African Development Bank (AfDB) has awarded a contract to Hughes Network Systems (Hughes) to expand the managed Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) services it provides to AfDB
The new contract is for three years and will see Hughes expanding MPLS connectivity to seven additional bank locations including regional resource centres and key field offices. Major applications include SAP, VoIP, video conferencing and high-speed Internet access.
Hughes, a provider of broadband satellite solutions and managed network services, has been providing managed network services to AfDB since 2008. The company manages 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 its headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast from a teleport in Germany.
Commenting on the contract, Kamran Givpoor, vice president of global managed services at Hughes, said, “It is a testament to our focus on customer satisfaction and superior service delivery capabilities for the past seven 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.”
Some of AfDB’s requirements for their network were uniform SLA and QoS offerings; full turnkey managed services and ongoing system engineering, installation, and field maintenance from a single vendor; monthly reporting, statistics and quarterly review on usage and performance; and 24/7 multi-lingual help desk.
“Our vision is to implement a decentralised 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,” said David Wu, ICT director at AfDB.
