ARN

Iridium satellites back in service

Iridium Satellite, which last week won a two-year, $US72 million contract to provide secure wireless communications to thousands of government employees, has completed the acquisition of the operating assets of the former Iridium organisation and its subsidiaries, the company announced yesterday.

With the asset transfer complete, Iridium Satellite now owns all of the former assets of Iridium, including the satellite constellation, the terrestrial network, Iridium real property and intellectual property, Iridium Satellite said in a release.

The newly-formed Iridium Satellite paid $25 million for Iridium after the US-based company filed for bankruptcy in August 1999 and began planning for the decommissioning of its satellites.

The release also said Iridium Satellite would begin service immediately under the government contract signed last week with the US Department of Defence (DOD). Approximately 20,000 government employees will have unlimited airtime to make wireless phone calls under the deal.

By the end of the first quarter of 2001, Iridium Satellite will launch commercial satellite communications services to other government customers and industries such as aviation, oil and gas, and forestry that need reliable communications in remote areas of the world where terrestrial systems are not available, the release said. Iridium Satellite will market the Iridium system's ability to reach all of the world's remote areas to these industries.

Iridium Satellite has contracted with Boeing to operate and maintain the satellite constellation, and Motorola, Iridium's principal investor, has agreed to provide phones and other subscriber equipment.

Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the ARN comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events.
ARN Distributor Directory
Find distributors by name | vendor | location
Channel Deals
/deals/aca-pacific/398_abbyy-finereader-11-intelligent-ocr-software-f
ACA Pacific

ABBYY FineReader 11 - Intelligent OCR software for document conversion.

More details »
ARN Vendor Directory
Find vendors by name | category

iAsset is a channel management ecosystem that automates all major aspects of the entire sales,marketing and service process, including data tracking, integrated learning, knowledge management and product lifecycle management.