FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ESSROC Improves Operational Effectiveness and Efficiency with HughesNet Access Continuity Solution

HughesNet^® Increases Network Uptime and Ensures Business Continuity for North American Cement Maker

Germantown, Md., November 27, 2007— Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) today announced that it is providing ESSROC, a leading North American cement producer, with HughesNet Access Continuity, a diverse path backup solution that ensures communications continuity. By the end of the year, Hughes will have equipped all thirty-three North American ESSROC offices with the backup satellite broadband service.

ESSROC's entire business relies on broadband connectivity to efficiently manufacture, package, and distribute cement throughout North America, connecting manufacturing plants, corporate offices, shipping terminals, and almost 1000 employees. ESSROC turned to Hughes to provide a back-up satellite broadband solution after realizing that the redundant landline network purchased from its primary network provider also went down if the provider's central office had problems.

“When you back up a landline network with another landline network, it is vulnerable to the same problems as the primary network,” said Ted Fritchlee, senior network engineer, ESSROC. “We previously used an ISDN to backup our MPLS wide area network, but after the local phone company had an outage at its central office, we approached Hughes and went non-terrestrial.”

ESSROC runs all accounting, processing, email, bulk loading, time and attendance, safety, and compliance data over its network. HughesNet Access Continuity uses satellite broadband technology to create a truly diverse path to the primary landline network, ensuring that all ESSROC's mission-critical applications stay up and running on the network if the primary MPLS network fails.

“Without an access continuity solution, we have to turn to manual processes to keep our business moving,” explains Fritchlee. “We can get by, but we're not as effective or efficient. In short, without HughesNet, a landline network outage can seriously disrupt our business.”

“In today's economy, businesses totally rely on their networks and face huge losses if their networks go down,” said Mike Cook, senior vice president, Hughes. “We've designed HughesNet Access Continuity to ensure that our customers can maintain operational efficiency, safety, and communications with corporate offices, shipping, and distribution centers in the case of a network outage.”

HughesNet Access Continuity provides organizations with broadband backup services for their landline networks at a single site, a handful of sites, or the entire network depending on what the business requires. Customers retain complete operations and management control of the primary landline network, and determine the policies governing connectivity when the primary path is not available.

HughesNet Access Continuity includes network design assistance, installation, maintenance, and management of the satellite-based backup network. The result is an overall network that can operate at greater than 99.99% availability at a reasonable cost.

Hughes has more than 30 years experience providing enterprise network solutions and services. The HughesNet Managed Services suite also includes High Availability VPNs and Optimized VPNs. To learn more about these offerings, please visit www.hughesnet.com or call (866) 240-3785.

About ESSROC

ESSROC is a leading North American cement producer with over 6.5 million metric tons of annual capacity. With headquarters in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, ESSROC operates production facilities located throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. These facilities are linked through an integrated supply network connecting all ESSROC plants, terminals, and markets.

ESSROC is a member of the Italcementi Group of companies. Italcementi is a world leader in cement production with annual sales of about 5.8 billion euros and operations in 22 countries on four continents. For additional information, please visit www.essroc.com .

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. To date, 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 .