A P u b l i c a t i o n o f

Details on Page 12

America’s Emergency Network Gets the Word Out with HughesNet® and SPACEWAY® 3

August 2008. Tropical Storm Fay was blasting Putnam County, Florida, leaving widespread flooding in this rural area between Jacksonville and Orlando on the St. John’s River. But at the county’s emergency operations

center, officials were directing citizens where to call, what to do, and how to get help. With the flick of a switch, the ops center immediately streamed the briefing over satellite, which was picked up by regional news outlet jacksonville.com. For the first time, local citizens were able to get live briefings from the Putnam County Operations Center on their computers.

Winter 2008

P A G e

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Saving Lives through Communications

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Executive Corner

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Hughes Financial Corner

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Broadband in Wine Country

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Where the Rubber Meets the Road

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Top Honors

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Getting Ready for a Big One

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Walking the Sky

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Advanced Communications Travel the Rails in India

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Executive CornerCont

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Saving Lives through Communications Cont.

AccuWeather.com On The Go

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Hughes QuickTakes

Executive Corner

Brisk Business in BrazilBy Delio Morais, President Hughes Network Systems Americas

Fast growth accompanies youth—a truism that certainly applies to Hughes Network Systems

Americas (HNSA), the newest operating entity owned by Hughes. Headquartered in São Paulo, the economic center of Brazil—which is the fifth largest and fifth most populous country in the world—HNSA has been growing at double-digit rates annually since it was launched in 2003. Here’s a snapshot of the key markets we serve and the drivers for broadband services that are fueling our growth in Brazil and throughout the region.

The Enterprise Market

As it has done worldwide, Hughes has built its leadership in broadband satellite networks and services in Brazil on the enterprise market. Retail, banking, oil and gas, automotive, and utility companies are all enjoying the benefits of our powerful suite of continent-wide HughesNet® broadband services—from high-speed Internet and intranet VPN access, to distance learning, credit card payments, and terrestrial network backup.

In the retail market, for example, Rede Smart, one of the country’s largest grocery store chains, is connecting over 500 stores via

continued on page 10

continued on page 11

Breaking News: Saving Lives through

Communications

2 Channels / Winter 2008 / www.hughes .com

Published by Hughes Corporate Communications DepartmentEric Gann, Editor

Channels may also be found online at www.hughes.com. Click on the Channels Newsletter icon.

Correspondence is invited and should be directed to:

Arunas Slekys, Vice President, Corporate MarketingEmail: arunas.slekys@hughes.comTelephone: 301-428-5502 Fax: 301-601-4107 Hughes Network Systems, LLC 11717 Exploration LaneGermantown, MD 20876 USA

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 organizations, 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 worldwide. Hughes is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: HUGH). For additional information, please visit www.hughes.com.

Special thanks to our contributors: Kathy Bell, Mary Belt, Judy Blake, Bill Corr, Jeff Crapo, Deepak Dutt, Ann Edgeington, April Eichmeier, Sharon Elliott, Eric Gann, Rafael Guimarães, Delio Morais, Linda Nichols, Jason Pierce, Neha Saxena, Bill Rumancik, Rob Shultz, and Arunas Slekys.

© 2008 Hughes Network Systems, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Hughes, HughesNet, and SPACEWAY are registered trademarks of Hughes Network Systems, LLC. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Snapshot of Third Quarter 2008 Financial Results

Revenues increased by 16% over the third

quarter of 2007 to $272 million

Adjusted EBITDA increased to $39 million for a

growth of 15% over the third quarter of 2007

All business segments recorded double-digit

revenue growth

New consumer activations grew by 19% over

the third quarter of 2007

Consumer services revenue increased by 20%

over the third quarter of 2007

International VSAT segment revenue grew by

22% over the third quarter of 2007

Selected Third Quarter Highlights

Announced the availability of HughesNet®

Business Internet service plans, the fastest

satellite Internet plans ever offered, bringing

affordable, reliable, and high-performance

broadband access to small and mid-sized

businesses (SMBs), with speeds up to 5Mbps

on the downlink.

Introduced an equipment rental option that

reduces HughesNet upfront fees by 75% and

enables consumers to enjoy the convenience

and speed of a HughesNet service plan

without having to purchase equipment.

Announced the availability of HughesNet

Broadband Backup service plans, the newest

offerings for SMBs, which provide automatic

satellite backup in the event of a landline

failure.

