management.

Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Hughes maintains sales and support offices worldwide. Hughes is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: HUGH). For additional information, please visit http://www.hughes.com. â–