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Texas Hires HughesNet

For many state governments, HughesNet provides the perfect solutions for certain broadband services. Several states have hired Hughes for this; Texas is the latest.

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Last week, the Texas Department of Information Resources awarded a multi-year contract to HughesNet. This was for managed network services.

Tony Bardo, an Assistant Vice President for Government Services at Hughes, called the new contract an important milestone. Usually, state governments award separate contracts for each service. And almost all go to incumbent vendors. Lately, though, several states have begun to hire multiple vendors for each service. This, Bardo says, creates opportunities for late arrivals such as HughesNet.

It may help you to know the meanings of these terms. With that in mind, we’re here to help: SD-WAN means ‘software defined wide area network’. SD networks rely on automated software programs for tasks that once required physical controls. A WAN is a large information network that does not depend on signals from a single location.

The New Kid in Town

Bardo said, “These state contracts are just now beginning to emerge and add vendors, and add choice and options. The SD-WAN and the managed broadband network market in the state governments is about to explode, I think.”

HughesNet won its first contract for state managed network services four yeas ago. It was one of three vendors qualifying in Pennsylvania. Since then, Bardo says, HughesNet has won similar contracts from Colorado, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Washington. “I would like to get fifty sets of contracts, and we’re working on it”, Bardo said. “The list is growing as we speak. New Jersey just issued an RFP ( request for procurement) and we’re responding to that… We’re also doing a North Dakota procurement right now.”

What is Texas getting?

You may think of HughesNet as a provider of satellite web connections for sparsely populated rural areas. You might not know the firm also offers managed services over cable, fiber, wireless, and fixed wireless networks, though. And with more than four hundred partners, Hughes can coordinate and manage many other services.

If you need specialized internet services, contact us. You might be surprised at what we can do for you.

Call 1-855-216-0185

For the best deals in home broadband connections, contact Satellite Country. We can help. Call today.

Call 1-855-216-0185

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SATELLITE INTERNET: HOW IT WORKS

To understand the advantage in HughesNet service, it may help you to know how satellite internet works. It differs from other sources of internet service.

In rural- and some suburban- areas, the dominant internet services are either dial-up or DSL. Each requires a phone line. Dial-up service ties up the phone, so you can’t place or receive a call while connected to the web.  Dial-up is also extremely slow- too slow to be practical for any but the lightest web-surfing or e-mail.

DSL (digital subscriber line) service won’t tie up your phone, but it brings other disadvantages of a community phone line: your download speed will be affected by your distance from the central office, and by the number of your neighbors connected at the same time. If you’re close enough to the central transmission facility, you could see download speeds in excess of 6 megabits per second. If you live farther away, or if your community DSL system is under heavy usage, your download speed could drop to a small fraction of this.

With satellite internet service, you won’t face these problems. Your HughesNet system will not require a home phone line. Because it receives its signal directly from a satellite high in the stratosphere, it is independent of any neighborhood phone or fiber system, so your service will not be affected by the number of your neighbors connected at the same time.

HughesNet is faster than typical DSL service. and many times faster than the fastest dial-up service. HughesNet offers four levels of residential internet service. With the basic plan, you get download speeds of up to 5 megabits per second (MB/S), and with the best plan, up to to 15 MB/S.

HughesNet’s Echostar XVII satellite network features the highest download capacity of any satellite internet service.

Your HughesNet service will be suitable for web-surfing, e-mail, word-processing, social media, and downloading music or video. The only function we don’t recommend it for is interactive gaming. The signal from your computer has to travel 22,500 miles to the satellite, then travel the same distance back. The round trip takes about a quarter of a second. For most uses, this is not a critical lag, but it can ruin an interactive game that depends on quick reflexes.

Apart from that one limitation, satellite internet service works. Is HughesNet right for you? Call us, or fill out a contact form, to find out.