Received several awards during the third

quarter of 2008, including Euroconsult’s 2008

award as Broadband Satellite Operator of the

Year, Deloitte & Touche’s Maryland Fast 50

award, and Maryland’s Exceptional 53 award.

Announced that America’s Emergency

Network, Inc. (AEN), a satellite-based

emergency communications system powered

by the nationwide HughesNet broadband

satellite service, has been successfully

streaming real-time news briefings from

numerous Florida state and local operations

centers since the onset of the hurricane

season.

Hughes Financial CornerTicker: HUGH (NASDAQ)

Hughes Communications, Inc. announced record results for the third quarter 2008.

For up-to-date news, financial information, audios, and videos, visit www.hughes.com/investor.

3

Broadband in Wine Country

Channels / Winter 2008 / www.hughes .com

Dennis Horton believes that the right grapes planted in the right climate can produce outstanding, world-class

wines. And nearly 20 years ago he set out in Gordonsville, Virginia to prove that Virginia could compete with the best wines the world over.

Tucked in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains near historic Charlottesville, Horton Vineyards is an old-world Tudor winery where visitors can tour vineyards and underground stone cellars, attend events including an annual pig roast, and sample up to 40 kinds of wine. Over the years, Horton, a viticulturist, or expert in the cultivation of grapes, has successfully introduced grapes such as Viognier, Norton, and Cabernet Franc to the state of Virginia.

Just as the viticulturist believes in the right grapes and climate, he believes in the right tools to run his business. A key part of that business takes place in the vaulted-ceiling tasting room where visitors sniff, swirl, and sip the latest vintages, and purchase wines and accessories. A typical Saturday brings about 450 visitors, often couples, which can result in more than 250 transactions that need to be conducted quickly and efficiently.

Located in an area that has no access to landline broadband services, Horton started out by using dial-up Internet service, but soon found it inadequate. “It was so slow we actually had people walk away from the cash register,” said Horton. “It was miserable.”

Then the vineyard signed up for HughesNet® satellite broadband service for its connection to the world. “The difference was amazing. HughesNet streamlined our whole system,” said Horton. “We can process transactions 10 times faster.”

“I can’t stress enough the importance of fast broadband service to handle transactions,” added Horton. “Thirty seconds may not seem very long until you’re the one who wants to buy something and there are 10 people waiting in line. With HughesNet, it takes just a few seconds and we’re

on to the next customer.”

As an added bonus, closing out the point-of-sale system at night, which previously consumed up to 30 minutes of staff time, now takes just three or four minutes to complete.

The vineyard also uses its HughesNet service for day-to-day tasks such as shipping, email marketing to nearly 6,000 customers,

inventory, and communications with manufacturers and suppliers. But for Horton, the most important thing is the credit card transactions. “We needed to solve the credit card transaction problem—and got all these other goodies to go along with it.”

Horton recently upgraded to the HN9000 modem, gaining even higher speed and performance. “Even with the recent rainstorms, we haven’t had a glitch with the system,” said Horton. “I don’t know how businesses in rural areas survive without HughesNet. It’s the most efficient way I’ve ever had to conduct my transactions.”

That’s why Horton relies on his HughesNet satellite broadband service as the right solution to take care of his broadband needs—while he focuses on the right grapes and the right conditions to produce his world-class, award-winning wines.

4 Channels / Winter 2008 / www.hughes .com

Acquiring a new network is not exactly like buying a new car: how do you evaluate performance, features, costs, and rat-ings of something that’s not yet real? But there is a common

thread. Just as the wise car buyer follows preliminary shopping with the all-important test drive, so does the thorough engineer seek to “test drive” a pilot network, which is the culminating factor in the acquisi-tion process.

But a pilot is no dumbed-down version of a network installation. Because of its complexity, the pilot or “concept” network typically involves creating detailed configurations, deploying equipment at live locations, and resolving issues in real-time. Sometimes a pilot is even expected to demonstrate a capability that’s never been achieved before.

“In a manner of speaking, customers need to touch, see, hear, smell, and taste the network and services, just like a new car buyer needs to thoroughly check out a new car,” said Bill Rumancik, senior manager of North American pilot programs for Hughes. “It’s our job to build a solution that will meet their business needs and to give them the

confidence that we’ll respond effectively if there is an issue.”

