Speedcast Adds 13 Gbps of
New Capacity to Its Unified Global Platform at
Record-Setting Pace to Meet Customer Growth Surge
May 25, 2022
Speedcast announced that in
response to surging demand in the cruise and energy
markets it serves, the company has significantly
expanded its Unified Global Platform (UGP), adding
13 Gbps of capacity to its network over the last
month. Speedcast operates one of the largest
technology agnostic networks in the world. Following
this latest expansion, the platform now includes 30
Gbps of total bandwidth, which the company leverages
in the design and deployment of complete managed
connectivity solutions for customers across energy,
passenger and commercial maritime, and enterprise
markets.
Speedcast’s network size now
significantly surpasses the company’s 2020
pre-pandemic levels. This record-setting growth was
driven in part by the cruise industry, which is
slated to add 51 ships back into service during the
month of May alone. Many cruise line restart plans
include vessels returning to 100% capacity, and with
the May additions, just under 350 ships and over
550,000 berths will be in service globally. Demand
for high availability connectivity continues to grow
on the energy front as well, with global offshore
rig reports published this month noting a strong
rise in day rates for jack-ups and floaters alike,
and overall rig utilization at its highest level in
seven years.
The rapid network expansion has
been made possible in part by the company’s TrueBeam
automated network management technology, which
operates on the back of Speedcast’s UGP. TrueBeam
enables truly proactive monitoring, automatically
selecting the optimal network path for a remote site
without human intervention by employing a quick and
consistent process for fast and error-free switches.
Algorithmic technologies are
critical to delivering the Speedcast network’s
massive multi-path and multi-orbit capacity with
high quality of service. The intelligent system
understands, predicts, and mitigates network
challenges based on changes in operating
environment, giving remote sites the ability to
switch among satellites and between routes to
seamlessly maintain communications, even while
moving in and out of a satellite beam’s coverage
area. The company completed patent filings on the
smart network management solution earlier this year.
“The fast ramp-up of capacity
Speedcast achieved really shows the power of
software-defined networks,” said Joe Spytek, Chief
Executive Officer at Speedcast.
“We’re able to deliver on the concept of ubiquitous
connectivity to a remote site for the best user
experience. We’re incorporating all available
technologies and network options – multi-path and
multi-orbit – to offer the most cost-effective
connectivity solutions with the highest levels of
availability and flexibility. Being
technology-agnostic, we can also shield the customer
from the risks of technology obsolescence and loss
of service that come with dependence on a specific
network.”
Speedcast completed the
extensive upgrade over a five-week period in April
and May and expanded its ground network to include
the addition of a new teleport to support the added
capacity, enabling access to a broader range of
satellite infrastructure. Speedcast’s UGP includes
multi-orbit options for high-demand applications.
The company’s future-ready SD-WAN service, delivered
through its SIGMA platform, seamlessly blends
multiple transmission paths into a single,
optimized, secure service to substantially improve
performance and evolve customer operations to
maximize what remote sites can achieve. The SIGMA
cloud-based platform recently received technical
validation by Amazon Web Services (AWS), designating
Speedcast as an AWS Software Path partner.
Speedcast also recently
announced that it will integrate low Earth orbit
connectivity into its UGP as an official
Distribution Partner to OneWeb, ensuring that
customers in the maritime, energy and enterprise
industries benefit from a multi-path, multi-orbit
future. Customer demonstrations and trials of the
low latency solution are due to begin next month.
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