the revival of Iridium

October 1, 2008 at 4:20 am Leave a comment

An idea that peaked (or rather hyped) too early, Iridium burnt through $5 billion in the late 90s before finally declaring bankruptcy. Forbes reports on how Iridium has come a long way since those harrowing times – today, grounded in reality, and by repositioning themselves as a communications service provider to businesses with workers in remote regions, it has become the world’s fastest growing mobile satellite services provider. A late resurgence seems to be in the offing, and more importantly a sensible one.

The new Iridium essentially reversed its thinking. “Rather than worry, ‘How can we give every executive a phone?’ they said, ‘We can communicate between any two points on the globe. Who needs this? Who will pay for it?’ “says Engel. “It’s a much more intelligent question.”