Hughes Announces Availability of Rapidly Deployable Emergency Response Systems


Sept. 20, 2017

Hughes Network Systems, LLC announced the immediate availability and expedited installation of emergency satellite communications (SATCOM) terminals for first response organizations and businesses during the highly active hurricane season. Operating over its high-throughput Ka-band satellites (HTS), EchoStar XVII and EchoStar XIX, Hughes delivers reliable and efficient emergency response communications with 25 Mbps download speeds from coast to coast across America.

Recently, Hurricane Harvey disrupted at least 17 Texas-area emergency call centers and 320 cellular sites that led to outages for more than 148,000 Internet, TV, and phone customers. Adding to the catastrophic damage in the southeastern U.S., Harvey was followed by Hurricane Irma, which took aim at the Caribbean Islands and Florida. According to the FCC, Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc on local telecom infrastructure, downing eighty-two percent of cell sites in the Keys and throughout Monroe County. In the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, Hughes deployed ground systems at the request of response organizations to support recovery efforts and expects more units to be deployed in the coming weeks.

"When hurricanes hit, gale force winds and flash flooding can devastate terrestrial networks, whether cable, fiber or cellular," said Tony Bardo, assistant vice president of Government Solutions at Hughes. "Satellite communications operate far above the disruption and are critical to coordinate decision-making among responders and to keep the public informed. Our solutions enable mobile connectivity for real-time situational awareness, backhaul for portable cellular service, and fixed broadband service for recovery and command centers."