Hughes Communications India Ltd (HCIL), on Tuesday announced that it has been chosen by C-Edge to provide over 3,000 branches of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) across the country with a broadband satellite network and managed services. The contract is worth Rs. 33 crores (approximately USD 6 million) for a period of five years.

C-Edge, a joint venture between TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) and the State Bank of India (SBI), selected Hughes and its HN System for a turnkey networking solution and services to connect various District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) and State Apex banks in the country.

The branches are being integrated onto a central Core Banking Solution, with the first phase covering the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The managed services comprise over 3,000 HN9200 very small aperture terminals (VSATs) and shared Network Operations Centre (NOC) services, including satellite bandwidth, hosting, backhaul, and end-to-end IPSec management.
 
“We are delighted and privileged that C-Edge has chosen HCIL for this significant banking sector project,” commented Partho Banerjee, president and managing director of HCIL. “Our managed services solution is unique in providing high availability connectivity at all sites by employing broadband satellite as the primary technology and backup over other wireless technologies”, he further added.
 
Approximately 140 banks have expressed their willingness to participate in the project and signed the necessary Memoranda of Agreement with NABARD. Hughes was selected for this project due to its unique solution that has optimized technology, security, cost, and operations. The solution is also scalable, enabling potential expansion network to more than 400 banks. The contract underlines HCIL’s leadership in providing secure and high availability enterprise solutions through its award winning satellite networking technology and services.