Hughes Announces Formation of Hughes Network Systems Australia Pty. Ltd.

Global leader in broadband satellite expands presence to meet growing demand

GERMANTOWN, Maryland, May 17, 2010 - Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband
satellite networks and services, today announced the formation of Hughes
Network Systems Australia Pty. Ltd. (Hughes Australia), demonstrating the
company's commitment to serve this strategic and rapidly growing market,
particularly in the area of Ka-band satellite technology and services.

"We congratulate the Australian government on its mission to bridge the
digital divide across this vast and beautiful country," said Pradman Kaul,
CEO of Hughes. "Satellite is the ideal technology to bring high-speed
Internet services to homes and offices affordably even in the least populated
areas, and establishing this office means we can more actively engage in
helping fulfill that mission. We intend to promote the implementation of our
most advanced broadband satellite systems and services, building on our
global leadership serving customers in over 100 countries, and operating on
more than 20 satellites, including our own Ka-band SPACEWAY 3 satellite in
North America, the world's first with on-board switching and routing."

Bahram Pourmand, Executive Vice President, International of Hughes,
commented, "This is an important next step for us in this growing region as
part of our global services strategy, positioning us to expand on our
successful 20 year plus record of supplying satellite broadband technology to
major operators in Australia. We look forward to work with Australian
partners and to share our broadband satellite operating know-how and
experience gained from our service companies in North America, Europe, India,
and Brazil, and through a rapidly growing network of independent service
providers in other parts of the world."

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(R) encompasses all broadband
solutions and managed services from Hughes, bridging the best of satellite
and terrestrial technologies. Its broadband satellite products are based on
global standards approved by the TIA, ETSI and ITU standards organizations,
including IPoS/DVB-S2, RSM-A and GMR-1. To date, Hughes has shipped more than
2.2 million systems to customers in over 100 countries.

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. (Nasdaq: HUGH). For
additional information, please visit www.hughes.com.

Hughes, HughesNet, SPACEWAY, and Jupiter are trademarks of Hughes Network
Systems, LLC.

Judy Blake, Hughes, +1-301-601-7330, judy.blake at hughes.com; or Donna Armstrong, Brodeur Partners, +1-202-775-2650, darmstrong at brodeur.com