EchoStar’s Hughes loses 19% of subs
November 7, 2022
By Chris Forrester
Satellite broadband operator Hughes, a division of Denver-based EchoStar, is having a tough time. Its global subscriber numbers fell some 19 per cent at 61,000 to a new total of 1.28 million during Q3.
Damaging as this is, it has also emerged that its much-needed – and massive – new satellite, Jupiter 3, is also running late and not likely to launch until H1/2023.
The subs loss saw 46,000 US-based subscribers cancel and 15,000 on its Latin American service and totalling 61,000 lost during the quarter year. This latest total of 1.285 million is well down on the 1.58 million position of two years ago and an 18.7 per cent fall since 2021.
The news, despite some positive comments from CEO Hamid Akhavan, affected EchoStar’s share price at the end of last week with a 9.3 per cent fall on the NASDAQ during the week.
The positive news was that Hughes was seeing growth and new business contracts coming from its Enterprise clients and is where the business expects to see more progress.
Akhavan said: “Our enterprise business is growing at a very rapid rate, one of the fastest years we’ve had in terms of growth. If it continues, with adjustments in our cost structure for that business, it can replenish the loss of net profit that comes from the shrinkage of the consumer business. We actually like the enterprise business. We think it is going to scale faster, and we can diversify using the enterprise business, which has a very large [potential] total addressable market.”