Hughes Expands Managed MPLS Network for African Development Bank

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07 Jul, 2015, 12:00 GMT

- Hughes builds upon long-term relationship with AfDB providing end-to-end managed WAN service

GERMANTOWN, Maryland, July 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the world's leading provider of broadband satellite solutions and services and a leading provider of managed network services, today announced that it was awarded a contract by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to expand the managed MPLS services it provides to AfDB.

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AfDB has been a Hughes managed services customer since 2008, employing a primary communications network of broadband satellite terminals installed at 32 AfDB field offices throughout Africa. In 2013, managed services were expanded to include MPLS circuits at four AfDB sites to headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast from a teleport in Germany. This new 3-year contract calls for expanding MPLS connectivity to an additional seven (7) bank locations including regional resource centers and key field offices. Major applications include SAP, VoIP, video conferencing and high-speed Internet access.

"Hughes has been a valued managed services provider to AfDB for many years," said David Wu, ICT Director at AfDB. "Our vision is to implement a decentralized IT cloud for which high throughput redundant links and reliable connectivity is of critical importance. The Hughes service delivers on all of these with superior in-country support."

Kamran Givpoor, vice president of Global Managed Services at Hughes, said "We are delighted that AfDB has chosen to award Hughes with this MPLS expansion contract. It's a testament to our focus on customer satisfaction and superior service delivery capabilities for the past 7 years delivering end-to-end managed services to AfDB. Hughes looks forward to supporting AfDB in its desire to be a leading ICT innovator in the pan-African region."

AfDB had stringent requirements for their network including: high availability; uniform SLA and QoS offerings; a single vendor to provide full turnkey managed services and ongoing system engineering, installation, and field maintenance; monthly reporting, statistics and quarterly review on usage and performance; and 24 x 7 multi-lingual help desk.

About African Development Bank
The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group is a multi-lateral development finance institution established to contribute to the economic development and the social progress of African countries. The African Development Group comprises three entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF), and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). The AfDB Group is one of the five major multilateral development banks in the world that provides assistance to its regional member countries with a view to helping them achieve their development goals. Combating poverty is at the heart of the AfDB's effort to assist the continent to attain sustainable economic growth. The AfDB Group seeks to stimulate and mobilize internal and external resources to promote investments as well as provide Regional Member Countries (RMCs) with technical assistance.

The overarching objective of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group is to spur sustainable economic development and social progress in its regional member countries (RMCs), thus contributing to poverty reduction. The Bank Group achieves this objective by:

mobilizing and allocating resources for investment in RMCs; and
providing policy advice and technical assistance to support development efforts.

In 2000, all multilateral development institutions have agreed on a same set of objectives, called the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). They are:

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Improve maternal health
Achieve universal primary education
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Promote gender equality and empower women
Ensure environmental sustainability
Reduce child mortality
Develop a global partnership for development

About Hughes Network Systems
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes) is the global leader in satellite broadband for home and office, delivering innovative solutions and a comprehensive suite of HughesON^™ managed services for enterprises and governments worldwide. HughesNet^® is the #1 high-speed satellite Internet service in the marketplace, with offerings to suit every budget. To date, Hughes has shipped more than 4.8 million systems to customers in over 100 countries, representing approximately 50 percent market share. Its products employ global standards approved by the TIA, ETSI and ITU organizations, including IPoS/DVB-S2, RSM-A, and GMR-1.

Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Hughes operates sales and support offices worldwide, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS), a premier global provider of satellite operations and digital TV solutions. For additional information about Hughes, please visit www.hughes.com.

About EchoStar
EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS) is a premier global provider of satellite and video delivery solutions. Headquartered in Englewood, Colo., and conducting business around the globe, EchoStar is a pioneer in secure communications technologies through its EchoStar Satellite Services, EchoStar Technologies Corporation and Hughes Network Systems business segments. For more information, visit echostar.com. Follow @EchoStar on Twitter.