3-27-06 Hughes Launches Comprehensive Package of Satellite ISP Services Under New HughesNet Brand

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hughes Launches Comprehensive Package of Satellite ISP Services Under New HughesNet Brand

New Services Focus on Customer Satisfaction, Personalized Experience

Germantown, Md., March 27, 2006—Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite network solutions and services, today unveiled plans for a package of new services under its new HughesNet™ brand. Hughes currently serves more than 275,000 broadband customers in the consumer/small business sector in North America.

These new HughesNet services are designed to enhance the customer’s broadband experience, and reflect the company’s commitment as a comprehensive ISP in the consumer and small business sector. Three enhancements are available now to all HughesNet customers—a new email system, a personalized start page and more accessible customer support services. Future services will include domain registration, web hosting, domain-based email, and blogging.

“We are confident that our HughesNet service will continue to meet the evolving needs of our diverse and growing customer base,” said Mike Cook, senior vice president, North American Sales and Marketing. “Furthermore, we expect it will attract the attention of millions of other consumers and small businesses who have been overlooked by cable and DSL providers. HughesNet is available to them wherever they live or work and now includes a whole new range of services to help them use the Internet more effectively. We are the leader in the satellite broadband market and it is our aim to continue delivering exciting new services throughout 2006 and beyond.”

New Email and Personalized Home Pages
As part of the transition to HughesNet, all existing DIRECWAY^® subscribers will be provided with new email addresses in the Hughes.net domain—with an expanded two gigabytes of storage per mailbox—the equivalent of 1,000,000 pages of email. In addition, customers will be able to send large attachments such as photographs, reports, and quotations.

An additional feature is collecting messages from other email services. “Now, instead of checking multiple email accounts, our HughesNet customers can access all of their emails in one centralized location,” said Peter Gulla, vice president of North American marketing. “Their new email accounts are now readily accessible from our enhanced HughesNet home page.”

HughesNet subscribers can customize their online experience by logging onto www.myhughesnet.com. For everything from news and financial reports, to the latest sports and weather information, HughesNet customers can simply click on the content they want, displayed right on their “myhughesnet” homepage.

Accessible Customer Support
Reinforcing its commitment to customer satisfaction, Hughes has created one-click access to customer support for subscribers from the new HughesNet start page. “We want our customers to have direct access to our customer support team as soon as they log on,” added Gulla. “It’s critical to us that our subscribers understand and feel the impact of our commitment to their satisfaction.”

To this end, Hughes has also taken steps to ensure that no e-mails are missed during the domain transition. Messages from old accounts will be forwarded immediately to the new email addresses as subscribers update their contact information.

For more information about HughesNet ISP services or if you are a subscriber seeking more information about the transition, please visit www.myhughesnet.com or call 1-866-566-9660.

About Hughes Network Systems
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) is the global leader in providing broadband satellite networks and services for large enterprises, governments, small businesses, and consumers. HughesNet encompasses all broadband solutions and managed services from Hughes, bridging the best of satellite and terrestrial technologies. Hughes has shipped more than 1 million systems to customers in over 100 countries. Its broadband satellite products are based on the IPoS (IP over Satellite) global standard, approved by the TIA, ETSI, and ITU standards organizations.

Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Hughes maintains sales and support offices worldwide. Hughes is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Communications, Inc. (OTCBB:HGCM). For additional information, please visit www.hughes.com.

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