Based in Germantown, Maryland, Rumancik’s team designs, configures, and deploys private networks for North American enterprise customers. A typical Hughes pilot network includes two to six remote sites and runs about

seven months long. The team simultaneously runs approximately 40 projects comprising 70 to 100 lab and production locations.

Depending on a customer’s requirements, a fully managed HughesNet® solution may be chosen, which can cover a variety of broadband technologies—from satellite, to terrestrial DSL, to wireless EVDO (evolution data only), a new technology that enables broadband mobile Internet access. And all managed solutions include integrated network management, installation, and nationwide field service. But before customers actually buy a network, they need to see the technology work.

A Day in the Life

A typical day for a pilot engineer is focused on customer interaction—creating solutions, providing information, and managing test networks. Working with the breadth of Hughes platforms and HughesNet services, pilot engineers put together configurations to meet specific needs. For example, engineers may overlay a customer’s MPLS network with a HughesNet satellite backup solution. Or they may demonstrate a HughesNet Digital Signage solution that delivers targeted videos to auto dealership waiting rooms, gas stations, or theaters, as well as monitoring other vendors’ equipment along with the Hughes components. In all

Where the

Rubber Meets

the Road Hughes Pilot Engineers Steer Concepts to Reality

It’s all about adding value and providing customers with an effective solution that’s simple to deploy, simple to monitor, simple to manage, and simple to scale.

- Bill Rumancik, Hughes

5Channels / Winter 2008 / www.hughes .com

cases, pilot engineers act as the “wizards behind the curtain” to facilitate customer and corporate demonstrations.

With a pilot, timing is critical. That means pilot engineers must be both nimble and responsive to customer needs. In some cases, engineers must build and deploy the solution within one or two weeks, yet be confident that it will work the first time. They also need to respond quickly if requirements change during the course of the pilot—and act immediately to diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve problems. The team works in tandem with its international counterparts and with other Hughes teams such as installation, quality, field maintenance, and operations to ensure both the best solution and the best experience for the customer.

“As pilot engineers, we have a great opportunity to out-class, out-think, and out-perform other vendors,” added Rumancik. “ It’s all about adding value and providing customers with an effective solution that’s simple to deploy, simple to monitor, simple to manage, and simple to scale.”

Pilot Engineering at Work

Case in point: America’s Emergency Network (AEN) is a new company based in Florida that transmits real-time storm information from public officials to the public and the media. (See Cover Story in this issue of Channels.). Hughes worked with AEN to test various technologies and demonstrated how SPACEWAY® 3’s mesh capability could be leveraged to deliver the connectivity and bandwidth they needed. Consisting of six pilot sites and lasting about 12 months, the AEN pilot was actually used to transmit real briefings to get the word out about relief efforts during Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Gustav earlier this year.

Just like taking a car for a test drive, the true test of a managed network service is the pilot. And the pilot engineers behind the scenes play a critical role in ensuring that Hughes hands over a smoothly functioning network to the customer—where the rubber meets the road.

Top Honors

September was a banner month as Hughes garnered three prestigious awards honoring the company for its business success and cutting-edge innovations.

Euroconsult’s Broadband Satellite Operator of the Year

First up was Euroconsult’s 2008 Broadband Satellite Operator of the Year Award. One of Euroconsult’s 2008 Awards for Excellence in Satellite Management, the award recognized the “Best Development of a Broadband Satellite System” for SPACEWAY® 3, the company’s innovative Ka-band satellite system and the world’s first satellite with onboard switching and routing.

Accepting the award, Pradman Kaul, chairman and CEO of Hughes commented, “With the launch of SPACEWAY 3 last year and commercial service this April, Hughes has entered a new era as a fully integrated satellite service provider—bringing higher speeds, greater capacity, and bandwidth-on-demand services to our rapidly growing base of HughesNet® customers throughout North America.”

Gazette’s Exceptional 53

Just days later, the Gazette of Politics and Business hosted its first annual Exceptional 53 Awards celebration where Hughes was recognized for exceptional growth and business leadership. The awards program recognizes top businesses and organizations in Maryland based on criteria that include revenue and employee growth, noteworthy innovations, and community service.

Deloitte and Touche’s Fast 50

And right on the heels of these two awards, executives Grant Barber and Arunas Slekys accepted first-place honors on behalf of Hughes in Deloitte & Touche LLP’s annual Technology Fast 50 Awards celebration. The Fast 50 program was created by Deloitte to recognize the achievements of fast-growing tech, telecom, media, and life sciences companies throughout Maryland and Virginia. Subsequently, the company was cited by Deloitte as being the #1 fastest-growing technology company in North America.

