Lindblad Expeditions Expands Maritime Connectivity Contract With Speedcast

Lindblad’s National Geographic Orion ship. Photo: Lindblad

Adventure travel company Lindblad Expeditions has expanded its multi-year contract with service provider Speedcast, increasing connectivity services and adding five additional ships. 

Lindblad offers small ship expeditions and adventure travel experiences. Under the contract announced Tuesday, Lindblad’s ships will be upgraded with Speedcast’s Unified Global Platform (UGP) network solution, which Speedcast said delivers five times the bandwidth levels. The SD-WAN solution within the UGP will enable higher capacity. Lindblad said it values connectivity for guests and crew, for necessity and recreation on its ships. 

Speedcast recently added 13 Gbps of capacity to its global network, nearly doubling the network capacity. The service provider said that this contract extension means the company has secured renewals with all of its major cruise customers. 

“At the core of addressing Lindblad’s needs was to first define the ‘art of the possible,’” said Brent Horwitz, senior vice president of Cruise and 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.”