Iridium Goes for Next Generation LEO Satellites

BETHESDA, Md., Feb. 15, 2007/Satnews Daily/ ― Iridium Satellite LLC intends to concentrate on getting its next generation, low earth orbit (LEO) satellites aloft and running by 2011.

Iridium chairman and CEO Matt Desch said the company would now focus on developing its next generation satellite constellation, called "Iridium Next," which it intends to introduce into its network in six to seven years. The company’s significant and growing EBITDA and cash flow, he said, place it in an excellent position to both self-fund much of the new network development, as well as to access the capital and debt markets for the remainder.

Iridium will announce plans for its Iridium Next constellation at the Satellite 2007 Conference from February 19-22, in Washington, D.C. Already under development, Iridium Next will provide increased bandwidth, support powerful new devices and enable new services for commercial and government users.

In contrast to the system performance recently announced by other mobile satellite services providers, Iridium will continue to operate a LEO network well into the future. Iridium's meshed network design fosters wide coverage and performance, and delivers quality, mission critical service to its subscribers worldwide.

Desch described 2006 as an “exceptional year for the company by all the important metrics: subscribers, revenue and EBITDA. Iridium has now been profitable for two years, which bears witness to our successful operating strategy.”

Iridium reported 175,000 subscribers worldwide as of December 31, 2006, a 23 percent increase over last year's subscriber total of 142,000. Revenue for the full year 2006 was $212.4 million and EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) was $53.9 million. Fourth quarter 2006 revenue was $53.2 million and EBITDA, $14 million.

In 2006, Iridium opened a new satellite ground station in Fairbanks, Alaska with five Iridium earth terminals and plans to add two more. The new telemetry, tracking and command/control station provides additional layers of network visibility, redundancy, flexibility and reliability. It adds command and control capabilities, and provides remote access to satellites from Iridium's existing gateways.

The Iridium constellation consists of 66 LEO, cross-linked satellites and has multiple in-orbit spares. The constellation operates as a fully meshed network and is the largest commercial satellite constellation in the world.

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