The commitment to excellence that earned Hughes this triple-shot of industry recognition is integral to the Hughes culture. Congratulations to all who continue to make it happen.

Channels / Winter 2008 / www.hughes .com

Getting Ready for a Big One

Forecasters watched closely as Hurricane Leo approached New York City. The Category 1 storm had all the makings of blowing up to a Category

2 by the time it hit the largest city in the U.S. The New York City Office of Emergency Management and other agencies had set up facilities, stocked emergency food and supplies, and issued hurricane warnings. Thousands of storm staffers were gearing up.

Fortunately, Hurricane Leo is a fictional crisis. It is a simulation exercise, part of a Coastal Storm Plan developed by the City University of New York (CUNY) to respond in the event of a major coastal storm that would require massive evacuation away from flood zones.

The City of New York has been identified, along with New Orleans and Miami, as one of the nation’s cities most vulnerable to hurricanes, partly because of its low-lying infrastructure, narrow river channels, and large population. Key to CUNY’s Coastal Storm Plan is an emergency sheltering system that would house people who lack access to housing outside the city, which could run as high as 600,000 during a Category 3 or higher storm.

Assigned to storm staff are thousands of city workers from 19 agencies, whose day jobs range from patrolling parks and managing human resources, to providing environmental protection, teaching students, and running the housing authority. To train these workers, CUNY developed an educational program that involves both classroom and online training.

Helius, a Hughes company, delivers the online component through the Helius Learning Management Portal, a state-of-the-art online training system. The

Helius system is a turnkey, secure, Web-based solution that enables CUNY to store and distribute its training content, track results, and measure usage—all from any location with an Internet connection.

The cutting-edge training delivered over the Helius Portal simulates a hurricane event from four days before expected landfall until the day after the storm when recovery begins. The course covers the overall structure of the emergency system and basic functions to provide safe, clean shelter. It also addresses specific roles such as mental health workers, medical practitioners, and supervisors in charge of dormitories or animal care.

The Helius system

enables us to put reports

at the fingertips of each

agency. That makes my

job easier.

- Andrew Boyarsky,

City University of NY

6 Channels / Winter 2008 / www.hughes .com

Helius system enables us to put reports at the fingertips of each agency. That makes my job easier.”

The award-winning CUNY program, which represents the largest-scale, inter-agency initiative undertaken in New York City, has trained as many as 11,000 workers in a single year and could eventually expand to cover nearby metropolitan areas.

Today, with its Coastal Storm Plan supported by the Helius Learning Management Portal, the City of New York is providing a model of emergency preparedness to furnish safe shelter so that if Hurricane Leo becomes more than just a simulation, its citizens can ride out the storm until it is safe to go back home.

Channels / Winter 2008 / www.hughes .com

The online course, which lasts about 90 minutes, takes a storm staffer through different phases of the storm and various detours within an evacuation center where storm victims can be screened for special needs. In an engaging, game-like simulation, the worker is confronted with different scenarios in which individuals are experiencing difficulties within the sheltering system. For example, an elderly person may need assistance, someone on a dialysis machine may require a special medical needs shelter, someone may be seeking a missing family member, or a pet owner may need a cage or leash. The training incorporates videos of CBS broadcasters Dana Tyler and Dave Price who donated their time to lend credibility to the simulation.

In addition to delivering the training, the Helius Portal system enables CUNY to track and report on individual usage, confirm which workers have taken the course, and aggregate training data. The system, which has been operational since May 2007, is also integrated with the university’s internal database to provide single sign-on access to users.

“Besides delivering instant, cutting-edge training, one of the most important benefits of the Helius system is its reporting capability,” said Andrew Boyarsky, project director of CUNY’s Coastal Storm Plan. “We have 19 different agencies with nearly 22,000 workers to manage. The

7Channels / Winter 2008 / www.hughes .com

8 Channels / Winter 2008 / www.hughes .com

As a HughesNet® reseller, Jacob Minett is used to serving customers in off-the-beaten-path locations. But the Arkansas-based

owner of MyNet, an independent dealer, never expected one of them to be nearly 4,000 feet above the Colorado River Canyon’s floor—on the breathtaking edge of the Grand Canyon.

