Hecl Lines Up New Hub Station

Hughes Escorts Communications Ltd (HECL), the joint venture between Hughes Network Systems (HNS) and Escorts Ltd, and a private sector VSAT service provider will jointly set up a second hub station at a cost of Rs 25 crore in Mumbai.

This will be a standby hub to the existing HughesNet earth station at Gurgaon near New Delhi, set up nearly two years ago.

"It is essential to have a backup hub station to keep the entire network running in case the main station is affected by any disaster or breakdown," Hughes Escorts Communication marketing manager Feroze Khan said.

"The project will be completed by July," he said.

A hub station handles enormous amount of data as customers use it as a shared resource to operate their private networks. It can also serve as a switching centre for multiple customers besides helping corporates to link their headquarters with remote branch offices.

A hub station could boost and amplify signals to the satellite. At present Huges Escorts Commumnications has 65 corporate users in the country.

The firm, which has 700 very small aperture terminals (VSAT) spread across the country, has plans to set up 1,200 more by the year-end.

The cost of a VSAT, excluding servicing charges, is nearly Rs 7-8 lakh. The government has allotted four transponders to the company, Khan said.

HECL is awaiting Department of Telecommunications (DoT) clearance for a 'hybrid licence'. This will enable the use of single carrier per channel (SCPC) and time division multiple access (TDMA) transmission techniques in the same network. The set up, being introduced in the country for the first time, will help reducing transmission costs.

Under the SCPC technology, the carrier is energised only during actual speech while the TDMA transmits data in coded pulses sequentially in a "burst" rather than continuously.

HECL, which has tied up with NetAcross and Isocare, designers of the Internet software, is now in talks with corporates to provide Intranet services in the country.

The firm is now engaged in expansion of the Bombay on-line trading system (BOLT).

The company will soon open offices in Guwahati and Bhubaneswar.