Speedcast International Ltd
Sells Maritime Customer Contracts to Inmarsat
Nov 16, 2020
Speedcast International Limited and
Inmarsat have reached agreement on the sale of
Speedcast's primary Fleet Xpress, FleetBroadband and
Fleet One service contracts to Inmarsat. The agreement
marks another significant step for Speedcast as it looks
to emerge from its Chapter 11 proceedings announced
earlier this year, and is subject to approval by the
U.S. courts overseeing the Company's financial
restructuring.
Through the agreement, the
Speedcast customers that are transferred to Inmarsat
will be assured of continuing access to Inmarsat's
market-leading connectivity services. The agreement
covers both Speedcast's L-band maritime contracts in
which Inmarsat serves as the primary connectivity
onboard, as well as the full Inmarsat Fleet Xpress
portfolio from Speedcast.
Ronald Spithout, President,
Inmarsat Maritime, said: "Our first priority is to
ensure that these transitioning Speedcast customers can
continue to access Inmarsat's reliable global maritime
connectivity services and our growing ra! nge of
value-added services now and into the future. With
Inmarsat's ongoing, fully-funded technology roadmap,
these customers will benefit from the next-generation of
Ka-band and L-band satellites that we are launching over
the next few years. These will provide both additional
capacity and capabilities to the network. Among the
seven new satellites scheduled for launch in the next
few years will be the first ever High Throughput
Satellites (HTS) dedicated to the Arctic region."
Andre Eerland, Vice President,
Commercial Maritime at Speedcast said: "This agreement
enables Speedcast to further strengthen our focus in the
commercial maritime sector, delivering our leading
global VSAT services, together with global L-band
back-up capabilities. We pride ourselves on providing a
flexible, high quality service that meets market demands
and addresses the challenges of maritime connectivity.
Taking this step allows us to consolidate our core
connectivity services, which are scalable across all
market needs, while remaining at the forefront of the
maritime industry."
Speedcast will continue to deliver
managed services to its commercial maritime sector
clients with primary VSAT and other non-Inmarsat mobile
satellite services (MSS) onboard, and will maintain its
Inmarsat Distribution Partner status to deliver existing
MSS back-up services, with no impact to customer
operations or support. Speedcast will also continue to
deliver Inmarsat Land MSS services to its enterprise
customers as part of the Company's land portfolio, with
enterprise clients and sites unaffected by this
agreement.
Inmarsat will take on management of
the transitioned Inmarsat Maritime contracts, as well as
the 24/7 operations and support for customers through
its network operations and customer support centers.
Customers will continue to receive the highest quality
of service, with the deal including a fully supported
handover to ensure a seamless transition.
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