A striking site of natural beauty, Arizona’s Grand Canyon has served as a favorite destina-tion for generations. And in 2007, the Hualapai Indian tribe built the Grand Canyon Skywalk at Grand Canyon West to enable visitors to see the steep gorge from the sky—the way an eagle sees it. A horseshoe-shaped glass walk-way juts out over a side canyon, allowing visi-tors to “walk the sky”—and get a stunning view of Eagle Point, named for a rock formation in the shape of an eagle with its wings spread.

But even a centuries-old land of awesome nat-ural beauty needs 21st century services—like broadband. Skywalk’s dial-up Internet service was too costly and too sluggish to handle the needs of a busy tourist attraction. That’s when MyNet stepped in and recommended Hughes-Net broadband service by satellite.

Today, Skywalk is using HughesNet Business Internet, a high-speed, always-on broadband service to power its video surveillance system. The organization is also using HughesNet for high-speed Internet access at the airport adjacent to the Grand Canyon. With Hughes-Net, Skywalk can quickly handle online orders, point-of-sale transactions, Web browsing, the transfer of billing data to its server in Las

Vegas, Nevada, and a myriad of other adminis-trative tasks.

“HughesNet broadband satellite service is the ideal solution for remote customers like Skywalk that have no access to landline broadband services,” said Minett. “Though installation can be the biggest challenge in out-of-the-way areas, a recent customer sur-vey conducted by MyNet reported a high level of customer satisfaction with the nationwide HughesNet installation team. As a reseller, that makes my job a lot easier.”

It is perhaps fitting that the out-of-this-world broadband satellite service from MyNet and HughesNet is playing a role in helping people to “walk the sky” via the Hualapai tribe’s Skywalk—and to see the Grand Canyon from what is probably as close as they can get to an eagle’s perspective.

Photo: Grand Canyon West

9Channels / Winter 2008 / www.hughes .com

India has one of the busiest rail networks in the world with over 18 million passengers traveling its trains daily—just over twice the population of New York

City. Operating long-distance, suburban, and local services, Indian Railways carries business travelers, tourists, and other passengers over routes that cover more than 39,500 miles (63,327 km) throughout the country.

Part of the Indian Government under the Min-istry of Railways, Indian Railways was seeking a state-of-the-art communications system to keep up with its busy rail infrastructure. That’s when Hughes stepped in with a solution.

To support India’s wide range of rail-based communications requirements, Hughes set up an advanced satellite network and dedicated hub in New Delhi, and 250 broadband satellite terminals. Initially, the satellite network is being used for the railways’ Freight Operations Information System (FOIS), which automates the management of freight infrastructure across the country. The system manages inven-tory and optimizes the utilization of individual

cars, called rakes, at each station, offering substantial savings to the railways.

The next application planned by the railways is to equip accident relief trains (ARTs) with satellite terminals to provide communications from accident sites. Quickly deployable satellite terminals will enable the transmission of live video from an accident site through video up-link and voice connectivity. This capability will enable a real-time situation assessment even at the most remote accident site, as well as better overall accident management and out-side communications for stranded passengers.

Currently in deployment is ART videoconfer-encing capability with the Railway Control Room, a type of accident command center. In the future, the service will also expand to disaster management, providing a live feed to the Railway Control Room and faster trans-portation of emergency supplies.

Indian Railways is also testing the concept of providing broadband Internet access on trains using the Hughes infrastructure. With trials

in the planning stage, this service is targeted at the short haul routes between major cities, which carry a substantial number of business travelers. The railway hub deployed by Hughes would provide Internet access to moving trains, enabling business travelers to stay connected as they travel.

According to K. Krishna, assistant vice president and chief technology officer of Hughes Communications India, “We are very happy to be associated with the Indian Rail-ways, and we are working closely with them to enable more and more applications on the Hughes satellite platform that will benefit both the railway and its travelers.”

Fast-moving trains play an important role in the lives of Indian travelers. And with the Indian Railways communications system powered by Hughes, they will be better able to keep up with today’s fast-moving communications as they travel.

Advanced Communications Travel the Rails in India

Executive Cornercontinued from page 1

10 Channels / Winter 2008 / www.hughes .com

HughesNet broadband satellite service, enabling rapid processing of online debit and credit card transactions. This initiative provides a unified telecommunications network for all Rede Smart stores regardless of size. The solution will eventually connect more than 1,200 stores throughout Brazil, delivering value-added applications such as distance learning for store employees, live video distribution, and back-office systems.

