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Hughes and Agristar Join Forces to Provide High-Speed Connectivity
for Agriculture Industry
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GERMANTOWN, MD,
December 18, 2001 — Hughes Network Systems (HNS), the
world’s largest provider of broadband satellite network solutions,
and Chicago-based Agristar Global Networks, Ltd. announced today an
agreement to provide DIRECWAY® two-way, high-speed satellite communications
services to the U.S. agricultural industry.
Under the terms of the contract, HNS will utilize its nationwide DIRECWAY
service and deliver Agristar a comprehensive broadband network solution,
including all satellite equipment and related provisioning, operational
and support capabilities. Agristar will offer its wide range of premium
agricultural information and business services to customers throughout
the food and fiber chain, including leading farm operators, input
suppliers, processors, food companies and other agri-businesses. DIRECWAY
will enable Agristar to deliver information such as real-time and
delayed multicast audio and video streaming at multi-megabits per
second to its customers anywhere in the country. Plans also are underway
to develop similar Agristar networks in other countries.
“The need to facilitate rapidly increasing flows of information
in global agriculture has expanded greatly as farms have grown in
size and complexity,” said Cliff Ganschow, chairman of Agristar
Global Networks. “Having Hughes as a long-term partner in developing
our Agristar network will enable us to deliver world-class business
services that will be unsurpassed in both content and technology.”
While urban businesses have benefited from broadband delivery, top
farmers and other rural businesses have been restricted to poor quality,
low-speed dial-up telephone connections. “Agristar will bridge
the digital divide between the country’s leading farm operators
and their primary trade partners with connection speeds of 10-20 times
faster than the existing dial-up connections in most of these rural
areas,” Ganschow said.
“Hughes is excited to team with Agristar in this important vertical
market,” said Ned Kazor, senior director of Channel Sales for
HNS. “The food and fiber system is a large and growing industry,
and because it is so fragmented and dispersed, Agristar will dramatically
improve how information and business services are delivered throughout
rural areas.”
“As the agricultural industry continues to move toward a more
vertically coordinated production and distribution system, the data
needs of its major segments are growing exponentially,” said
Ganschow. “From value-enhanced commodities to biotechnology to
food security, there is a critical need today for the industry to
be able to track food production and distribution to the end consumer.
Agristar will provide an ideal communications platform on which to
build the systems that will allow these requirements to be met.”
About DIRECWAY
DIRECWAY is the world's leading broadband by satellite service for
consumer, small business and enterprise markets. Consumers anywhere
in the continental U.S. can get DIRECWAY high-speed Internet service
from major providers including EarthLink, AOL, Pegasus, NRTC and DIRECTV.
Enterprises have access to a wide variety of value-added solutions,
all on a single platform and all backed by comprehensive support from
HNS, to give companies the edge they need in today's market. To learn
more about DIRECWAY, please visit www.direcway.com.
About Hughes Network Systems
Hughes Network Systems, a unit of Hughes Electronics Corporation,
is the world's largest provider of broadband satellite network solutions
for businesses and consumers, with approximately 500,000 systems installed
in more than 85 countries. HNS pioneered the development of high-speed
satellite Internet access services, which it markets globally under
the DirecPC® and DIRECWAY® brands. It recently earned the
Frost & Sullivan Market Engineering Leadership Award for the second
consecutive year and the 2001 CES "Best of Show" Award for
workstyle/internet categories. HNS is also a leading manufacturer
of DIRECTV® satellite television receivers, having shipped over
7 million to date.
Headquartered in Germantown, Maryland, USA, HNS maintains sales and
support offices worldwide. The earnings of HUGHES, a unit of General
Motors Corporation, are used to calculate the earnings per share attributable
to the General Motors Class H common stock (NYSE:GMH). To learn more
about HNS and DIRECWAY, please visit our websites: www.hns.com
or www.direcway.com.
About Agristar Global Networks
Agristar Global Networks, Ltd. is a new satellite-based communications
company established to bridge the large connectivity gap between the
world’s leading farm operations and their primary trade partners
in the $4 trillion global food and fiber chain. The Company’s
objective is to become the primary agricultural electronic information
and commerce provider by integrating the world’s leading commercial
farms, agribusinesses and food companies into a single two-way, high-speed
proprietary satellite network system. Agristar’s initial strategic
partners include Rural Press, Ltd. of Australia, the world’s
largest agricultural communications company, London-based Merial Limited,
the global leader in animal health, and Chicago-based Global Land,
Ltd., an agricultural investment and development firm.
Agristar Global Networks has a 50-year history through related forerunner entities
of developing some of the agricultural industry’s pioneering
communications and business advisory programs. These have included
the Top Farmers of America Association in the 1960’s, the first
organization to provide business services for leading farm operations;
Farm Futures in the 1970’s, the industry’s first risk management
publication; AgriData Resources in the 1980’s, the first national
computer network linking top farms; and American Land Resources in
the 1990’s, the first investment banking entity to utilize national
farmland databases to assemble investment-grade agricultural land
funds. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Agristar also maintains
an operations center in St. Paul, Minnesota. To learn more about Agristar,
please visit www.agristar.com.
Media Contact
Warren E. Clark
847-836-5100
warren.clark@ccimarketing.com
Agristar Contact
Kip Pendleton
President
kip.pendleton@agristar.com
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