Hughes Communication

A Revolution in Communications

OVERVIEW

SPACEWAY, a business unit of Hughes Communications, Inc. (HCI), is a wireless expressway that will provide businesses and consumers around the world with affordable access to a variety of interactive, high-speed and high-quality broadband telecommunications services. SPACEWAY utilizes a global system of geostationary satellites in conjunction with a ground-based infrastructure to allow users to transmit and receive voice, video, audio, data, and multimedia hundreds of times faster than conventional telephone lines. Access to the system is easy and instantaneous through a family of low-cost terminals. The standard terminal is expected to be low cost and have a 0.7-meter diameter dish. SPACEWAY will offer business users a wide variety of applications, including desktop video telephony and conferencing, computer networking, technical tele-imaging, CAD/CAM transmission and high-speed, low-cost access to the next generation of on-line multimedia data bases at rates from 16 Kbps to 6 Mbps.

The SPACEWAY system will play two key roles when service begins in 2002. The first is infrastructure enhancement: to provide basic telephony to underserved areas of the world, and to allow these areas regional and global telecom access. The second is interactive multimedia: to provide advanced communications to the global marketplace, where huge quantities of information must be accessed and shared electronically.

REGIONAL FOCUS… WORLDWIDE CONNECTIVITY

SPACEWAY is a Fixed Satellite System (FSS) using spacecraft in geostationary earth orbit (GEO). SPACEWAY has been licensed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for orbital locations at 101° West longitude (WL), 99°-WL, 49°-WL, 25°-East longitude (EL), 54°-EL, 101°-EL, 111°-EL, and 164°-EL. Operating in the Ka-band spectrum, SPACEWAY will consist of four interconnected regional satellite systems providing service to nearly all of the world’s population. The first regional system will offer service as early as 2002, with the other three regions going on-line by the year 2004. SPACEWAY provides “bandwidth-on-demand”–the ability to transmit and receive voice, video, audio, data, and multimedia at any time from any place–at up to 6 megabits per second. It seamlessly integrates into the terrestrial infrastructure, enabling SPACEWAY customers to communicate with terrestrial networks.

EASY ACCESS… SEAMLESS CONNECTIVITY

SPACEWAY end-users will access the system with an inexpensive Ultra Small Aperture Terminal (USAT), utilizing a 0.7-meter diameter dish antenna. USATs incorporate complete digital electronics that can interface with a wide variety of end-user equipment such as telephone, facsimile, personal computer and video. The system is fully compatible with a wide range of terrestrial transmission standards such as ATM, ISDN, Frame Relay and X.25. The SPACEWAY USAT represents the next generation in satellite communications technology, providing bandwidth-on-demand, and hubless full-mesh networking supporting a wide range of data rates and providing full terrestrial compatibility.