THE WAYBACK (CIRCA 1996)

Back in the 80s, HughesNet was the satellite technology

innovator. You know the platter-size gray dishes
DirecTV mounts on the outside of houses? Those came Its first
from HughesNet, which itself came, circuitously, from commercial
aviation pioneer Howard Hughes. “We invented the customer was
technology that allows us to provide interactive Walmart, which
communications via satellite,” says EVP Mike Cook. wanted to link
employees
In those days, then-named Hughes Network Systems across the
owned DirecTV and operated large geostationary country and to
satellites that beamed information down to televisions. its home office.
Then and now, the company also offered services to
businesses, like credit card transactions on gas pumps.
Its first commercial customer was Walmart, which
wanted to link employees across the country and to its
home office in Bentonville.

In the mid-90s, the company built a hybrid internet

system called DirecPC: A user’s computer submitted a
request via dial-up; it was directed to a web server and
completed via a satellite, beaming the requested page
down to the user’s dish.