Spacenet Announces Availability of StarBand Open Skies in Alaska and Hawaii

8 February 2011

Spacenet Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: GILT) and a leading provider of broadband network solutions, announced availability of StarBand Open Skies for rural unserved regions of Alaska and Hawaii. Spacenet’s StarBand Open Skies initiative offers broadband-over-satellite service to these regions with no upfront cost for equipment and standard installation, and an entry-level monthly service fee of $50. The initiative is in response to the $7.5 million award of federal grant funding from the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was announced in August 2010, to provide discounted broadband service to rural unserved markets in Alaska and Hawaii. The grant will enable Spacenet to provide its StarBand broadband Internet service to over thousands of potential subscribers in Alaska and Hawaii.

“We are pleased to announce the launch of StarBand Open Skies and to provide the communities in rural unserved areas of Alaska and Hawaii with availability of affordable broadband Internet access,” said Spacenet CEO Andreas Georghiou. “Our goal is to provide StarBand Internet to thousands of consumers in Alaska and Hawaii that currently lack access to alternate options. We are actively pursuing outreach efforts to make these communities aware that they are no longer restricted by some of the previous challenges of accessing high-speed Internet, including high upfront costs.”

U.S. Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), one of the leading advocates of the Alaska ARRA program, said, “The broadband investment is much-needed in rural Alaska to help expand affordable broadband services. Improving access to high-speed Internet is critical for connecting rural areas of the state and will impact the daily lives of thousands of residents. StarBand Open Skies will enable access to services and resources including education and health care tools that millions of people across America already benefit from.”

Spacenet is basing its StarBand Open Skies service offerings for Alaska and Hawaii on custom versions of its Nova 1000 and 1500 products. Both packages exceed the performance requirements set forth by the RUS for this program. The Nova 1000 service provides download speeds of up to 1 Mbps and upload speeds of 200 Kbps, and the Nova 1500 service provides download speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps and upload speeds of 256 Kbps. Both services also offer value added features including: 10 free hours of dial access per month for backup or traveling; virus protection; spam filtering; access to the StarBand Member Portal powered by Google; 24X7 online support; and up to 15 email accounts.