Hughes seeking more LatAm capacity
August 5, 2021
By Chris Forrester
Hughes Network Systems, a subsidiary business of EchoStar, is looking for extra satellite capacity to keep up with demand from its growing Latin American services.
Hughes’ latest numbers show that it is supplying satellite broadband to 1.54 million homes. However, US subscribers declined some 20,000 as at June 30th, while Latino subs grew 9,000 to about 398,000.
Hughes will add a major new satellite, Jupiter 3, in H2/2022. Until then Hughes is using capacity from Yahsat’s Al Yah-3 craft, Telesat’s T-19 Vantage satellite and Eutelsat’s 65 West A craft to maintain service.
The new Jupiter 3 satellite has a large portion of its capacity earmarked for Latin American coverage. Meanwhile, in a call with analysts, Hughes’ president Pradman Kaul said that Hughes was looking for spare capacity to solve the subscriber demand. That subscriber growth is up 9,000 to 398,000 subscribers in its Latin American markets.