Satellite internet company Hughes Satellite Systems Corporation, a unit of telecommunications company EchoStar, has announced that it and some of its US subsidiaries, including Hughes Network Systems, have filed voluntary chapter 11 petitions in a Texas bankruptcy court. They point out that the Hughes filing says it lacks the cash and access to capital markets to pay off the debt. It has also been suggested that the Hughes filing arrives without a pre-negotiated restructuring plan. One problem for Hughes' business may be increasing competition from low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite providers like Starlink. It may be that Hughes’ geostationary satellite technology cannot offer the levels of performance – and in particular low latency – consumers now expect.