Over 170,000 Hughes Satellite Terminals Employing DVB-S2 with ACM Shipped Worldwide

Over 170,000 Hughes Satellite Terminals Employing DVB-S2 with ACM Shipped Worldwide

February 22, 2007

Adaptive Coding Modulation Feature Provides Better
Performance and Efficiency than Other DVB-S2 Systems in the
Market


    GERMANTOWN, Md., Feb. 22 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Hughes
Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the world's leading provider
of broadband satellite network solutions and services, today
announced that over 170,000 Hughes-manufactured terminals
employing the DVB-S2/ACM feature have been shipped
worldwide. This validates Hughes as the leading supplier of
VSATs (very small aperture terminals) that are compliant
with the DVB-S2 industry standard, introduced by Hughes in
mid-2006, and which yield higher throughputs and more
efficient bandwidth utilization.

    "In Africa, satellite capacity is a critical
resource to our operation and the use of DVB-S2 with ACM
has allowed AFSAT to gain valuable additional capacity over
DVB-S," said Salim Suleman, CEO of AFSAT. "The
performance of this feature, combined with other bandwidth
efficiency techniques including adaptive coding of the
inbound channel, which is unique to Hughes, means that
AFSAT has more throughput available for our operations and
customers."

    The Hughes ACM feature means the combination of coding
and modulation of the outbound channel can be configured
for each remote terminal, so that the Hughes system is able
to transmit data at the optimum efficiency for each
terminal. This ability to custom design the outbound link
per terminal enables an operator typically to realize an
additional 50 percent throughput over the DVB-S
specification. As opposed to other implementations of
DVB-S2 which support only constant coding and modulation
(CCM), the Hughes ACM implementation typically provides 20
percent additional throughput over CCM. In regions of the
world where satellite capacity is scarce, this feature
brings additional capacity where it was not previously
available.

    "Gone are the days when a satellite system had to
be designed to accommodate the weakest link," said
Dave Jupin, vice president, International Division at
Hughes. "With the ACM feature, each link to a remote
terminal is custom designed. And unlike products from some
competitors, all Hughes terminals that are DVB-S2 compliant
also employ the very important ACM feature."

    About Hughes Network Systems

    Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) is the global
leader in providing broadband satellite networks and
services for large enterprises, governments, small
businesses, and consumers. HughesNet(TM) encompasses all
broadband solutions and managed services from Hughes,
bridging the best of satellite and terrestrial
technologies. To date, Hughes has shipped more than one 1.2
million systems to customers in over 100 countries. Its
broadband satellite products are based on the IPoS (IP over
Satellite) global standard, approved by the TIA, ETSI, and
ITU standards organizations.

    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 .

    Hughes, HughesNet, and IPoS are trademarks of Hughes
Network Systems, LLC.


    For more information, please contact:

     Judy Blake
     Hughes Network Systems, LLC
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

     Kimberly Pepper
     Brodeur
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]


SOURCE  Hughes Network Systems, LLC