Satellite Phone Communications Suddenly Booming
Iridium, (which was a catastrophic failure just over a decade ago as Motorola's $5 billion satellite went down in flames and was sold to an investor for just $25 million), has established itself as a solid business.
The network has grown under our radar to more than 500,000 subscribers over the past 11 years and posted $146.1 million of revenue and $11.7 million of profit for the third quarter.
For the satellite phone industry, this is a stunning result. It is not exactly the 10 million people user base that was predicted by Dataquest for the original Iridium back in 1999, but it is more than many times the user base Motorola was able to attract back then (about 30,000). It is still not a consumer service as Iridium says that it has around 451,000 billable subscribers in the commercial space (and industries such as maritime, aviation, oil and gas, mining, leisure, forestry, construction, transportation and emergency services) and 49,000 billable government users, which leaves about 8000 users for the non-billable space and the consumer market. According to Iridium, an average government user spends about $140 per month on Iridium voice services and $19 on data services. The commercial space spends about $50 and $19 on voice and data per user, respectively.
Even if Iridium cannot boast a user base as typical cellular providers, it just lifted its subscriber growth forecast for this year from 20 percent to 25 percent. Revenue growth is expected to be between 10 and 13 percent. At $1000 per handset and about $1 per minute calling cost, Iridium's service is still way too expensive for the consumer. However, it seems as if it is just a matter of time until Iridium will expand into a much bigger consumer market to follow the vision Motorola once had.
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$1000 per handset and $1 per minute?? What...
It would be nice if we could do away with cell phones...but not at those prices.
$1000 per handset and $1 per minute?? What...
This is no ordinary phone. This is for the people who're willing to pay to get guaranteed connection, [b]anywhere[/b[.
Even still, it's not a guaranteed service, there are some places it surprisingly does not work. It is also pure line-of-site. So not as simple as a cell phone - but when you are stuck in the middle of nowhere and in a crunch - $1/minute is well worth the price.
What? No comparison between the hardware cost and Apple yet?
The only place it doesn't work is indoors. It is the only satallite service with truly 100% global coverage, at least outdoors. Using the voice used to suck, the vocoder was terrible, but their low rate data service is great for lots of low BW applications where there is no other reliable service.
How many minutes does it take to say, "I'm stuck in the Mojave desert with no food or water, send help?"
I'd gladly spend the money if it were an option for me.
Not, they can't release these! What are horror movies going to do now once the infamous "no signal" trick becomes a thing of the past!?
Not, they can't release these! What are horror movies going to do now once the infamous "no signal" trick becomes a thing of the past!?
All it will take is a spooky fog, or a thunderstorm, and the movie plot device continues...
I wonder how many of those phones are located in the middle of Afghanistan and owned by some crazy mujahaddin ?
Well, this would relate to an article sometime back when the whole setup was sold and I said hell's at that price I could end up owning to Sats up in the sky....well, as for Afghanistan I wouldn't like to comment but as it says here
"around 451,000 billable subscribers in the commercial space (and industries such as maritime, aviation, oil and gas, mining, leisure, forestry, construction, transportation and emergency services) and 49,000 billable government users"
Believe me most of them aren't in the US.... a 20% US usage and an 80% Undisclosed Govt. Usage, no one said anything about it being a legitimate govt.
Maritime--- Most Probably Somali Pirates
Aviation---- Guess who???
Oil&Gas---- Guess Who...
Mining-----Blood Diamonds......
Leisure---- Who has the dough to cough out at those rates.....
Forestry---- Columbia....
Transportation----- Mexico and other places with max people being transported for ransom or across the border....
Construction---- Covert Nuke Sites.... Deployment sites....???
Emergency Services---- SOS, I'm in a bomb shelter with the Americans bombing my ass....
That actually really is the user lot.
For those people in the transportation industry i.e. trucking who are completely out of standard cell phone range this could and probably is a god send. "Ice Road Truckers" anyone?
Nice to hear they are still around and making a profit.