A leading retail enterprise operates approximately 70 warehouse clubs across Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the company relies on real time connectivity to run its business. Branch locations require continuous internet access to process point of sale transactions and manage inventory. Network downtime halts sales. Outages stop the entire supply chain.
THE CHALLENGE
The enterprise uses terrestrial fiber and broadband connections as its primary internet source. These ground networks face frequent instability along Latin American coasts. Extreme weather events like hurricanes and floods destroy terrestrial infrastructure.
Previously, the company used LTE cellular networks for backup. This secondary option failed during major natural disasters for two reasons.
Ground Infrastructure Damage: Hurricanes knock out cellular towers. This destruction leaves LTE networks without signal when branches require connectivity. High Operational Expense: Running database systems over LTE generates high costs during multi month outages.
The enterprise required a reliable backup connection to survive ground level disasters.
THE SOLUTION
Convergia deployed Starlink satellite internet as the prioritized backup network.
Skyward Reliability: Starlink satellites orbit in space. The connection avoids ground cellular infrastructure. The network stays active if the building and satellite dish remain intact. Cost Control: Starlink costs less than LTE data pools during extended outages. The data plans include flexible blocks for heavy usage during emergencies. Active Monitoring: Convergia delivers portal access to track performance. Configured alerts notify network teams about latency issues or data limits.
The project began with a three location pilot. The enterprise expanded the service to nine active satellite locations over twelve months.
Emergency Response
A severe hurricane destroyed primary terrestrial networks in Jamaica. The retail branch equipped with Starlink maintained connectivity and continued sales.
The corporate IT team requested an emergency equipment delivery for a second Jamaican location. Convergia sourced the satellite hardware and completed the international shipment within two days. The second store restored operations quickly to supply food and water to the local community.
Service Continuity and Future Readiness
Starlink has proven to be a game-changer for this leading retail enterprise business continuity in the region. The network is configured in an active-active state, allowing their system to immediately determine when terrestrial fails and switch over to Starlink.
Although priorities shift daily based on weather events and regional focus, the long-term goal of the partnership is to eventually equip every single PriceSmart location with a Starlink terminal. This ensures that every warehouse can guarantee zero downtime for critical operations, regardless of the challenges posed by weather or terrestrial infrastructure.
