The Fall and Rise of Iridium

The fun thing about Iridium is that it&#x27;s one of the few existing examples of satellite-to-satellite backbone links in space. The satellites are in polar orbits and talk to each other by directional point-to-point Ka band in space. This means that the whole network architecture (the first generation of satellites, not the ones imminently about to be launched for the new network) can relay all of its traffic through just one or two earth stations (Hawaii and Chandler, AZ).<p>This is why Iridium has kicked the ass of Globalstar, which was a bent pipe repeater satellite arrangement and relied on dozens of earth stations worldwide, also rendering it unable to provide service in polar regions and in the middle of oceans.<p>The only other telecom satellites that form backbone&#x2F;trunk links in space are geostationary and military. The network architecture was WAY ahead of its time considering the design was finalized in 1996-1998 or thereabouts.

What saved Iridium were the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Suddenly DoD, other US agencies, and various contractors and NGOs had lots of people in areas with no functioning comm infrastructure. So the US Government put money into Iridium and bought half the airtime.<p>Iridium is wiretappable. There&#x27;s a Motorola patent on this, which shows how channels can be split, transmitted over satellite to satellite links, and copied to a monitoring ground station. But this is expensive; not all calls can be recorded.

As a user of one of their products, Iridium Go, I still find it amazing I can place a phonecall in the middle of the Atlantic from my iPhone. My crew and I would email and browse the web 1000 miles from the nearest tower.

For average people, the best part of the satellite constellation is the regular occurrence of Iridium flares. Worth seeing, at least a few times: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Satellite_flare#Iridium_flares" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Satellite_flare#Iridium_flares</a>

I haven&#x27;t read Eccentric Orbits yet but a few years ago Airspace Mag did a really nice piece on Iridium that has some really good backstory on the company and its tech: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.airspacemag.com&#x2F;space&#x2F;the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-of-iridium-5615034&#x2F;?no-ist" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.airspacemag.com&#x2F;space&#x2F;the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-...</a>

Here&#x27;s a link not behind a paywall:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;canmua.net&#x2F;world&#x2F;the-fall-and-rise-of-iridium-882149.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;canmua.net&#x2F;world&#x2F;the-fall-and-rise-of-iridium-882149....</a>

The Delorme Inreach is on the Iridium band and is very popular with back country enthusiasts.<p>It&#x27;s a little pricey (16 CDN &#x2F; month, if you <i>dont</i> use it at all, and about a buck a message if you do) -but for peace of mind they are fantastic.

I wonder if one could actually deploy a cheap satellite phone and data service now for the areas of bad coverage or to avoid international roaming, using a mesh of redundant and disposable microsatellites, launched via SpaceX? Or is someone already building this now?

I still think it&#x27;s a very cool product with a real need by a lot of people. Hell, even I have always wanted one!<p>A couple problems. First they were way ahead of their time. Secondly, the barrier to entry for space was&#x2F;is too much.<p>I think we are on the cusp of changing this dramatically. With SpaceX forcing launch prices down. Micro-satellites becoming a real thing. Plus a possible new company; Vector Space Systems. [1]<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;04&#x2F;26&#x2F;vector-space-systems-aims-to-launch-satellites-by-the-hundreds&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;04&#x2F;26&#x2F;vector-space-systems-aims-t...</a>

The one thing about wireless technology is that we still have a long way to go. On the one hand it is freaking amazing that we have a tiny device in our pocket that can pretty much pull down the world&#x27;s information. On the other hand it still doesn&#x27;t work everywhere.<p>Think about all the times cell service cuts out or isn&#x27;t seamless: subways, airplanes, boats, basements, etc. Though I admit 100% coverage over every damn square inch of the planet is kind of crazy.

An early Iridium presentation included an artistic rendition of a solar powered Iridium-based phone booth in the middle of a jungle -- a dark jungle with a halo of light above the phone booth. Peasants were walking by on a trail near the phone booth carrying baskets on their heads. Elsewhere in the presentation they mentioned a target price of $3 a minute.<p>The above was in a recruitment presentation for engineering NCGs. I recall a sinking feeling that I would one day leave academia and work on projects with absurd marketing visions.<p>Edit: typos

I think iridium is a classical case where product was developed with out trying to understand &#x27;what user needs&#x27;.For example (@1998) iridium had a cost of $3000 per handset with talk time of &gt; $5&#x2F;minute.Also cellular phone was a strong substitute for iridium. I think they have done a gross under estimate of potential target market. Since iridium needed line of site for communication had difficulty in working inside buildings , I am wondering who is there actual target customer .Number of national banks who invested in iridium lost their money .