Lindblad Expeditions Expands Engagement with Speedcast

Speedcast, a communications and IT services provider, announced today that the company has been awarded a multi-year contract with Lindblad Expeditions to expand their agreement to deliver significantly increased connectivity service and serve five additional ships.

As part of the agreement, the ships will be upgraded with Speedcast’s Unified Global Platform (UGP) network solution. New York-based Lindblad Expeditions, a global leader of small ship expeditions and adventure travel experiences with a strong commitment to responsible travel, offers voyages in more than 40 geographies across the globe.

Under the terms of the contract, Speedcast is enhancing capabilities on their fleet with its UGP network solution, delivering five times the bandwidth levels and enhancing near-shore wireless services, along with upgrading all onboard technology. Speedcast’s SD-WAN solution within the UGP will enable seamless delivery of the significantly higher capacity across the global itineraries associated with Lindblad’s fleet, thereby providing the ultimate onboard experience for expedition cruise guests and crew.

“At the core of addressing Lindblad’s needs was to first define the ‘art of the possible,” said Brent Horwitz, Senior Vice President – Cruise & Ferry at Speedcast. “We collaborated with their IT and hotel operations teams to explore this concept, customizing a technology solution for the fleet that not only met their objectives, but also challenged the status quo for onboard connectivity standards. By embracing a hybrid technology model, Lindblad will maximize what they can achieve onboard and as a result, further enhance the guest and crew experience.”

“We value high-quality services that make life at sea better for all of our guests and team members onboard,” said Arthur Theodorou, VP of Information Technology at Lindblad Expeditions. “Our communications solution enables our guests and crew to remain connected – for both necessity and fun – no matter where we’re located around the world. Speedcast has been our connectivity partner making this possible for our global fleet, and we look forward to the enhanced services that will benefit our valued guests and crew.”

Speedcast recently announced the addition of 13 Gbps of capacity to its global network, nearly doubling the capacity it provides worldwide to 30 Gbps of total bandwidth. Speedcast has made substantial investments in network management technologies, with future-ready, software-defined services that helped make capacity acceleration possible, and to better serve the European and Alaskan passenger maritime sectors.

“Lindblad is truly leading the expedition cruise industry forward, adopting the latest technologies to better serve their teams and guests, and they made investments early on to achieve these goals,” Horwitz added. “As Speedcast operates with this same vision and approach in serving our customers, this alignment creates a natural fit. We’re proud to support a progressive company seeking to provide the highest quality experience aboard their expeditions.”

With this contract extension, Speedcast has now secured renewals with all of its major cruise customers.