Hughes India units sales to rise 30 % in three years

NEW DELHI: Hughes Network Systems, a unit of US satellite television giant

Hughes Electronic Corp, expects sales at its three Indian companies to rise

30 per cent over the next three years, its chief said on Tuesday.

"Between the three companies, (sales) growth will exceed 30 per cent in

the next three years," Pradman Kaul, chairman of Hughes Network, which is

being bought along with its parent by rival EchoStar Communications Corp, told

reporters.

Hughes operates in India through Hughes Software Systems, a specialist

telecoms software developer, Hughes Escorts Communications Ltd., a satellite

communications provider, and Hughes Tele.com, a fixed-line phone company.

Kaul said the three companies together were expected to post revenues of Rs

8.5 billion in the year to March 31. Hughes Software posted sales worth Rs 536

million in the second quarter ended September, while Hughes Tele.com reported a

total income of Rs 687.19 million during the same period.

Hughes Escorts is a closely-held company.

Kaul said Hughes Tele.com, which is in merger talks with Tata Teleservices,

planned to raise debt worth $400 million to fund the expansion of its fixed-line

network in Maharashtra and Goa where it has around 120,000 customers. Kaul said

Hughes viewed India as a huge market for telecom services as the nation's low

telephone penetration offered a great growth opportunity.

"Next to China, India has probably the second largest growth

potential," he said.

India, despite its billion-plus population, has less than four phones per

hundred people, well below the global average of 15. The government has set a

target of adding 10 million new phones in 2002, raising total connections to 50

million.

Kaul said Hughes planned to deploy its ambitious Spaceway project aimed at

providing satellite-based high speed Internet services in North America by the

middle of 2003 and flag off its Asian leg by the end of 2004. The company plans

to spend $1.5 billion in the Spaceway project, he added.

(C) Reuters Limited.