After US$5 billion worth of effort, the Iridium L.L.C. global satellite phone and cellular roaming service became a reality 1 November when the company activated the system for commercial operation.
“After 11 years of hard work, we are proud to announce that we are open for business,” said Edward Staiano, Iridium vice chairman and chief executive officer.
The original 23 September deadline was delayed because several late satellite failures left the system untested. Staiano said the month-long postponement allowed handset manufacturer Kyrocera to catch up with Motorola Inc.’s testing, as well as allowed for many more trial calls to be placed.
Because of this extended testing process, Iridium is offering only voice services until mid-November-satellite phone service, global cross roaming and its world calling card. Paging services will not be available until mid-November.
The World Satellite Service provides a direct satellite link to a handheld satellite phone that in theory can be reached anywhere, anytime. The World Roaming Service allows customers to roam across the terrestrial networks of Iridium’s roaming partners with otherwise incompatible transmission technologies using one handset and keeping only one number. The two services use different handset models, but Kyrocera soon will introduce an attachment that will extend a satellite link to the World Roaming phone.
The service launch itself now puts Iridium in the spotlight. The company needs to prove the time, effort and money spent on the Iridium Network will pay off in revenues.
A study by U.K. consulting firm Ovum Inc. reported a “shrinking window of opportunity” in the global handset market, suggesting Iridium may have gotten started two years too late. Ovum predicts a rather modest 11 million subscribers by 2007 for all global phone services, with as many as 10 players competing for them by that time. In addition, the need for cross-protocol roaming has diminished in light of recent technological advances.
