Pradman Kaul
Analyst · Raymond James
Thank you, Mike. I'm pleased with our financial performance during this unprecedented time, and I echo Mike's pride in the entire team for continuing to deliver the connectivity our customers depend on during this pandemic. Hughes' Q1 revenue increased 3% year-over-year despite limited capacity in North America as well as foreign exchange headwinds that impacted our international operations. In the consumer Internet business, we ended Q1 of 2020, with approximately 1.5 million Hughes net subscribers, which includes net adds of approximately 39,000 this quarter. Let me note that to help support U.S. stay-at-home guidelines during the pandemic, we signed on to the FCC's Keeping America Connected pledge, and our subscriber numbers exclude subscribers, whose service would have ordinarily been terminated in the absence of the pledge.
Our consumer subscriber base in Latin America is now approximately 267,000. Since the start of the pandemic, traffic at our network has increased dramatically and much of the network is operating at full capacity. We are diligently working to optimize broadband traffic and manage performance to accommodate this increase in network use and to prioritize remote learning and telecommuting for our subscribers. We continue to stay focused on managing churn and providing an outstanding customer experience. Due to our North American capacity constraints, we expect consumer growth primarily driven from our international markets, where we have available capacity.
At this time, we have the ability to sell and service all of our domestic and international consumer markets as an essential service, except in Peru, where local regulations prevent sales and installation staff from working due to the pandemic. We continue to make progress on our Jupiter 3 satellite program. In the first quarter of 2020, Space Systems/Loral, the manufacturer of our satellite notified us that due to regulations in Santa Clara County, ordering residents to stay home to slow the spread of the virus, Space Systems/Loral's ability to timely manufacture and deliver the satellite may be delayed due to the occurrence of a force majeure event. Based on this information provided by SSL, we expect the satellite to be launched no earlier than the second half of 2021.
The integration of the Hughes Brazil and Yahsat Brazil operations is progressing well. The activation of a new Jupiter gateway system and associated OSS/BSS connections to the Al Yah satellite is almost complete and beams are now operational. The new distribution channel brought by Yahsat is being assimilated into our new organization as planned. Finally, the migration of the existing Yahsat subscribers to the HughesNet platform is expected to be completed soon.
We continue to work on closing our joint venture with Bharti Airtel in India. This is still subject to regulatory approvals, which are not expected before late this year. We are continuing our expansion of the Hughes Express Wi-Fi service, which we offer through a partnership with Facebook Connectivity. We now serve more than 1,000 Express WiFi hotspots in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Through the rest of the year, we intend to continue the growth of this service and to expand the coverage to include Ecuador and Chile.
Our North American enterprise business got off to a strong start in Q1, which included a significant extension with a long-time customer, OneMain Financial and a large order from the Social Security Administration. Our franchise business, which primarily addresses the gas station and quick-service casual dining market, saw continued bookings in the first quarter from operators of BP, Phillips 66 and Chevron. We have been seeing a lot of activity in that market as retail petroleum customers prepared to accept credit cards with chip technology at the pump by October. Starting in March, a few active retail projects were paused due to COVID-19 and customer personnel preparing their company's infrastructure for work-from-home support and changes in retail operations. We're starting to see some customers reengage on these projects for completion in the second quarter. We've also seen a reduction in activity in the energy sector due to the dramatic drop in oil prices, where we expect our exploration customers to review equipment and networking requirements.
Due to the significant reduction in air travel driven by COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a corresponding pause in the deployment of ISP systems in airplanes that is expected to linger until flights resume on fuller schedule. However, we are continuing our engineering activity associated with the next-generation system in support of SES and the SES-17 platform that we announced in the fourth quarter. One immediate impact of the disruption from the virus has been an increase in Internet and our digital media products for employee and customer engagement.
As our customers adjust their business practices, they are seeking more efficient ways to stay connected to their employees through communications and training. We've also seen an increase in the SD-WAN for ensuring reliability of networks and supporting the increased user reliance on VoIP and video conferencing.
In the international enterprise business, major operators around the world continue to expand their use of the Jupiter system for their own broadband services. This includes Eurona of Spain as well as a new operator in Russia, both of whom are using the Jupiter system to provide maritime mobility services. Hughes India, which was the first in the country to receive licenses for offering maritime and aero broadband services added 2 additional maritime customers during this quarter. Like the domestic market, though, we have seen and expect to see some customers pause activity in light of the virus.
Our government and defense business built on its success in 2019 and had a very strong quarter with new orders from General Atomics and the U.S. Coast Guard for satellite systems. Additionally, we have begun implementing new services to expand our long-tenured relationship with the national weather service through our contract with ERT, Inc. providing satellite and wireless services. We continue to address several opportunities under the GSA Enterprise Information Solutions contract with our managed broadband and SD-WAN capability. We are also extremely proud to be providing satellite Internet access to U.S. troops returning from overseas deployment and facing 14-day quarantine.
Despite the bankruptcy filed by OneWeb and the financial challenges they face, we still believe that LEO constellations will be an important part of the overall satellite ecosystem. LEOs will bring global coverage and lower latency services while geo satellites will bring density to support growing demand for data.
For now, while we wait to see what happens with OneWeb, we have paused work on the gateways and reassigned our engineering staff to other ongoing projects. Our consumer business continues to be very strong, and I'm extremely proud of how we responded during this critical time.
Let me now hand it over to Anders.