Hughesnet is preparing to refer its own customers to rival Starlink following a deal between its parent company, EchoStar, and SpaceX. Unexpected development, revealed in a 10-Q SEC filing released Friday, signals a dramatic shift in the satellite internet landscape.
The filing describes “a fee-based referral program that lets us refer existing HughesNet customers and new Starlink customers to SpaceX,” though specific details remain scarce. Comes as Hughesnet’s subscriber base continues to erode, dropping from 912k to 783k customers over the past year.
Perhaps more concerning is Hughesnet’s stark admission about its financial situation. The company states it “currently does not have the necessary cash on hand, projected future cash flows or committed financing to fund our obligations over the next twelve months, which raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.”
Cash crisis persists despite EchoStar’s pending $17 billion radio spectrum sale to SpaceX, which still requires regulatory approval. Filing notably indicates that even after this deal closes, EchoStar “may not provide additional liquidity” to Hughesnet.
The company’s struggles aren’t surprising when examining the performance disparity between Hughesnet and Starlink. While Hughesnet has made improvements, increasing median download speeds from 20.87 Mbps to 47.79 Mbps between Q1 2022 and Q1 2025, it can’t match Starlink’s capabilities.
Latency remains a particular weakness for Hughesnet’s geostationary satellite system. Despite reducing its multi-server latency from 1019 milliseconds to 683 ms, still vastly exceeds Starlink’s 45 ms, a critical difference for responsive internet usage.
EchoStar’s former CEO, Hamid Akhavan, acknowledged this competitive reality, noting that Hughesnet was shifting toward “enterprise” customers instead of competing directly with Starlink in the consumer market.
“Purely from the realization and understanding that the consumer connectivity to satellite is now highly competitive given SpaceX’s offerings and perhaps in the future other LEO offerings such as Amazon’s Kuiper,” Akhavan explained.
The company had initially planned to compete through service plan revisions and the launch of its Jupiter 3 satellite, but these efforts failed to stem subscriber losses.
As Hughesnet faces this existential challenge, the company that once dominated rural satellite internet now finds itself in orbit around Starlink’s growing influence.