GERMANTOWN, Maryland, January 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- Helius to Enhance Hughes' Business IPTV and Managed Network Service
Offerings

Hughes Communications, Inc. (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband
satellite network solutions and a leading broadband managed network services
provider, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to
acquire Helius, Inc., a portfolio company of Canopy Ventures. The acquisition
is expected to be completed on or about February 4, 2008. Upon completion of
the acquisition, Helius will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes and
will operate closely with Hughes' North America and International enterprise
businesses.

The acquisition will combine the skills of Helius, a recognized leader in
providing business IPTV solutions for applications such as training,
corporate communications, and digital signage, with the extensive broadband
networking experience and customer base of Hughes. Hughes plans to deploy
Helius' innovative IP video technologies to enhance its existing HughesNet(R)
service offerings.

Hughes has a large and growing customer base of government, retail,
hospitality, and petroleum customers with an interest in business IPTV
applications. Recent developments in broadband and video compression
technologies allow internal and customer-facing digital media applications to
be delivered for a fraction of the cost of previous systems. When combined
with Hughes' networking services, the Helius product suite provides a
cost-effective and compelling enterprise networking and communications
solution.

"As a premier managed network services provider to enterprise and SMB
customers, Hughes saw a natural fit in teaming with Helius to better address
the market for digital media solutions," said Pradman Kaul, president and CEO
of Hughes. "We believe this acquisition will uniquely position Hughes as a
cost-effective, end-to-end service provider offering content management,
hardware, installation, maintenance, network operations, and services."

"Businesses around the globe are looking for better ways to communicate
with their customers and employees," said Mike Tippets, president and CEO of
Helius. "Together with Hughes we are able to provide those organizations, and
the integrators who service them, with end-to-end solutions that are easy to
buy and easy to use."

About Helius

Founded in 1995, Helius is a worldwide leader in business-class data
broadcasting solutions and has been focused on the data broadcasting and
IP-over-satellite markets for nearly a decade. Helius offers a comprehensive
portfolio of digital signage, training, distance learning, and content
distribution network solutions. Helius is a privately held firm with funding
from The Canopy Group.

About Hughes Communications, Inc.

Hughes Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: HUGH) is the 100 percent owner of
Hughes Network Systems, LLC. Hughes is the global leader in providing
broadband satellite networks and services for enterprises, governments, small
businesses, and consumers. HughesNet encompasses all broadband solutions and
managed services from Hughes, bridging the best of satellite and terrestrial
technologies. Its broadband satellite products are based on the IPoS (IP over
Satellite) global standard, approved by the TIA, ETSI, and ITU standards
organizations. To date, Hughes has shipped more than 1.2 million systems to
customers in over 100 countries.

Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, USA,
Hughes maintains sales and support offices worldwide. For more information,
please visit http://www.hughes.com.

Hughes and HughesNet are registered trademarks of Hughes Network Systems,
LLC.

Web site: http://www.hughes.com