Another example is the banking sector, which relies on high security and availability. In the largest satellite backup project in Brazil, Telefonica and Hughes are providing Banco Itau, the country’s second largest bank, with backup broadband service via 1,000 satellite terminals. There is also considerable opportunity in providing bank card services to retailers who depend on a primary terrestrial network but need increased availability. If they are unable to connect their branches, business comes to a standstill. But with HughesNet backup services, these businesses stay connected even when landline networks fail.

In neighboring countries, we are providing HughesNet broadband satellite services to Exxon sites in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru from one of our two NOCs in Brazil. And we are supporting government through initiatives such as providing HughesNet services to 1,000 sites for Copel Electric Company, which is owned and operated by the state of Parana.

Serving Telecom Operators

Another key market for HNSA is delivering turnkey broadband solutions to large telecom operators such as Telefonica and Oi, which resell HughesNet broadband satellite services throughout Brazil under their own brands. HNSA furnishes these operators with comprehensive solutions including central NOC services, satellite bandwidth, and remote broadband terminals, as well as installation, maintenance, and support.

We have also contracted with Intelsat, the world’s leading operator of commercial satellites to jointly deliver a managed cellular backhaul solution, enabling cellular service providers to cost-effectively extend cellular networks to rural and sparsely populated regions.

Education that Goes the Distance

Because many of Brazil’s citizens live in remote areas with limited educational opportunities, distance learning has become a significant and fast-growing market. To reach these rural students, several schools and universities have contracted with HNSA to deliver interactive, educational programming via our HughesNet service. These programs provide instant interactivity between teachers and students, independent of distance.

For example, in a major distance learning initiative, the Amazonas Board of Education is using HughesNet to improve the quality of education for 10,000 students in rural communities that do not have middle schools or whose schools lack sufficient space. This project, which began in 2007, has now grown to include simultaneous classes in 500 locations.

At the same time, more and more businesses are realizing the importance of a strong, well-trained workforce. In an innovative initiative called Hughes.Edu, we are partnering with top MBA educational institutions to provide training to corporate workforces via our HughesNet broadband satellite service.

A New NOC for the New Year

Finally, I am delighted to report that HNSA continues to show strong profitability and healthy growth despite the global economic downturn. Indeed, we have just expanded our Ku-band capacity to serve the growing market demand for HughesNet broadband services, and we expect to have a third NOC up and running and ready to support customers in January 2009. Now that’s the way to start a new year.

11

communications system that we can count on to function after a disaster is a satellite system.”

Affordable Bandwidth—On Demand

AEN’s state-of-the-art communications system transmits up to three simultaneous video streams in high resolution for television or in a lower resolution for broad public distribution. This high-performance, on-demand capability

is made possible by HughesNet services operating over SPACEWAY 3, the world’s only commercial satellite with onboard switching and routing.

“There’s no more perfect combination of a service capability meeting a need, than bandwidth-on-demand and emergency communications,” said Norcross. “By its nature, an emergency communications system is really an insurance

policy that you need to have working for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” With bandwidth-on-demand enabled by SPACEWAY 3, AEN only pays for full bandwidth when it’s needed in emergency situations to stream live video news briefings.

Currently deployed in several Florida counties, the AEN system will eventually expand to handle video streams originating from any location in the United States, southern Canada, Puerto Rico, and major Latin American cities. Private businesses that have a connection to the public in emergency situations, such as insurance companies and power companies, represent another potential market.

Getting the Word Out

Back in Putnam County, Jayson Southworth, a county emergency management senior planner, was enthusiastic about AEN’s performance during Tropical Storm Fay. “The system itself is a masterpiece of simplicity and technology. The audio and video transmission over satellite allowed us to supply needed information at a moment’s notice. When you have an emergency like this, being able to provide consistent, reliable information to your residents, as well as to state and federal stakeholders, is invaluable. I just can’t say enough good things about the AEN system.”

A Communications Void

Many U.S. state and local governments have developed emergency operations plans to facilitate a rapid response in the event of an emergency like a tornado, a hurricane, or a terrorist attack. These plans address such critical activities as evacuation, sheltering, distribution of supplies, and emergency animal care. But a vital piece has still been missing—an effective communications system to quickly disseminate the information that emergency centers produce.

