Hughes Breaks The
Speed Barrier With Fastest Consumer Satellite Internet Access Plans
Ever
(17 June 2008) Hughes Network Systems,
LLC, (HUGHES), the world's leading provider of broadband satellite networks and
services, today announced the availability of the fastest consumer broadband
satellite Internet access plans ever offered.
The new service
plans, Elite and ElitePlus, operating over the HughesNet service, give rural
Americans access to speeds on par with terrestrial broadband services utilising
affordable consumer equipment. The Elite plan features download speeds of up to
2Mb/s and ElitePlus features download speeds of up to 3Mb/s.
"Consumers
and small businesses in rural areas have been left behind," said Peter Gulla,
Hughes vice president of marketing. "Access to dial tone may be universal in
the US, but access to DSL or cable modem service is not. The lack of broadband
adversely affects mostly rural communities."
Experts say that families
and home businesses without broadband access will be left at a competitive
disadvantage and run the risk of becoming disenfranchised from their customers
and the marketplace. And, according to analysts, there are roughly 12 to 15
million homes in pockets of America, both rural and urban, that do not have
access to a broadband connection.
"With the help of HughesNet and its
high-speed service plans, consumers and home businesses located in areas
otherwise left behind by terrestrial providers, can take their products and
services nation-wide," said Jimmy Schaefler of the Carmel Group. "With speeds
on par with DSL, businesses are able to increase productivity and consumers are
able to participate in e-commerce and other online applications that are not
available to them on a dial-up connection."
With the Elite service
plans, subscribers can:
Elite and ElitePlus join existing plans
Home, Pro, and ProPlus, which offer a range of upload and download speeds and
prices. From upload speeds of up to 128 kb/s to up to 300 kb/s and download
speeds from up to 700 kb/s to 3.0 Mb/s, Hughes offers plans to meet any
consumer's or home business's needs. Prices range from US$ 59.99 a month for
existing plans and start at US$ 119.99 per month for the new Elite and
ElitePlus plans.
Elite and ElitePlus were made possible by the launch of
Hughes' Spaceway 3, the largest satellite in the US and the world's first
commercial satellite with on-board switching and routing. Spaceway 3 has the
greatest total capacity of any commercial satellite, which fuels the faster
speeds. Spaceway 3 was launched in August of 2007 and began serving customers
in April of 2008.
With more than 400,000 subscribers, HughesNet is the
leading broadband satellite Internet service in the United States.
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. Its broadband satellite
products are based on global standards approved by the TIA, ETSI and ITU
standards organisations, including IPoS/DVB-S2, RSM-A, and GMR-1. To date,
Hughes has shipped more than 1.5 million systems to customers in over 100
countries.
Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown,
Maryland, USA, Hughes maintains sales and support offices world-wide. Hughes is
a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Communications, Inc.
(source: Hughes
Network Systems)
