Archive for the ‘Iridium’ Category
SEAKR Has Been Awarded The Iridium NEXT Communication Processor
SEAKR Engineering, Inc., a privately held company,announced that Thales Alenia Space (TAS), the Iridium NEXT prime contractor, has awarded the communication processor for the Iridium NEXT constellation to SEAKR Engineering. The Iridium NEXT constellation will ultimately replace the existing Iridium constellation providing enhanced mobile satellite communication services worldwide, with the first Iridium NEXT satellite launches scheduled for the first quarter of 2015.
The communication processor plays the critical role in the Iridium NEXT constellation of providing MOD/DEMOD for the user RF links, the satellite-to-satellite cross links, and the satellite-to-gateway links on Earth. It is also responsible for managing the network and routing user traffic. The processor will support existing waveforms to provide a seamless replacement of the existing constellation while also providing advanced capabilities to improve speed, bandwidth, and flexibility.
The scalability and flexibility of the Iridium NEXT communication processor will also have the potential for new applications beyond voice communications and is being developed with government and commercial cooperative relationships in mind which could leverage Iridium’s unique constellation architecture.
Iridium reports growth in the second quarter 2010
It seems that the episodes of financial crises in many parts of the world during the 2008-2010 have come to an end. Probably, the process of economic recovery is slow across all financial sectors, but the companies have started reporting financial growth.
Recently, Iridium Communications Inc., a mobile satellite communications company has declared its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2010. The company has reported growth in all its products line. The Total billable subscribers grew 16.8 percent, reaching approximately 383,000 up from approximately 328,000 at the end of the comparable quarter last year. The company has also reported sharp increase in Commercial service revenue from 13.8 percent to $45.5 million in the second quarter compared to $40.0 million during the second quarter of 2009. For the first half of the year, commercial service revenue was up 12.5 percent over the first half of 2009.
Iridium that has recently entered into long-term agreements with The Boeing Company for maintenance, operations and support of Iridium’s satellite network has reported government voice and machine-to-machine (M2M) data service revenue increased 7.1 percent to $14.2 million in the second quarter compared to $13.3 million in the second quarter of 2009. For the first half of the year, government voice and M2M data service revenue was up 5.1 percent over the first half of 2009.
Due to a global parts supply issue that delayed some shipments to customers, to a change in the mix of equipment sales to lower- cost M2M devices, and to lower overall device pricing, the subscriber equipment revenue for the second quarter decreased to $20.3 million compared to $24.6 million in the second quarter of 2009. And in the first half of the year, subscriber equipment revenue was down 6.6 percent over the first half of 2009.
In the second quarter of 2009 the total revenue was $82.7 million and now it has reached to $84.0 million in the second quarter of 2010. For the first half of 2010, revenue increased 4.6 percent over the first half of 2009.
There is remarkable increase on the net income of the company. Net income for the second quarter was $3.2 million compared to net income of $28.6 million for the second quarter of 2009. For the first half of the year, net income was $1.9 million compared to $38.3 million in the first half of 2009, in part reflecting $11.8 million and $30.2 million, respectively, of non-cash expenses related to purchase accounting adjustments in those periods, net of tax, related to GHL Acquisition Corp.’s acquisition of Iridium Holdings LLC.
Iridium lines up funding for Next LEO satellite constellation
Iridium Communications announced that it received “in excess of $1.8 billion of commitments from a syndicate of preeminent international banks” in connection with the credit facility that will be used to finance the construction of the company’s next-generation satellite constellation, Iridium Next.
Thales Alenia Space is the prime contractor for the project, which consists of 81 low-earth orbiting communications satellites with first launch in early 2015. Iridium expects to sign the credit facility in September and close shortly thereafter.
In May Iridium announced an agreement with JetBlue Airways’ subsidiary LiveTV to develop an aviation antenna enabling global connectivity for airline passengers and flight crew. The antenna is “based on the Iridium OpenPort high-speed communications service” for the maritime sector. Commercial rollout is expected early in 2011. The solution provides up to 128 kbps and three voice channels.