[Satellite Today – 5-29-08] Hughes Network Systems LLC (Hughes) has reached an agreement with Wayport Inc. to provide Wi-Fi services to its HughesNet subscribers at more than 10,000 locations in the United States, Hughes announced May 29. These include selected hotels, participating McDonald’s restaurants, and Hertz airport locations,.
Subscribers will be able to access Wi-Fi using their laptops, mobile handsets, PDAs, gaming devices, media players, cameras, and other browserless devices.
The Wi-Fi package is available to HughesNet subscribers for $14.99 a month and will give subscribers unlimited Wi-Fi access at select locations across the United States.
    HughesNet is available throughout the continental United States and currently serves more than 400,000 consumers and small businesses.
    In other Hughes news, the company announced, May 28, that it closed its previously announced public offering of 2,239,600 shares of its common stock at a price of $50.00 per share. The offering included an aggregate of 2,000,000 shares sold by Hughes and an aggregate of 239,600 shares sold by certain selling stockholders, including members of Hughes’ senior management.
The shares were sold under Hughes’ effective shelf registration statement. Hughes intends to use the net proceeds from the sale of its shares for the acquisition of a satellite or general corporate purposes.
The offering is being made solely by means of a prospectus.