Speedcast wins contract for mission critical Antarctic research communications
Mobile comms company Speedcast has been awarded a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract to provide communications services to Australian researches in Antarctica.
The contract with the Department of the Environment and Energy’s Australian Antarctic Division, which extends until September 2020, involves provision of VSAT bandwidth, equipment and installation including training, antenna upgrades and repositioning, and network optimisation.
Speedcast will also provide additional support to other scientific users such as Geoscience Australia at the three Australian Antarctic research stations – Mawson, Casey and Davis, plus the base on Macquarie Island.
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Pierre-Jean Beylier, CEO, Speedcast, said: “Our team of highly qualified engineers is proud to provide 24/7 support and solutions to enable individuals in these remote and harsh locations to communicate with the outside world for day-to-day communication and in the event they need assistance in case of an emergency.”
With the updates Speedcast is making to the satellite links, the research program will have four times more throughput than it had with their previous provider once installations are completed in January 2018.
The Australian Antarctic Division opened the contract for tender in June of this year, eventually settling on Speedcast, which partners with well-known technology vendors such as Cisco and AsiaSat.
