Hughes Network Systems has announced that its customer, AFSAT Communications, received the "VSAT Operator Award for Best Company of the Year 2008" at a gala dinner held at the Intercontinental Sandton Sun and Towers during the SatCom Africa 2008 conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.

This was the 11th year of the SatCom Africa conference and show, which is a key conference for the east, south and west of Africa.

AFSAT offers three services of broadband satellite communications under the iWay(TM) brand; iWay Broadband, iWay Dedicated, and iWay Corporate Networks. iWay Broadband is a cost-effective, always-on Internet access service including business-quality data communications solution and business-quality VoIP.

iWay Dedicated is designed for larger corporations and ISPs who need specific bandwidth availability at all times. iWay Corporate Networks are specially designed high-end satellite WAN data networks.

Salim Suleman, managing director of AFSAT, said, "We are honored to receive the "VSAT Operator Award for the Best Company of the Year 2008. Since receiving our first license in 1996, our business has grown tremendously.

The performance of the Hughes products has contributed to the success we have achieved. We take pride in providing our customers with high-quality communications solutions unique to their needs."

AFSAT's services are primarily based on the Hughes family of broadband satellite routers and hubs. The Hughes products are compliant with the IPoS/DVB-S2 industry standard which yields higher throughputs and more efficient bandwidth utilization.

In addition, the Hughes product platforms feature Adaptive Coding Modulation (ACM) which means the combination of coding and modulation of the outbound channel can be configured for each remote terminal so that the Hughes system is able to transmit data at the optimum efficiency for each terminal.

Soheil Mehrabanzad, assistant vice president and regional director, Middle East/Africa at Hughes, said, "We are very pleased that our loyal customer, AFSAT, has received this honor. It has been a pleasure working with them over the years, supplying Hughes broadband equipment and helping them to develop their business."

The criteria for the VSAT Operator of the Year included:

- Number of terminals delivering services

- Rate of growth

- Amount of bandwidth deployed

- Variety of sectors serviced

- Services available

- Lobbying the regulatory environment to protect VSAT frequencies