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Hughes Network Systems (HNS) provides broadband satellite networks and services for large enterprises, governments, small businesses, and consumers.
Raj K Bajaj, reigional director, HNS Asia Pacific spoke to Pragati Simlote on the sidelines of Communicasia2006, held in Singapore from June 20-23 this year, where the company had showcased some of its solutions.
Excerpts from the interaction:
What are the products showcased in Communicasia 2006?
With respect to platforms, we have made two key announcements this time. The first is the HX platform, which is a very efficient bandwidth utilization platform with high quality of service (QoS) for any organization that requires strong performance parameter. This features up to 3.5 MBPS in routes and these are the platforms that organizations can take if they don’t want to invest too much at the start and they can grow the platform as their revenue grows. This is a nice alternative for many markets like the Single Channel Per Carrier (SCPC), applications like cellular backhaul, etc.
The other significant technology that we announced is the DVB-S2 with Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM). The DVB-S2 ACM is a technology very useful for our customers and providers to reduce their operating expense and increase their performance. If you look at our clients and partners, it could actually increase their spectral efficiency by more than 30-35 per cent. Hughes is the only one offering ACM technology, which enhances saving in bandwidth and also increases by a large factor the availability of the platform in adverse weather conditions. For e.g. if there are high rain zones, ACM is a technology which helps the system to automatically modulate the coding to meet that particular weather condition, so that the link does not break.
Where do you see the demand coming from for the products you have showcased?
ACM technology would be very helpful within APAC specially where you have high rain zones. From counties like Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. we are already receiving a lot of interest for this. It is already available in the market and we are using this forum to tell our clients and partners about the availability of this technology.
We see the demand worldwide though we have launched it in the APAC region, as it’s a growing market and especially because of its geographical diversity and spread (islands and remote areas) it is ideally suited for us to provide satellite based platforms. So we are going to aggressively push this in the APAC market.
This product will also be offered to our clients in India also. But in India we are more of a services organization. Hughes Communications India Ltd (HCIL) does not only offer the platform but offers an integrated service. In other parts of APAC excluding India and China, we offer the equipment directly to our clients or through our service partners. But these products will be offered in all geographies where the clients require this platform.
What is your presence in APAC?
We are present in all APAC countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, India, China, etc. Only difference is that in India and China, we have our service companies -- like HCIL in India. In India per say, we do not do that much of equipment promotion as we offer services there. We have our own platforms and depending upon requirement, we may or may not use these products in the India segment. However we would offer these to the clients if they require it for their own dedicated networks, etc.
Can you throw some light on your Indian operations?
I think India market is poised for a high growth. In India, we have our own operating company HCIL with more than 200 people and offices across more than 16 locations.
We are the market leader and have consistently been No 1 in terms of market share and revenue. HCIL is the largest VSAT operator out of India. We are recording year-to-year growth of around 30 per cent in India operations. We have faced significant success this year in many contracts especially the government ones.
What kind of financial growth did HNS see last year?
We declared $850 million revenue last year and this year we hope to do more that this. Right now we are on target and expect to register growth over and above this. Hughes has charted an aggressive growth in APAC. Our APAC operations are HQ out of India because of the resource base we have created in India. APAC territories contribute approximately between $18 million -$20 million of the total equipment revenue for the company. This contribution is excluding India and China and if we include the service revenues from both these countries then the contribution would be much more.
Do you see the ratio between equipment and services revenue changing in India?
We have a number of service companies in the US, Europe, China India, and Brazil and in 75 different countries we are promoting equipment. We are seeing growth in both the segments. Our service companies especially in the US and India are growing at a fast pace. We hope to see growth in both the segments.
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