One of Speedcast’s customers, which operates year-round research stations in Antarctica, depends on Speedcast connectivity to complete their research, send data and keep in touch with the rest of the world. The Division undertakes science programs and studies to contribute to an understanding of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, with scientists and support staff living at the permanent stations on the continent.
Speedcast recently secured an additional contract to continue supporting communications for the program’s Casey Station, located on top of an Antarctic ice cap in the Windmill Islands. With more than 50 islands in the group, the Windmill Islands are recognized among the areas of the continent with the most vegetation, and are home to some of the area’s large moss beds, as well as tens of thousands of birds, penguins and seals.
In 2017, Speedcast took over the management of the site’s communications networks, improving the bandwidth from around 2.4 mbps to over 10.3 mbps. The data rate improvement has made a significant impact for the Casey Station community, improving response times and allowing better throughput for applications used for everything from enabling the medical teams, to keeping the staff connected to family and friends, and enabling them to stay on top of personal business. The enhancement has also made it easier for scientists to collaborate with universities and research centers in Kingston and around the world, sharing data from Antarctica and being able to research information to help them on their journey.