Eutelsat concludes deal with EchoStar’s Hughes for High-Throughput Capacity on the EUTELSAT 65 West A satellite for broadband in Brazil

23 April 2014

Eutelsat do Brasil, the Brazilian affiliate of Eutelsat Communications announced that they have concluded a 15-year contract with Hughes Network Systems do Brasil (Hughes), an EchoStar company, for the entire Ka-band capacity connected to the Brazilian service area on the EUTELSAT 65 West A satellite.

Slated to be launched in early 2016, EUTELSAT 65 West A will host a Ka-band payload with 24 spotbeams of which 16 will cover a significant portion of the Brazilian population and generate over 24 Gbps of throughput. High-throughput JUPITER™ technology from Hughes will be deployed for the ground system and customer premises terminals.

For Hughes, EUTELSAT 65 West A will be its springboard in Brazil for mass market broadband services to consumers and businesses unserved or underserved by terrestrial networks.

“We are excited about the opportunity to deliver a broadband service to consumers and businesses in Brazil,” stated Pradman Kaul, president of Hughes. “It will be an excellent complement to the enterprise services Hughes already delivers into the Brazilian market. We look forward to working with Eutelsat on this opportunity.”

Michel de Rosen, Eutelsat Chairman and CEO, said, “We are delighted to pursue our longstanding relationship with Hughes and to see evidence that the unique proposition of EUTELSAT 65 west A is attracting anchor clients in Latin America well in advance of its launch. The high throughput capacity over Brazil provided by this satellite will be a powerful contributor to the country’s ongoing transformation into an Information Society and vindicates our strategy to bring satellite infrastructure to clearly identified markets where it has a long-term role to play in the broadband mix.”