ONGC to upgrade satellite network; ties up with US company

OIL major ONGC has selected the Hughes JUPITER system of broadband satellite solutions provider Hughes Communications India to upgrade its network.
Jupiter System is world's leading provider of broadband satellite services, products, and managed network solutions.
"Hughes Communications India Ltd, a majority-owned subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, LLC, the global leader in broadband satellite solutions and services has announced that Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), has selected...
the Hughes JUPITER System to revamp and upgrade its existing satellite network across India," the state-run Maharatna explorer said on December 19 in a joint statement with Hughes India. "Hughes India will implement the JUPITER System to augment the existing C-Band Network with the latest HTS (High throughput satellite) technology, delivering reliable multi-service data, voice, and video traffic with high spectral efficiency across nearly 200 offshore and onshore oil and gas platforms, drilling rigs and vessels, including enterprise managed services in locations spread across the country," it said .
The project will be carried out on a turnkey basis and will include new network installations, upgrades and network transition across 94 fixed sites and 112 nomadic sites with comprehensive maintenance for two years. It is valued at over Rs 45 crore ($6.7 million). Maryland, US-headquartered satellite service operator has earlier tied up various other Govt of India organisations like Finance Ministry.
"We are very proud to have been awarded this important project by ONGC, amid a tough competitive tender scenario. It validates the compelling benefits of high-performance, enterprise-class broadband delivered by our JUPITER System and is an endorsement of the wide range of system integration experience Hughes India has in implementing large turnkey networks," Hughes India Director Partho Banerjee said in the statement.
ONGC, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, is India's largest oil and gas exploration and production company and produces around 70 percent of India's crude oil (equivalent to around 25 percent of the country's total demand) and around 60 percent of its natural gas. With a market capitalisation of over Rs 2 trillion, ONGC is one of India's most valuable publicly-traded companies. ONGC is ranked as the top energy company in India, fifth in Asia and 21st globally as per Platts Top 250 Global Energy Rankings. It was ranked 21st among global Oil and Gas Operations industry in Forbes Global 2000 list of the World's biggest companies for 2014.