Interview: Roque Lombardo Explains How Hughes Space Technology Is Creating Social Impact By Connecting The Most Remote Andean Communities

Global satellite operator Hughes, an Echostar company has demonstrated a consistent commitment to Colombia and the Andean region, and just like in past years, was present in force at this year’s ANDICOM 2025, the 40th edition of the region’s most important enterprise IT industry event. Even though Hughes has a heritage going back to WW2 and Hughes Aircraft, the company is not resting on its heritage ceding ground to newer operators. Hughes parent Echostar recently purchased DISH network, strengthening the group’s business offerings in LEO (Low Earth Orbit) 5G telecom offerings, enabled by the company’s Jupiter 3 satellite.

The company’s flagship Jupiter 3 satellite was launched July 29, 2023 and covers north & south America with capacity exceeding 500gbps, and individual streams up to 100mbps bandwidth. The school-bus sized satelite runs off of 14 solar panels and sits perched at a longitude of 95 degrees east. Hughes packages this GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit) with its managed LEO (Low Earth Orbit) service to provide connectivity without the end client or user having to manage the connections, coordinate, or even be aware of what satellite or network is providing the connectivity. This has allowed Hughes to deploy solutions such as its OneWeb in-flight satelite internet service for aircraft.

Hughes insists that its solutions are not just for the jet-set or big businesses. Locally, Hughes has been deploying its advanced technology in places like Colombia’s remote La Guajira peninsula, rural Huila and 12 other Colombian departments, connecting 12,510 previously isolated households. Rural schools, agriculture, and small, remote communities are all able to benefit from Hughes’ modern satellite technology.

Hughes country manager for Colombia, Roque Lombardo was kind enough to take time out from his dealmaking at ANDICOM to speak with Loren Moss, executive editor of Finance Colombia, and himself a veteran of the early commercial satellite business, to talk about how Hughes is making the latest space technology like Jupiter 3 relevant and accessible for even a grade-school student in Colombia’s La Guajira desert or Chocó rainforest.

Finance Colombia: I’m here with Roque Lombardo, who is the country manager for Hughes Satellite here in Colombia. Thank you very much for your time. It’s an honor to be here talking with you. How’s it going here at ANDICOM?

Roque Lombardo: Well. We have been participating for several years now, truly with great success. I’d say it is the largest telecommunications and technology fair in Latin America, except for some events in Mexico. So, luckily, we are doing very well.

Finance Colombia: Excellent. I want to start by congratulating Hughes because one thing I have seen is that, year after year, you have a long-term commitment here in Colombia. Aside from all the technology that Hughes has developed throughout its history, from World War II, when you made aircraft, to now as a satellite company, you are committed to connecting not only Medellín and Bogotá and Cartagena here, but also rural areas of Colombia. Explain to me how you are applying your technology to bridge that gap.

Roque Lombardo: Satellite technology is, generally speaking, a long-term investment. Since you mention long-term commitment, obviously, there is a long-term commitment, but the business is very long-term because the satellites we launch have a useful life of 20, 25, or 30 years. So any business we can do in satellite connectivity is long-term.

This provides two things: it guarantees sustainability and regional coverage. From there, I would say that satellite communications are basically focused on rural connectivity, or are focused on rural connectivity and backup services; fundamentally, it’s those two. Our strength is in rural areas, but you can also see, even though we don’t compete with fiber optics, you can see our VSAT terminals in urban areas, like I don’t know, at a gas station. What is one of our VSAT terminals doing at a gas station in an urban area? It is a backup service because they cannot be left without communication. When the radio link or fiber optics connection fails, the backup service kicks in.

Now, to answer your question more specifically, there are two things I consider to reduce the digital divide. The first consideration is, obviously, that we are all very committed to reducing the digital divide, especially in the southern hemisphere. I am not talking only about Colombia, but on a global level.

And from there, we need to have a certain level of connectivity, but we also need to have content. Because many advocates for reducing the digital divide say that we have reduced the digital divide if, and only if, we have connected a school to a satellite station. But if you don’t feed that school with relevant content from a satellite station, it’s useless. You know? In other words, a connection alone is one thing, but a connection with relevant content so that people can educate themselves, engage in e-commerce, communicate, carry out e-government procedures, and so on, is another thing entirely.

So, from there, satellite connectivity is very useful, and we are working in that direction to increase connectivity. Because even narrowing the gap is sometimes a fallacy, because there are always more places to connect. In other words, the number of places to connect is growing, and the speed of coverage should grow at the same rate as the need for internet service, right?

Finance Colombia: Yes, it’s quite shocking. I’ve visited parts of Colombia: La Guajira, not far from here, Chocó, in the south, like the Amazon and Vaupés, and those areas where there’s no cell phone service, let alone internet access or anything like that. But I think you have technologies that allow cell phone operators to, like, they don’t have to run fiber optics,  they can install connectivity in remote areas like Leticia, or in Antioquia. There are areas where the only access is by river.

Roque Lombardo: 30 kilometers away from here, there are areas without coverage. We are in Cartagena, and 30 kilometers away, there are areas without coverage. That is another service we are providing called cellular backhaul, which connects cell phones through satellite stations. Why? Because, in a way, it is not profitable for cell phone operators to go to a very isolated location with fiber optics or a radio link. So, since they don’t go there with that, they can do it through a satellite link and achieve 4G or 5G cellular coverage in remote areas.

