At Hughes, we have always known that our services enable important connectivity. Now, in the midst of a global pandemic, people and businesses everywhere are seeing first-hand just how essential satellite connectivity is to healthcare, the economy and society in general. We are proud
that our technologies and services are helping to connect people around the world and provide the links to critical information—from precautions to help curb the spread of COVID-19 and access to telehealth resources to dissemination of government regulations such as shelter-in-place orders.
Connecting Millions
For nearly 1.5 subscribers across the US and Latin America, Hughesnet is enabling teleworking and the home learning that many students need to continue their education. For communities outside the reach of wireline connectivity, satellite is their lifeline to crucial information and resources—not just in times of crisis, but every day.
In La Higuera, Chile, a town 500 kilometers north of Santiago, Tomás Rodríguez, a teacher, dreamed about having Internet access at home. “Now that it is part of my every day, I tell my students and neighbors ‘That antenna is my entertainment to find information and communicate with others.’ There is no distance and there are no remote places anymore. The lack of cables is not an impediment to being connected.”
Our networks are also enabling businesses to stay in business—whether that means conducting transactions online instead of in-person, providing customer support, managing finances and payroll, or using other cloud-based applications. Governments too—around the world—depend on their networks to share information with citizens and healthcare providers and provide vital services, supplies and funding.
Serving our Troops and Frontline Caregivers
In the early days of the crisis, our team responded within a matter of days to deploy and turn on Internet access at a North Carolina military base where troops were quarantined upon return from deployment. Hughes also introduced a new service, Hughes SatCell Connect, to deliver on-demand, satellite-enabled cellular connectivity for up to 10,000 devices at sites like remote hospitals where staying connected is critical, yet where commercial terrestrial service is unavailable.
This is the connected future, when we are more reliant than ever on the Internet for telework, education, information, entertainment and social networking. And all of us at Hughes are proud to do our part in helping families, communities, governments and businesses by delivering the connectivity they need.
Some of the ways Hughes is helping people around the world stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic:
- Participating in the FCC’s “Keeping Americans Connected” pledge
- Introducing a new service, Hughes SatCell Connect, to deploy cellular connectivity on-demand to sites like remote hospitals
- Delivering additional bandwidth to rural bank branches in India to enable daily cash withdrawal for under-privileged rural citizens
- Deploying satellite Internet at a post-deployment quarantine camp for military personnel in NC
- Providing Hughesnet for homeless students living with community members during the pandemic in NM.
- Connecting a community students’ hub in rural OK
- Enabling connectivity and TV programming for a tribal health center in AZ