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Iridium May Have To Reinvent Itself Again

Posted by Hemos on from the return-of-the-satellites dept.

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."

4 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. I hope they don't put satellites in polar orbit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That was stupid. Iridium satellites gave each degree of latitude the same coverage, making the coverage densest (per km^2) at the poles, even though that's where it was the least needed! Let's have a few low inclination satellites where people need them.

  2. bait and switch by g4dget · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Iridium signed up for providing satellite phone service. If Iridium doesn't want to build those satellite services, fine, they should be let out of the contract. Then, the regulators should decide whether that spectrum should be kept in reserve for future satellite services or whether it should be made available for terrestrial services, or whether the decision should be up to the market. Once the policy has been decided, then there should be competitive bidding on that spectrum.

    Iridium originally got that spectrum under the conditions they got it because they promised satellite service. If they are not going to provide that, there is no reason to give them a lucrative government handout of spectrum for terrestrial uses.

    An analogy would be that the government gives a company a piece of land for $1 under the condition that the company turns the land into a park. A few years later, that company hits financial problems and says "oh, wouldn't it be so much more profitable to put a factory here".

  3. Re:Iridium Flares by Boulder+Geek · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'll gladly trade all of the Iridium Flares I've seen (including a couple of -7's) for some clear spectrum for radio astronomy.

    --
    A well-crafted lie appears unquestionable - Dama Mahaleo
  4. Life as it's supposed to be vs. life as it is by xmark · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Right, a contract once signed should not ever ever ever be subject to modification. People who sign contracts should have a firm grasp of all future events and circumstances or should just put down the pen. Next thing you know, we'd have divorce laws, the dissolution of the ABM treaty, Poland joining NATO, and Enron re-upping their accounting contract with Arthur Andersen.

    As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of a small mind."

    Technological advances driven by wireless networking (both telecom and datacom) are starting to render obsolete the idea that spectrum is a severely limited resource that must be lorded and hoarded by the FCC. Ten years ago, during its planning, Iridium seemed like a technological miracle solution to an intractable problem. No one foresaw ubiquitous digital cell networks and two-cents-a-minute rates. Now these guys are supposed to peer another decade forward and once again envision what not only doesn't exist, but hasn't been invented...and then bind themselves to a cool billion or two of investment.

    Stuff like this doesn't encourage innovation, it encourages entrenchment and protection of obsolete technologies.