Small Businesses Get the Competitive Edge with HughesNet

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Small Businesses Get the Competitive Edge with HughesNet

Survey identifies customer communication as key to rural small business
adoption of broadband

Germantown, Md., January 8, 2008— In a survey conducted by Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite network solutions and services, rural small businesses state that staying connected to their customers is the primary reason for needing a reliable broadband connection. The survey of nearly 600 self-identified small business owners and managers indicated that customer communications, research, and order processing were primary needs addressed by broadband services.

Of the small businesses surveyed, 95 percent used their connection to send and receive customer e-mail. Sixty-four percent of respondents indicated that they used their HughesNet^® broadband satellite Internet connection to conduct research.

“As a real estate agent, it is virtually impossible to download MRIS listings on a dial-up connection,” said Lee Sherbeyn, a rural Virginia-based HughesNet subscriber. “It would take literally 45 minutes to run a search for a particular housing listing when I was using dial-up.”

“HughesNet changed the way I run my businesses. Real estate database searches that previously took nearly an hour now can be completed in seconds. I can upload, download, and email photos of houses to my clients without worrying about tying up my phone line for extended periods of time,” continued Sherbeyn. “HughesNet is the difference between making a sale and watching my client miss out on the house of their dreams.”

In addition to using the Internet to stay connected to customers, nearly 50 percent of survey respondents use the Internet to process customer orders. Respondents indicated that they spend more than 40 hours per week using the Internet for business purposes.

In a 2006 speech, President Bush called for terrestrial broadband access to be completely deployed in rural communities by the end of 2007. Yet today there are still an estimated 10 million households or more in rural areas of the US that are not served by terrestrial broadband providers. Fortunately, for these consumers and small business owners, HughesNet is available to fill the gap.

“To be successful in today's competitive marketplace, small businesses must be able to obtain and promptly respond to orders online, conduct research, purchase inventory, access electronic documents from suppliers, and receive large e-mail attachments with ease,” said Peter Gulla, vice president of marketing for North America, Hughes.

“To send and receive this information efficiently and quickly, small business owners need broadband access. HughesNet gives small businesses—regardless of geography—the broadband access they need to be successful,” Gulla added.

HughesNet is available throughout the continental U.S. , and currently serves more than 365,000 consumers and small businesses in nearly 26,000 zip codes underserved by cable and DSL. For more information about HughesNet consumer and small business broadband satellite services, please visit www.hughesnet.com or call 1-866-859-2268.

The survey was conducted by email and distributed to more than 20,000 current HughesNet subscribers. More than 580 respondents identified themselves as “small business owners,” or “small business managers,” and provided input to questions about usage trends, business needs and business growth.

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 encompasses all broadband solutions and managed services from Hughes, bridging the best of satellite and terrestrial technologies. Hughes has shipped more than 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 www.hughes.com .