Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Russian Schools to Use Hughes Satellite Network

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 02:24:36 -0500

Russian Schools to Use Hughes Satellite Network

Deal Worth $10 Million for Germantown Firm

By Yuki Noguchi

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 9, 2003; Page E05
This year, 7,300 Russian schools will
start accessing the Internet through
satellite connections provided by
Germantown-based Hughes Network Systems, company executives said yesterday.
Hughes was awarded a $10 million
contract by the Russian Ministry of
Education to provide its DirecWay
Internet infrastructure -- its satellite
dishes, ground stations and network
operations centers -- to substantially all
Moscow area schools, including
kindergarten through secondary
grades, said Arunas Slekys, vice
president and general manager of
business in Russia and new
independent states for Hughes. Each of the schools has 500 to 1,000 students, who will use
the technology to access the Internet in the classrooms, he said.
The contract represents HNS's slice of
a $2.6 billion initiative by the Russian
government to boost Internet usage
and e-commerce over eight years,
Slekys said. HNS plans to bid on more contracts in six other regions with more than 50,000
schools, he said.
Crosna, a Russian telecommunications
provider, is working with HNS to
install the satellite systems in the
schools, starting in the first quarter of this year.
"The importance of the deal to us is
that it opens up that region," Slekys
said. HNS plans to pursue similar
opportunities this year, focusing on
international customers in regions
where the availability of the Internet through land lines is limited, he said.
HNS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Electronics Corp., already has a contract to
supply high-speed Internet access to about 1,000 schools in the Netherlands. It plans to
pursue similar deals, particularly with large enterprise customers, in China, Korea and
throughout Europe, he said.
With more than 160,000 residential subscribers to its DirecWay system in the United
States, and more than 500 corporate clients using more than 400,000 terminals worldwide,
Hughes is the largest provider of satellite Internet services.
HNS employs more than 3,000 people in the Washington area and generated about $1.2 billion
in revenue last year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30786-2003Jan8.html

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