GM Hughes Unit Wins Telephone Contract for Ho Chi Minh City

GM Hughes Electronics signed a $120-million contract Tuesday to supply telecommunications equipment in Ho Chi Minh City, marking another major American business venture in Vietnam since the lifting of a U.S. trade embargo earlier this year.

The agreement calls for Hughes Network Systems, a subsidiary of GM Hughes Electronics, to supply a system to serve 120,000 digital phone users in the city formerly called Saigon by the end of 1995. Hughes will supply what is called a fixed, wireless digital technology that resembles a mobile cellular system.

GM Hughes Electronics is a unit of General Motors Corp., the world’s largest auto maker. GM Hughes Electronics is the parent of Hughes Aircraft, which operates the large radar systems plant in Fullerton that will be closing at the end of next year.