Delivering Industry-Leading Communications Solutions Onboard the World's Largest Global Cruise Fleet
Speedcast and Carnival Renew Contract
Sydney, Dec 24, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Speedcast International Limited (
ASX:SDA), the world's most trusted provider of remote communication and IT solutions, today announced that it has signed a new contract, with multi-year extension options, with Carnival Corporation ("Carnival"), the world's largest leisure travel company. Speedcast will provide remote communications and value-added services across the company's global fleet of cruise ships. The three-year material contract is expected to generate 8-9% of expected full year 2019 revenue.
Speedcast has been delivering communications services to over 100 cruise ships across the various Carnival brands since 2013. With this new contract, Carnival increases its investment in communications, with bandwidth delivered to the fleet increased significantly in order to provide its guests with a high-quality internet experience. Speedcast is leveraging 40 satellites, including High Throughput Satellites (HTS), across C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band spectrums and 20 teleports to deliver the largest dedicated maritime satellite network in the world.
The connectivity experience is managed and enhanced by a unique and innovative centrally-orchestrated intelligent automation system called Speedcast TrueBeam. Speedcast TrueBeam is the result of a four-year development program at Speedcast, and is being launched operationally for the first time. TrueBeam gives ships anywhere in the world the ability to seamlessly maintain communications, even while moving in and out of a satellite beam's coverage area. The system incorporates intelligence that understands, predicts and mitigates known satellite communication challenges, such as rain fade, line of sight blockage and network congestion. TrueBeam is critical when using the small beams of HTS, which can require multiple beam switches per day. The TrueBeam system analyzes network availability, capacity, bands, and other key data points across networks and is able to make intelligent decisions without manual interaction. It is the first system of its kind that is able to centralize the planning and switching of a remote network of this size and scale.
Speedcast's services also include an extensive global terrestrial backhaul network to carry data traffic to the internet and back to Carnival's key operations data centers. Speedcast will also implement the latest network optimization technologies from Xiplink to help enable an enhanced guest experience.
Beyond connectivity, Speedcast will provide an enhanced suite of value-added services including voice services and support for the growing demand for data-rich applications and streaming from personal devices while onboard.
Speedcast's 24/7 Technical Support Centers on five continents, a dedicated service delivery team and over 250 field engineers globally will ensure the operation and maintenance of the network to deliver a high degree of service availability.
"Speedcast is thrilled and proud to continue this partnership with Carnival as its trusted provider for communications," says PJ Beylier, Speedcast CEO. "I would like to thank the entire Carnival team for their trust and look forward to continuously raising the bar together with Carnival to deliver an industry-leading communications guest experience in the cruise industry, just as we did earlier in the year delivering world record-setting bandwidth to the Carnival Horizon. The continuation of our partnership with Carnival, following a very competitive process, is a testament to Speedcast's unique capabilities, demonstrates our ability to innovate and adapt to fast-evolving customer needs and is confirmation of our leadership position in the cruise sector."
"Carnival Corporation looks forward to continuing our relationship with Speedcast to enable industry-leading connectivity onboard our ships to enhance the guest experience beyond what we are offering today," says Reza Rasoulian, VP of Global Connectivity for Carnival.
About Carnival Corporation
Carnival Corporation & plc is the world's largest leisure travel company and among the most profitable and financially strong in the cruise and vacation industries, with a portfolio of nine of the world's leading cruise lines. With operations in North America, Australia, Europe and Asia, its portfolio features Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard.
Together, the corporation's cruise lines operate 104 ships with 237,000 lower berths visiting over 700 ports around the world, with 21 new ships scheduled to be delivered through 2025. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour company in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Traded on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the world to be included in both the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 indices.
About Speedcast International Ltd
Speedcast International Ltd (ASX:SDA) is the world's most trusted communications and IT services provider, delivering critical communications solutions to the Maritime, Energy, Mining, Media, Telecom, Cruise, NGO, Government, and Enterprise sectors. With more satellite capacity than any other provider, Speedcast enables faster, seamless pole-to-pole coverage from a global hybrid satellite, fiber, cellular, microwave, MPLS, and IP transport network with direct access to public cloud platforms. The company also integrates differentiated technology offerings that provide smarter ways to communicate and distribute content, manage network and remote operations, protect and secure investments, and improve the crew and guest experience. With a passionate customer focus and a strong safety culture, Speedcast serves more than 3,200 customers in over 140 countries. Learn more at www.speedcast.com.
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