The Iridium satellite system had a rough time getting off the ground, but it is today the go-to source for really-location-independent communications. New products and system upgrades point to a very bright future for the firm and its customers.
I spoke yesterday with senior executives of Iridium LLC, the firm that owns and operates the Iridium constellation of low-earth-orbit communications satellites. My interest was piqued by a set of recent announcements (entitled “Iridium ForceTM – A New Vision for Global Communications“, particularly a new Wi-Fi gateway and upgrade plans for the satellite constellation itself. Iridium has about a half-million users worldwide, many of whom are in government, earth sciences, natural resources, and related fields that demand the ultimate in anytime/anywhere communications, but the service continues to grow in appeal for enterprise users who simply travel a lot.
Iridium began back in the mid-1990s with the idea to orbit a constellation of 77 (Iridium is the element with the atomic number 77, hence the name) low-earth-orbit satellites that would hand off the communications of earthbound users between satellites orbiting in a number of polar planes – cellular with moving cells, if you will. Well, cutting to the chase, the original Iridium went Chapter 11, but a new set of investors picked up the assets for literally pennies on the dollar and is now making a serious go of it. While the service is optimized for voice, there is a basic data service, suitable for e-mail and messaging, currently available and operating.
What’s exciting here, apart, of course, from the amazing technology and resulting service available at very reasonable prices, is that Iridium is now working on an upgrade, to begin launching in 2015 and with completion in 2017, to replace all of their satellites with newer models capable of much more capacity, and, importantly, much higher data rates. While the basic data service today is 2.4 Kbps, augmented, of course, with data compression, the Iridium NEXT satellites will go up to 64Kbps, with higher rates available on more specialized product lines. OK, that may not seem all that fast in an era of HSPA+ and LTE, but considering that rate will be available almost anywhere on the face of the earth, that’s pretty cool.
Iridium also announced a really interesting product – the AxcessPoint, a pocket-sized gateway between a Wi-Fi equipped device (smartphone, tablet, notebook PC, etc.) and the Iridium 9555 and Extreme satellite phones. The Extreme is new and ruggedized without being large or unwieldy. I’d love to see a satellite radio (like Iridium’s own 9523 Voice and Data Module, part of the Force announcement) built directly into an AxcessPoint – given a VoIP client on the Wi-Fi-equipped user device, that’s all you’d need. Bring your usual arsenal of devices with you literally wherever you may roam, and stay connected transparently anywhere on Earth. Well, I like the idea – kind of a satellite femotcell.
But back to today – given that cellular roaming charges are still so high, an Iridium phone might be far more economical than most people think, and just perfect for the global road warrior. With Iridium’s success to date, it’s a fair bet that the company will continue to innovate new products and services, and that satellite-based communications will continue to grow in popularity. If it’s been a while since your reviewed the products and services at Iridium, now’s the time. I suspect that the appeal to enterprise users gates only on additional exposure to what the company has to offer.
