Hughes India Reaches Milestone of 10,000 Operational VSATs with the Ministry of Finance ATM Project

Announces 500 additional VSAT deployments for white label ATMs

Ministry of Finance vision is to increase the penetration of banking services to remotest areas

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Jan 06, 2014, 08:00 ET

GERMANTOWN, Md., Jan. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Hughes Communications India, Limited (HCIL), a subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite networks and services, today announced that it has reached a milestone of 10,000 operational VSATs with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) ATM project since the project commenced rollout in September 2012. To increase the penetration of banking services, the Finance Ministry has favored setting up white label ATMs¹ in the country, as such ATMs will help bring banking services to the most remote places.

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Hughes also announced the first ever deployment of white label ATMs in the country, powered by the Hughes VSAT broadband satellite solution. Currently, there are 500 operational VSAT deployments of white label ATMs in various states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh.

The Ministry of Finance project is part of one of the largest outsourcing deals in the financial sector, under which the MoF and a consortium of all public sector banks of India have contracted with nine different Multi Service Providers (MSPs) to install and manage a total of 63,000 off-site and on-site ATMs across urban and rural India for an eight-year period. When complete, this initiative is expected to increase India's ATM density by over 60 percent, thus helping meet the goals of financial inclusion and penetration of banking services, ensuring that bank ATM machines reliably deliver cash in the most remote areas and deliver e-government services to citizens directly.

Shivaji Chatterjee, Enterprise Business Head at HCIL said, "India is an under-penetrated ATM market with only 98 ATMs for every 10 lakh of population (1 million). Our focused approach and effort towards financial inclusion helped reach this milestone of 10,000 operational VSATs for MoF. This further reinforces the undisputed leadership of Hughes in the banking and POS/ATM/retail domains and is testimony to the significance of satellite networking that has become the backbone of connectivity for the Indian banking industry."

"Hughes India has now completed a landmark 80,000 operational VSATs on its shared hub, providing secure satellite connectivity with uptimes of greater than 99.5 percent and enabling 24x7 banking services through the length and breadth of the country," continued Chatterjee.

ATM² density in China is 211; in the UK, it is 530; and in the USA, it is 1,390. White label ATMs account for nearly 50 percent of ATMs in the US and 70 percent in Canada. Within India, Chandigarh has the highest ATM density with 400 machines for every 10 lakh people, while the density is 180 in Tamil Nadu, 141 in Maharashtra, and 71 in West Bengal. Maharashtra, with 15,000 ATMs, has the highest number of ATMs; West Bengal ranks eighth with 6,500 ATMs.

About Hughes Communications India

HCIL is a majority owned subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes), the world's largest provider of broadband satellite networks and services. HCIL is the largest satellite service operator in India providing a comprehensive range of broadband networking technologies, solutions, and services for businesses and governments, including Managed Services to meet every communications challenge. More information is available at www.hughes.in.

About Hughes Network Systems

Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes) is the world's leading provider of satellite broadband for home and office, delivering innovative network technologies, managed services, and solutions for enterprises and governments globally. HughesNet^® is the #1 high-speed satellite Internet service in the marketplace, with offerings to suit every budget. To date, Hughes has shipped more than 3.3 million systems to customers in over 100 countries, representing over 50 percent market share. Its products employ global standards approved by the TIA, ETSI and ITU organizations, including IPoS/DVB-S2, RSM-A, and GMR-1.

Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Hughes operates sales and support offices worldwide, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS), a premier global provider of satellite operations and digital TV solutions. For additional information about Hughes, please visit www.hughes.com.

¹ White label ATMS are owned and operated by non-banking companies
²Published data in Economic Times on October 31, 2013

SOURCE Hughes Network Systems, LLC