Hughes Builds Upon Leadership in Finance & Banking Sector with Major Contract Awards by Indian Banks

Contracts valued at over Rs. 50 crores (US$12 million) for managed network services Comprising 3,355 satellite terminals and 1,000 terrestrial MPLS links

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Hughes Network Systems, LLC

Dec 01, 2010, 10:00 ET

GERMANTOWN, Md., Dec. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Hughes Communications India, Ltd. (HCIL), a leading provider of broadband satellite and managed network services, and wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), today announced two significant managed network services contracts signed with major Indian public sector banks. The first contract award is from Allahabad Bank valued at Rs. 40 crores (US$9 million), under which Hughes will provide broadband services connecting 1,400 locations with satellite terminals and 1,000 with terrestrial MPLS links. The second contract, valued at Rs. 12.5 crores (US$3 million), was awarded by the Central Bank of India to deploy a network of 1,955 satellite terminals.

Allahabad Bank plans to utilize the satellite and MPLS network to launch Phase II of its core banking solution in both urban and rural branches. The mandate for the Central Bank of India is to expand its core banking solution to all its rural branches.

Commenting on the significant wins, Partho Banerjee, CEO and managing director of HCIL, said, "Hughes is proud to have been chosen by the country's two leading public sector banks -- the Allahabad Bank and the Central Bank of India -- to provide comprehensive network services for their Core Banking Solution (CBS) branches across the country. HCIL has an order backlog of 6,000 more sites, to be rolled out in next 6 months and we estimate that approximately 100,000 ATMs and 25,000 branch locations will be rolled out in the next three years by various banks in India."

HCIL is the leading provider of satellite broadband solutions in the Indian financial sector with more than 23 nationalized and private banks in India as customers. To date, HCIL provides managed network services to 17,000 plus branch and ATM locations across India. Major customers include the largest of Indian banks -- State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and others. HCIL also built and operated "INFINET" -- the Indian Financial Network of 3,000 plus locations across all banks, facilitated by the Reserve Bank of India.

Complementing HCIL's banking customers, HCIL has also built a strong market position in the brokerage market. HCIL is the technology and operating partner for the Bombay Stock Exchange network and partners with the National Stock Exchange in their initiative of "NSE On Web" (NOW). HCIL has more than 7,000 operational sites with more than 40 brokerage companies in India. The company estimates revenue from the Finance and Banking sector is $15 million with an expected growth rate of 25 percent growth over the previous year.

About Hughes Communications India Limited (HCIL)

Hughes Communications India Limited is India's leading provider of broadband satellite networks and services for enterprises, governments and small businesses. HughesNet^®encompasses all broadband solutions and managed services from Hughes, bridging the best of satellite and terrestrial technologies. Hughes pioneered and is the leading provider of value-added services and applications such as interactive distance learning and rural networks, bringing the benefits of broadband to underserved markets. Hughes broadband satellite products are based on global standards approved by the TIA, ETSI and ITU standards organizations, including IPoS/DVB-S2, RSM-A and GMR-1. HCIL is a majority owned subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, LLC. To date, Hughes has shipped more than 2.2 million systems to customers in over 100 countries.

Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Hughes maintains sales and support offices worldwide. Hughes is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: HUGH). For additional information, please visit www.hughes.in and www.hughes.com.

SOURCE Hughes Network Systems, LLC