Hughes Technology Tapped to Expand Broadband Schools Program in Mexico

GERMANTOWN, Md., Dec. 18, 2006/Satnews Daily/ ― Hughes Network Systems, LLC (NASDAQ:HUGH) has announced the next phase of its contract with Enlaces Integra and Globalstar de Mexico to deliver an additional 10,860 broadband satellite terminals for the Mexican Ministry of Education's Enciclomedia program.

Hughes said this phase will serve approximately 17,500 secondary school classrooms in Mexico, expanding the initial network of over 13,000 terminals which currently serves some 37,500 primary school classrooms. Enlaces Integra utilizes the Hughes satellite terminals to provide services to a consortium formed by Dell Mexico, Ted de Mexico S.A. de C.V., and Mainbit S.A. de C.V., the systems integrators for the Enciclomedia project.

The Enciclomedia project is an initiative of Mexico's Ministry of Education to bring an enhanced learning environment to over 150,000 classrooms throughout Mexico. It enables an interactive approach to teaching through the use of touch screen blackboard technologies, providing common teaching materials to schools across Mexico's diverse geography, in rural and urban areas alike.

During the past year Hughes said it has delivered over 13,000 satellite terminals, which were installed in primary schools and covered some 37,500 classrooms. Hughes added this latest phase will bring the total number of classrooms covered by Hughes' broadband satellite terminals to over 55,000, reaching more than 40 percent of the secondary school classrooms in the country.

Manuel Wiechers, CEO of Enlaces Integra, said Enlaces will expand its network with the latest Hughes technology using DVB-S2 to serve the Ministry of Education's Enciclomedia project. “The nearly exclusive use of 0.74 meter satellite terminals leads to a lower cost installation and exceptional efficiencies in the utilization of space segment capacity,” he said.

The network utilizes state-of-the-art HN7000S broadband satellite terminals to provide high-speed Internet access, classroom monitoring and voice-over-IP (VoIP) communications. The Hughes HN platform employs the IPoS (IP over Satellite) international standard, incorporating the latest DVB-S2 standard with adaptive coding and modulation (ACM). This enables the use of compact 0.74 meter antennas at the majority of network sites, instead of costlier 0.89 and 1.2 meter antennas used earlier.

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