PHOENIX— Best Western International (BWI) has inked a contract for additional broadband services with Hughes Network Systems (HNS), a Maryland-based provider of broadband satellite network solutions. The agreement includes all BWI hotels in the United States. The chain initially contracted with HNS in 1995 for its first very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite network, supporting the companys reservation system and related back-office applications. In 1998, the network was expanded to include all properties in North America. With this contract, Best Western now provides all of its members broadband network connectivity. Mike Kistner, vp/CIO for Best Western, stated, “Direcway was the broadband service of choice since it allows us to provide a consistent, high-quality service to every member hotel, no matter where the location. Ubiquitous service and control over costs and network use were key factors for us. Looking ahead, we can see that multicast services from Direcway serve as a good foundation for future applications such as corporate e-learning. The contract also has provisions for including future Direcway services to be offered on the HNS Spaceway platform, starting in 2004. Spaceway satellites will operate in the higher-frequency Ka-band, which offers more bandwidth and faster transmission speeds, by factors of up to 100 times. Combined with on-board high-speed switching, Spaceway is fundamental to spurring the growth of even higher-speed, value-added Direcway services.
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