Enter America’s Emergency Network (AEN), a satellite-based emergency communications system designed by two weather veterans to fill critical communications gaps in the nation’s emergency system. Former CBS News Hurricane Analyst Bryan Norcross and former National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield created AEN to enable emergency managers and other officials to instantly transmit, via satellite—to the public and each other—real-time emergency information through the Internet and the media.

Real-Time Emergency Communications

Hughes is providing the broadband satellite backbone of AEN’s pioneering satellite-video-Internet emergency communications network using HughesNet broadband satellite service. Although the AEN system is still in beta form, the company opened it as a public service in response to the busy 2008 hurricane season. Indeed, the scenario in Putnam County would not have been possible without the services and capabilities of AEN.

According to Norcross, now president and chief executive officer of AEN, “Whether it’s a disaster that causes the infrastructure to fail, like a hurricane, or an emergency such as a tanker truck that’s leaking poisonous gas, we need a network that can communicate information instantly. And the only

AccuWeather.com On The Go

What’s happening in the sky is always good for conversation and sometimes

has a profound effect on our daily activities. So it’s no wonder that weather is one of the most popular types of content for digital signage services. And what better place to make it available than at gas stations and convenience stores where displaying the latest weather conditions is especially valuable to travelers on the road? Now HughesNet® Managed Digital Signage service does just that, bringing retailers a complete and cost-effective solution to display real-time weather information from AccuWeather, Inc. at their customer sites.

Based in State College, PA, AccuWeather maintains accurate and highly localized weather forecasts for more than 2.7 million locations worldwide. As an integral part of the HughesNet Managed Digital Signage offering, real-time delivery of AccuWeather.com content comes with a choice of current, hourly, and five-day weather forecasts, and includes broadband connectivity, on-site installation, and ongoing support from Hughes.

Delivering accurate weather not only engages customers and improves loyalty, but also gives retailers the potential to attract third-party advertising revenues. Timely and useful information at the point of sale keeps people tuned in—and means a more responsive audience for advertisers.

Channels / Winter 2008 / www.hughes .com

There’s no more perfect

combination of a service

capability meeting a

need, than bandwidth-on-

demand and emergency

communications.

- Bryan Norcross, AEN

Saving Lives through Communicationscontinued from page 1

PresortedFirst Class MailU.S. Postage

PAIDGermantown, MDPermit No. 4413

11717 Exploration LaneGermantown, MD 20876 USA

Calling All PhotographersShow us your favorite broadband satellite site!

n Just the Ticket for Lottery Applications Sistemas Técnicos de Loterías del Estado (STL), Spain’s leading gaming technology and telecommunications company, recently awarded Hughes a contract to provide a geographically redundant HN System, including a network operations center, broadband satellite routers, and support services. Handling more than two million lottery transactions per year, STL provides information technology and telecommunications services to the Spanish state lottery authority, the Entidad Público Empresarial Loterías y Apuestas del Estado

Español (LAE). Following major lottery contracts with GTECH in the U.S. and Camelot in the U.K., the STL agreement further builds on Hughes’ leadership serving the lottery industry with high-quality networking solutions.

n More Affordable Internet Access… Plus Free Installation Hughes recently introduced an equipment leasing option that reduces upfront start-up fees by more than 75% for HughesNet® broadband satellite Internet service in the U.S. With this program, consumers can enjoy the

convenience and speed of a HughesNet service plan—without the expense of purchasing equipment. HughesNet sets the standard for high-speed Internet by satellite with entry-level plans starting at speeds up to 1 Mbps and ranging all the way up to 5 Mbps. Now everyone beyond the reach of cable or DSL can get high-speed satellite Internet access at an affordable price. And for a limited time, new subscribers who lease equipment for any of the six HughesNet service plans will receive free standard installation. Visit Go.GetHughesNet.com or call 1-866-859-2268.

Broadband satellite technology from Hughes is on every continent worldwide,

making for some pretty exciting photo ops. So pick up your camera and take us to your favorite site—with a digital photo.

Email your color photo as a high-resolution JPEG file to Channels@hughes.com and tell us in 100 words or less what it’s about and why you like it. Please include your full name, company affiliation, and phone number. Top photos selected by the

Channels editorial board may be published in future issues.

Win an iPod Nano!

We are always on the lookout for interesting pictures, but here’s a bonus for early birds. The photographer who sends us the best digital photo by February 28, 2009 will win an iPod Nano! The winner will be announced on www.Hughes.com after the publication of Spring 2009 Channels. Happy photographing!