Hughes Selects Space Systems/Loral to Build World's Highest Capacity Broadband Satellite

March 21, 2013

Hughes Network Systems, LLC has selected Space Systems/Loral (SSL) to build what will be the world's highest capacity broadband satellite ― JUPITER 2/EchoStar XIX. With over 150 Gbps throughput, the new Ka-band satellite will have 50 percent greater capacity than EchoStar XVII, which was also built by SSL for Hughes and launched on July 5, 2012.

Planned for launch in mid-2016, JUPITER 2/EchoStar XIX will continue to power growth of HughesNet in North America—the world's largest high-speed satellite Internet service ― with 659,000 subscribers as of YE2012. Building on the success of EchoStar XVII, the new satellite is being designed with a next-generation architecture having more than 120 spot beams, facilitating optimization of high quality Internet coverage across the U.S. and parts of Canada. Its expected service lifetime is at least 15 years.

"Growth of our HughesNet consumer service continues at a record pace," said Pradman Kaul , president of Hughes, "and speed and application demands are only going to increase as the online world expands into even more data- and media-rich experiences. JUPITER 2/EchoStar XIX will enable us to continue our leadership so that our customers can enjoy the Internet at its fullest. SSL is a trusted partner in building our platforms and we look forward to working with them again."

With four decades of experience, SSL is the leader in supplying high-throughput, Ka-band satellites.

"Hughes is the inventor of commercial VSATs and a pioneer in satellite broadband for the consumer market," said John Celli , president of SSL. "JUPITER 2/EchoStar XIX will be the highest capacity broadband satellite ever built as a result of technology advances from both our companies and the excellent spirit of teamwork between our people."