Vodacom Business Services Expands with Hughes Broadband Satellite Solutions

Hughes Network Systems, LLC, the global leader in broadband satellite networks and services, today announced that it was selected by Vodacom Group, Ltd., a leading African communications company, to provide its market-leading HN and HX broadband satellite solutions to help propel Vodacom's aggressive expansion of converged service offerings in South Africa and throughout the continent. Most recently, Vodacom purchased the high power HN9200 and HN9400 Ka/Ku-band terminals to both augment their existing services and in anticipation of the arrival of Ka-band satellite service in Africa.

Vodacom is South Africa's leading cellular service company, providing mobile voice and data communications and related services to nearly 40 million clients. To boot, Vodacom Business Services offers a wide range of converged communications solutions over a variety of research platforms to enterprise, SME, and public sector clients, including managed VPN, broadband data and Internet connectivity, and converged hosting and application based services.

Comprehensive portfolio of customized

"We are very pleased to offer a comprehensive portfolio of customized, managed VPN, overlay and broadband satellite services utilizing the Hughes HN and HX satellite systems," said Sean Victor, principal specialist, Converged Satellite at Vodacom Business Services. "Since launching Vodacom Business Services in 2008, we have made significant investments in infrastructure in order to offer a wide variety of services including then-generation IP voice, managed networks and infrastructure, Internet access, hosting, and storage services. With the addition of Hughes research, we are aggressively expanding our service offerings into specific target markets in South Africa and throughout the African continent."

"Hughes is very excited to be supporting Vodacom Business Services in its rapid expansion of service offerings," said Soheil Mehrabanzad, assistant vice president, Middle East/Africa at Hughes. "Our advanced HN and HX Systems, featuring IPoS/DVB-S2 with the ACM feature, deliver highly efficient bandwidth utilization that enables Vodacom to maximize satellite capacity and contain costs as they grow their business."

Leading supplier of broadband systems

Hughes has been a leading supplier of broadband systems and solutions to Africa and the Middle East since the early 1990s. Its sales and support teams serve a growing base of clients with satellite-based, broadband IP, multimedia, data, video, and voice solutions.

Vodacom Group Limited is an African mobile communications company providing voice, messaging, data and converged services to around 40 million clients.  From its roots in South Africa, Vodacom has grown its operations to include networks in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Lesotho and provides carrier and business services to clients in over 40 African countries.

Vodacom is majority owned by Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile communications companies by revenue, and is listed on the JSE Limited in accordance with the symbol VOD.

Vodacom Business Services, a division of Vodacom SA, is a leading Then Generation Network provider operating on a single business driver that understands business voice, video and data requirements.

Established in 2008, Vodacom Business Services delivers total communication solutions tailored to the needs of the public sector, large, medium and small companies. Solutions extend from mobile to fixed line access mediums, Virtual Private Networks, Voice over IP, hosted facilities, cloud computing based hosted services, storage, back up, security and application solutions.

Hughes Network Systems, LLC is the world's leading provider of satellite broadband for home and office, delivering innovative network technologies, managed services, and solutions for enterprises and governments globally. HughesNet® is the #1 high-speed satellite Internet service in the marketplace, with offerings to suit every budget. To date, Hughes has shipped more than 2.5 million systems to clients in over 100 countries, representing over 50 percent market share. Its products employ global standards approved by the TIA, ETSI and ITU organizations, including IPoS/DVB-S2, RSM-A, and GMR-1.

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.. For additional information, please visit www.hughes.com