Hughes targets 30,000 SMB's for broadband service

New Delhi, Oct 4 (UNI) Tapping into the burgeoning needs of IT and telecom services for small and medium businesses, Hughes today launched its satellite broadband service plans for 'terrestrially underserved locations'.

Targetted at organisations with single and multiple locations, Hughes will offer these services to customers who use internet to connect to remote locations and run critical applications like ERP (SAP, Oracle etc), intranet applications, web-based applications, Point-of-Sale applications etc.

Hughes is planning to tap 30,000 of these installations over the next three years and has started investing in creating a robust channel network for the same.

By the end of the year, Hughes is hopeful of closing on 30 business partners to offer its services in area's that have hereto been bereft of quality SLA's and inferior DSL services.

''With the maturity of the SME market, there is a need to create differentiation and offer solutions that map on to their business imperatives. Hughes SME division is thus poised to offer relevant and cost-effective satellite broadband services as a large portion of this market does not have access to reliable connectivity options,'' said Hughes Communications India Ltd Senior Vice President and Head SME Business Amit Tripathi.

Reports by Access Markets International Partners Inc (AMIPI) show that SMBs (companies with up to 999 employees) in India are set to spend more than eight billion dollars to beef up their IT infrastructure, up a robust 24 per cent since last year.

While computing products will still account for the bulk of IT investments, Internet spending is fast increasing, as these enterprises embrace IP-enabled business process services.

Another report by AMIPI indicates that medium businesses in India spent over five billion dollars on telecom equipment and services last year, five per cent over 2005.

Spending on telecom services such as cellular services, IP Centrex services, local and long-distance telephony accounted for more than 90 per cent of total telecom spending.

Hughes is already a market leader in SMB and consumer segment in the US and plans to replicate that success in India. A market leader in enterprise networking space worldwide, the company is providing broadband satellite networks and services for large enterprises, governments, small businesses, and consumers in India.

UNI