Hughes signs deal with Reliance Industries

The deal valued at Rs eight crore involves Hughes installing a technology backbone for all of Reliance petroleum outlets in a phased manner.

Hughes, provider of broadband satellite services, networks and products for businesses, governments and consumers, on Monday announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to connect 1,000 retail outlets of Reliance Industries across the country.

This deployment would be complete by next month. The deal valued at Rs eight crore involves Hughes installing a technology backbone for all of Reliance petroleum outlets in a phased manner, connecting 3,000 outlets by 2008, a joint statement said.

Reliance would deploy the DIRECWAY 7700 platform, a two-way satellite broadband solution and the `most advanced' broadband satellite technology in the world today. Reliance would be the first customer to use this in India that would run all its applications on a single infrastructure.

These applications include tank monitoring, sales management, credit access, back office applications, POS services and value added services like WiFi access, multicasting, package delivery and internet access. Hughes will build, manage and provide on ground support for all these services, it said.