Hughes to build satellite networks for UCO, United Bank RRBs

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 contracts signed for the United Bank of India and UCO bank networks for their respective RRBs (Regional Rural Banks). The first contract award is from United Bank of India valued at Rs. 8 crores, under which Hughes will provide broadband services connecting 1,095 Regional rural bank locations The second contract, valued at Rs. 7.5 crores was awarded by UCO Bank to deploy a network of 808 satellite terminals for Regional Rural bank connectivity.

As per the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) mandate in 2010, RBI recommended that all the RRBs should move to centralized banking solution platform by September 2011 to help them become more efficient and grow faster in future.

The mandate for Hughes for both the contracts is to expand the core banking solution platform to their RRBs. The UCO bank agreement is signed for seven years and the United Bank of India agreement will span for five years.

Commenting on the significant wins, Partho Banerjee, CEO and managing director of HCIL, said, “Of the 611 districts in India, 61% are still under banked and most of them fall in the rural areas. Hughes recognizes the importance of financial inclusion in India and is proud to be associated with the country’s two leading public sector banks?the United Bank of India and the UCO bank ?to connect their RRBs across the country. HCIL has connected more than 10,000 branches and 18,500 ATMs over 25 Indian banks and we estimate that approximately 50,000 sites 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 18,500 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.