Seeing as the 'ol fellas in Melbourne are a bit slow on the uptake as usual its up to us to release the announcements:
3 June 08 ---------------------------------------------
Iridium Posts Double-Digit Growth in Maritime Satcom Business Maritime Subscribers up 20 Percent in Last 12 Months
BETHESDA, Md. – June 3, 2008 – Iridium® Satellite reinforces its position as the fastest-growing mobile satellite services (MSS) provider with impressive year-on-year double-digit growth rates in both subscriptions and usage in the maritime sector.
According to Iridium’s latest statistical traffic analysis, the number of active maritime subscriptions is increasing at a 20 percent annual rate, while airtime for voice and circuit-switched data is up 14 percent over last year. At the end of the first quarter of 2008, crew calling traffic through the Iridium network was up 23 percent over the same period in 2007.
Iridium’s first-quarter 2008 financial results revealed record growth in profits, revenue and subscribers across all markets, with revenues up 41 percent over the first quarter of 2007 and EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) up 80 percent. Iridium’s total subscriber base increased 37 percent last year to more than a quarter million. Iridium’s percent revenue growth overall in 2007 was nearly four times that of any other major maritime MSS provider.
“We are rapidly increasing our share in the maritime satcom market as more shipowners and managers migrate to Iridium, driven by our unique value proposition of ubiquitous global coverage, high network reliability and cost-effective hardware and service pricing,” said Greg Ewert, executive vice president, Global Distribution Channels, Iridium Satellite. “In large measure, this growth is attributable to our service partners, who have developed a wide range of Iridium service offerings tailored to customer requirements, including voice, data, prepaid scratch cards, crew email, SMS instant messaging, ship security alert systems and vessel tracking systems.”
“With the launch of our new Iridium OpenPort℠ optimized-bandwidth voice and data service, we are poised to capture an even larger share of the burgeoning market for higher-speed data,” added Ewert, who noted that advance orders for Iridium OpenPort are running well ahead of sales projections.