Finance Colombia: One thing that fascinates me is technological advancement. I’m old enough to remember when people had satellites like C-band antennas in their yards.

Roque Lombardo: 180 cm tall.

Finance Colombia: When you changed the channel, that satellite would move from one game to another.

Roque Lombardo: I am that old as well.

Finance Colombia: And I remember that in the nineties, I had a company that provided services for those things.

Roque Lombardo: C-band.

Finance Colombia: Right, yes. And up north, when it’s cold, the lubricant freezes.

Roque Lombardo: And the antenna wouldn’t move.

We have approximately 10,000 schools connected in Colombia, and we have between 15,000 and 17,000 homes connected – Roque Lombardo

Finance Colombia: It was a money-maker for us, because they called us so they could watch the game, and it was just a matter of cleaning the arm that moves it. But what killed that was the Ku-band. And then the dish satellites arrived, which already had the small things, and changed the industry completely. Now, twenty years later, for example, you have antennas that are like small laptops. The connection and installation are much easier. Before, a technician had compasses and weird things.

Roque Lombardo: Elevation and azimuth.

Finance Colombia: It looked like voodoo, installing that for the consumer. So my question is… You guys are still at the forefront. How do you see and what is your strategy with the advancement of systems, which they say are disruptive, but we already have Low Earth Orbit, which has like satellite constellations? You guys already have it; you’ve been setting the pace with every piece of technology. How is that changing the market, and what is your strategy in response to that?

Roque Lombardo: Yes, let’s see, what changes the market dramatically is the reduction in hardware and service costs, beyond the technology itself. I mean, it can be GEO, or LEO in this case; either one. Now, GEO technology has a specific coverage area, and LEO technology, due to the characteristics of the networks, has global coverage.

What does LEO allow for? It allows you to have connectivity everywhere, absolutely everywhere. GEO has very significant coverage, with extremely high capacity, but in perfectly defined areas, right? So, I believe that fixed Internet connectivity is becoming more democratic, but two paths are also opening up: the residential path, B2C, and the business path, B2B. In the residential sector, with low orbit or stationary GEO, needs can be met without any problem. In the business sector, you have two solutions: a LEO solution, a GEO solution, or a mixed solution.

Finance Colombia: Yes.

Roque Lombardo: In general, the best solutions are mixed ones, in which the provider analyzes your needs and gives you the best solution for each of those needs. There is no single GEO solution or single LEO solution.

Finance Colombia:  Something you guys have is a featured product that provides services to airlines.

Roque Lombardo: Yes, that is LEO.

Finance Colombia: That is LEO, okay. And aside from that, your customers obviously include broadcasters, traditional media outlets that always send their signals that way, and one of your first commercial customers. Apart from that, obviously, cell phone operators, but… there’s something in Colombia and many countries here in Latin America, as well as in Canada and Alaska, there are businesses that are located in very isolated places. And I don’t know if there’s much coverage so far north, but my question is, aside from those traditional clients who have known you for decades, what are the companies, I imagine like we have many readers from the mining and oil sectors, what are the sectors where you see the most growth, where perhaps you have solutions for those industries?

Roque Lombardo: There is a need in all industry verticals. Banking, finance, oil and gas, mining, agriculture and livestock; because in addition to everything we’ve already talked about in these few minutes, you have what is called IoT, which is the famous Internet of Things, with 5G technologies in which everyone can set up their own virtual private network, and from there have all their connectivity needs covered. That demand is infinite, because I’m talking about wanting to connect a television camera, wanting to connect my refrigerator, wanting to connect a drone, wanting to connect a moisture detector to measure agricultural moisture, or wanting to connect livestock to see how it is evolving and to monitor it.

Finance Colombia: The water levels.

Roque Lombardo: Water levels, I mean, the applications are endless. That’s why I say that demand is growing all the time, and all the solutions that are appearing in any type of orbit are going to be necessary to meet all that demand.

Finance Colombia: That’s right. Well, I remember that, I don’t think it was last year, but two years ago, you guys were celebrating, and you invited us to celebrate with you the launch of a satellite. I don’t remember if it was Jupiter 3, off the top of my head.

 Roque Lombardo: Jupiter 3.

Finance Colombia: Is there something we haven’t mentioned that you want to mention, or a question I didn’t ask you, or some successes since then?

Roque Lombardo: No, basically, we have continued to grow. We have approximately 10,000 schools connected in Colombia, and we have between 15,000 and 17,000 homes connected. We have many deals with large companies, and we have cellular backhaul, as I mentioned before. And we are marketing, let’s say, if we’re talking about basic services, we are marketing everything that Hughes offers with geostationary orbit satellites and OneWeb’s service with low orbit satellites, with full coverage.

Finance Colombia: And if there are businesses or school districts that want to learn more, is there a specific section of the website or a contact? What steps can be taken?

Roque Lombardo: Yes, at Hughes.com, you can find all the information there. It’s a very user-friendly site with instructional videos, product lines, services, and more. It’s at Hughes.com.

Finance Colombia: Okay, thank you very much for your time.

Roque Lombardo: Great, thank you.

Finance Colombia: Okay.