Hughes Europe Awarded 10 Year Contract by Emtele for Broadband Satellite Network Services

9 October 2012

Hughes Europe, has been awarded a contract by Emtele, a specialist value-added reseller in global machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions for remote monitoring, to supply high availability satellite connectivity services as part of a ten-year Smart Grid project for Finnish energy giant, Elenia. Based on the contract, Hughes Europe and Emtele have together now successfully implemented the Smart Grid solution and it has been fully taken into production by Elenia.

At the heart of the solution is Emtele's broadband FieldCom® network service, which utilizes the very robust Hughes HN System platform and related satellite services for nationwide coverage, providing high availability connectivity to all electric distribution substations that are without access to reliable terrestrial networks. The high service level agreement is essential to achieve Elenia's very strict requirements for connection service availability and quality because electric distribution is a national, critical infrastructure.

Hannu Martikainen, CEO, Emtele, said, "We chose Hughes Europe, as the company's advanced satellite technology has an unrivalled track record of reliability and is backed by a highly responsive service support capability. Looking ahead, Hughes' large footprint will also allow us to meet Elenia's expansion plans and to serve other key customers like them."

The communication network will enable Elenia to remotely monitor more than a thousand unmanned energy substations and other sites throughout Finland for the purposes of electric distribution remote management, including both security and maintenance.

"A key requirement in securing the contract was for our satellite solution to match the high level of resilience, availability and quality-of-service of the rest of the monitoring network," said Chris O'Dell, vice president of sales and marketing, Hughes Europe. "Hughes technology is extremely resilient, and has been proven in cold environments such as Siberia and Alaska to cope with the ice and low temperatures of the Nordic region. We look forward to expanding our cooperation with Emtele to deliver Smart Grid solutions across the region and Europe."