Hughes files for bankruptcy after GEO business loses ground to Starlink

TAMPA, Fla. — EchoStar’s Hughes geostationary satellite broadband business has filed for bankruptcy in the United States after years of mounting competition from SpaceX’s Starlink constellation.

The company said Aug. 3 that Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection will enable Hughes Satellite Systems to restructure debt as it refocuses on enterprise, government and defense customers following heavy losses in its legacy consumer internet market.

International subsidiaries were not included in the Chapter 11 proceedings, which come a month after parts of EchoStar’s business tied to satellite TV and its abandoned 5G network filed for bankruptcy protection. The company said it expects to continue providing services during the bankruptcy process.

Hughes broadband subscribers have plummeted roughly 21.7% over the past year to around 641,000, chief restructuring officer Robert del Genio said in a court filing, citing intense competition from low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband operators.

“The company does not expect this trend to reverse,” he said.

“LEO satellite competition is structural, not cyclical, and the company’s competitors continue to expand coverage and reduce costs.”

Geostationary orbit (GEO) can provide broad coverage from 36,000 kilometers above Earth, but that altitude imposes latency of around 600 milliseconds, del Genio said, “which the company’s customers historically accepted as necessary for connectivity they could not otherwise obtain.”

By contrast, he said LEO satellites can deliver latency of around 20-40 milliseconds at speeds approaching terrestrial broadband performance.

While Starlink is by far the dominant LEO broadband player, Amazon is ramping up deployment for its network and expects to start commercial service later this year.

New Hughes incoming

However, del Genio highlighted a growing opportunity outside consumer broadband, pointing to about $1.5 billion contracted enterprise backlog, alongside recent contract awards from commercial airlines and U.S. defense agencies. 

Hughes also sees a growing role as a multi-orbit infrastructure enabler.

While EchoStar has six GEO satellites and 69 terrestrial gateways worldwide, it has also heavily invested in ground infrastructure and managed services capabilities for LEO, including flat panel antenna technologies.

Even still, according to filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Hughes lacked the cash needed to repay about $1.5 billion of debt by an Aug. 3 deadline.

Hughes notified about 400 employees across the business in late July that their jobs would be terminated, del Genio said, with most of them expected to leave in late September after a 60-day transition period.

EchoStar’s broadband and satellite services fell 6.7% year-over-year to $317 million for the three months to June 30.

Total revenue declined nearly 4% to around $3.6 billion, while adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) jumped to $681.2 million from $279.6 million, driven mainly by improvements in EchoStar’s wireless and other segments.

Unlike the prepackaged restructuring for DISH DBS, Hughes entered Chapter 11 without a deal already agreed with creditors.