Iridium May Have To Reinvent Itself Again

prgrmr writes "The Washington Post has this article on the latest wrinkle in the Iridium saga. There may be a conflict between new competition and existing contractual obligations for putting up the next generation of sattelites. This could become a milestone for making the service more ubiquitous, or the millstone that finally sinks it."

Comments

Heh

[BrianGa]

Not only will they have to reinvent themselves, but they will have to dodge falling satallites.

Iridium enhancement

[binaryDigit]

If the widespread use of Iridium can be had, then (given their close ties with DOD, and therefore other branches of the govt, like, say, the NSA), Iridium can be initimately linked with Echelon. This combined with a tiny explosive placed within every Iridium phone, would allow Echelon to automatically eliminate anyone who, through their own words, would represent a threat to the security of the peoples of the US. It would also be an excellent incentive for those who use their phones but are behind in payments.

Re:Iridium enhancement

[Coz]

It would also be a good anti-theft mechanism:

Hello, Iridium customer service? My phone was stolen two hours ago in the Hong Kong airport... what's that? My customer ID? Phone number? Sure... it's where? Shanghai? Yes, I authorize anti-theft deterrence...

and somewhere in downtown Shanghai, a head explodes....

damn

[Graspee_Leemoor]

When I saw the headline I thought they were bringing back the classic C64 game.

You know the one, sideways scrolling shoot-em-up but you can go left or right at your whim, (a la defender), also you can flip sideways to fit through tight spots.

It really needed fast reactions (which I no longer have), but was a lot of fun at the time.

I suppose if they did do it now it would be in full 3D and probably suck. Then again, the original would probably suck if I played it again now.

Better leave it alone and save those nice memories.

graspee