The United States company Hughes Network Systems announced on Tuesday that it will expand its satellite internet service to most of Mexico starting on October 1.

According to a press release, HughesNet high-speed satellite internet will be available for 95% of Mexico, including rural and marginalized areas. According to a 2018 report by Freedom House, only 63.9% of Mexicans were connected to the internet in 2018, and only 14% of internet users were in rural areas.

HughesNet provides satellite internet service to 1.4 million people in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the United States. The service offers download speeds of up to 25 megabits per second, much higher than Mexico’s national average of 6 Mbps.

Hughes hopes to deliver internet to the millions of Mexican homes that are not connected, especially in remote areas where infrastructure is limited.

“We don’t depend on cable or fiber infrastructure,” said marketing manager Cristina Mendoza at an event to inaugurate the service on Tuesday. “That means we can offer our services in our coverage areas independently of geographic conditions or population density.”

Initially HughesNet will only be available to residential customers, but the company hopes to offer internet to small and large businesses in the future.

Source: La Razón (sp)