A new orbit

The ill-fated satellite-phone venture has relaunched itself in more modest form

Jul 12th 2001|

REMEMBER Iridium, the satellite-phone company whose brick-like handsets were designed to work anywhere on earth? Started in October 1998, it relied on a network of 66 low-orbiting satellites, built at a cost of more than $5 billion. Despite call charges as high as $8 per minute, Iridium hoped to capture a big chunk of what promised to be a vast new market for mobile satellite telephony, which was expected to attract at least 32m subscribers within a decade. The firm spent $180m on advertising, aiming to sign up half a million customers within six months. It was not to be. Nine months after its launch, Iridium filed for bankruptcy, having signed up just 15,000 subscribers.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “A new orbit”