Iridium

Iridium is partnering with Qualcomm to roll out its direct-to-smartphone technology on new Android smartphones in the second half of 2023.

Rohde & Schwarz showcased a setup at Mobile World Congress 2023 in hall 5, booth 5A80 of Fira Gran Via in Barcelona featuring a radio communications tester performing Iridium waveform verification in line with QDART for a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform.

OneWeb and Iridium established contact with all their satellites following the 2023-05-20 mission.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched five Iridium spare satellites and 16 OneWeb satellites from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California on 2023-05-20 at 6:16 a.m. PT.

SpaceX launched Iridium NEXT satellites between 2017 and 2019 and also launched nine in-orbit spares for Iridium.

Iridium operates a low Earth orbit satellite network that provides weather-resilient L-band connectivity with global coverage compared with geostationary systems.

Iridium and its ecosystem partners are developing new Iridium Certus offerings with additional terminal launches and announcements planned later 2023.

Iridium’s network operates a low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation that provides global L-band connectivity.

Iridium completed a $3,000,000,000 next-generation replacement satellite constellation in 2019.

Iridium launched a direct-to-device strategy called Project Stardust on 2024-01-10.

The Iridium satellite constellation uses a fully crosslinked LEO architecture and operates in global L-band spectrum.

Iridium’s fully crosslinked LEO architecture and global L-band spectrum provide a competitive service advantage versus other LEO and geostationary satellite networks.

Iridium expects a 5–10% hit to average revenue per user in 2024 from losing maritime broadband business to SpaceX’s Starlink.

Iridium is seeking an update to terrestrial network protocols to enable its existing satellites to connect to standard user devices using globally approved L-band spectrum and aims to deploy messaging and SOS services from 2026.

Revenues under contract for hosted payloads on Iridium satellites represent less than 2% of Iridium’s sales for the fourth quarter of 2023 and include the aircraft-tracking Aireon service.

Iridium recorded net income of $15,400,000 for 2023, up from $8,700,000 in 2022.

Iridium’s $3,000,000,000 Iridium Next constellation supports services including broadband, connectivity for monitoring and tracking Internet of Things devices, and a planned direct-to-smartphone business.

Iridium announced the Iridium Satellite Time and Location service in 2024.

In September 2019, the Defense Information Systems Agency awarded Iridium a seven-year, $738,500,000 airtime services contract to continue the EMSS program.

Iridium has worked with the Department of Defense EMSS Program Office for over 20 years providing sustainment and security enhancements for EMSS.