Hughes Communications India (HCI) has announced a new managed services deal for cement companies ACC and Ambuja Cement, through which it plans to deploy dual LTE/4G at over 100 manufacturing and field units across India.
HCI is a joint venture of Hughes Network Systems, a global provider of broadband satellite networks and services, and India’s Bharti Airtel.
According to an Economic Times report, this managed service from HCI adds a diverse path backup to the software-defined wide area network (SDWAN) deployed by the two cement companies in their manufacturing units. The managed service will improve network reliability to support critical business processes and applications.
HCI will provide a turnkey solution, including setup, installation and support for all sites. The 2Mbps LTE/4G links come from different telecom operators with auto failover between the LTE links.
The customer premises equipment will have two independent LTE ports and modules which support all the major routing and security protocols. In the event of a primary network failure, the HCI solution will provide connectivity for critical business applications like enterprise resource planning (ERP), voice and internet.
This is a significant agreement given that India is the second-largest producer of cement in the world and that ACC describes itself as a leading player in the Indian building materials space, with a pan-India operational and marketing presence. Ambuja too is a major player, an India-based holding company engaged in the manufacturing of clinkers and cement.
