QUADRANT IRIDIUM LIMITED US company, Iridium Satellite LLC has...

QUADRANT IRIDIUM LIMITED

US company, Iridium Satellite LLC has announced the availability of
its global satellite voice and data communications solution for
affordable crew calling services to the maritime industry. Iridium's
crew calling program simultaneously supports pre-paid calling for
individual crew members and subscription services for a vessel's
official communications. The new crew calling solution allows both
official and personal communications from a single phone whilst
eliminating the need for the tracking of calls and the manual
processing of bills to support both functions. The crew calling plan
delivers one of the most affordable communications options to the
maritime market today with flat rate prising and no roaming or zone
charges and truly global coverage.

Quadrant Iridium Limited has a 16% interest in the US company,
Iridium Holdings LLC, the holding company for Iridium Satellite LLC.
Following is the text of a press release made by Iridium Satellite
LLC today. Also included is the text from an article from Lloyds of
London Press Limited dealing with telephone calls made by crew
members whilst on board ship.

P MacLeod
COMPANY SECRETARY

PRESS RELEASE

IRIDIUM SATELLITE LLC INTRODUCES CREW CALLING
SERVICES FOR THE MARITIME MARKET

NEW OFFERING DELIVERS AFFORDABLE, UBIQUITOUS CREW COMMUNICATIONS

ARLINGTON, Virginia. - April 22, 2002 Iridium Satellite LLC, the
only provider of global voice and data communications, today
announced the availability of affordable crew calling services for
the maritime industry. In response to customer demand for more cost
effective and efficient ways to manage on-ship call operations,
Iridium's crew calling solution simultaneously supports pre-paid
calling for individual crew members and subscription services for a
vessel's official communications. The new service simplifies the
burdensome task of managing fleet communications costs.

Iridium's new crew calling program allows vessel owners and operators
to provide both official and personal communications from a single
phone. Vessel operators can provide pre-paid scratch cards to
individual crew members to allow for personal calling, while
eliminating the arduous process of tracking those costs. For official
business, the captain and crew can use the same phone for
subscription-based calls. This eliminates the need to manually
process complicated bills or to purchase additional equipment to
support the two functions.

"By reducing the administrative burden of monitoring each crew
member's calls, this new platform of services will help shipping
businesses cut back on operating expenditures while providing an
affordable convenience that benefits crew morale and productivity,"
said Charlene King, executive vice president for marketing and
channel management at Iridium Satellite. "While prohibitive costs and
complicated pricing schemes have limited the use of other satellite
systems for crew calling purposes, Iridium's affordable, flat-rate
pricing makes it ideal for crew morale programs."

The crew calling plan offers the same global, flat rate pricing that
is the basis for all of Iridium Satellite's services. With no roaming
or zone charges and some of the lowest prices available for satellite
calls, the crew calling plan delivers one of the most affordable and
flexible communications options available to the maritime market
today, and the only one with truly global coverage.

Beginning immediately, Iridium will offer the new crew calling
services through its global network of service providers. The initial
service providers include GloCall, Stratos, European Datacomm, Road
post, Global Plus, Global Satellite, Infosat, Marconi, World
Communications Center, GeoLink, Fibertel, Marlink and AST.

02 APRIL 2002 UK: DIARY...AB, PHONE HOME.

SENDING out a team of clipboard-armed, middle-class, middle-aged
ladies to ask ships' crews about their calling habits was always
going to lead to some tricky moments and so it proved.

A report by Gilmour Research, commissioned by Inmarsat to find out
the size of the crew calling market, makes fascinating reading, an
insight into the lives of working seafarers and where they keep their
mobile phones. The clipboard ladies, donning hardhats and fluorescent
vests over the perms and twin-sets, descended on docks and climbed
gangways. In Singapore they were almost arrested as stowaways, in the
Netherlands they were scrutinised by suspicious customs and
immigration and on one ship coitally interrupted a master in his
cabin who, tucking his shirt-tails in, bawled at the first officer to
throw them off the ship or arrest them as stowaways, "as he saw fit".
Forced to drink industrial-strength tea with condensed milk out of
tin mugs, the Hyacinth Buckets stuck gamely to the task and by the
end had interviewed 125 masters, 131 officers and 347 crew. The
report does not say whether any of the ladies had shipboard romantic
flings or ended up marrying an interviewee but it wouldn't surprise
us.

Among the findings were that only 4% of ships visited had dedicated
crew calling gear but six out 10 crew had mobile phones, even on
tankers where the report says they should not be allowed because of
the risks of static electricity. Crew confessed to hiding them and
one officer pulled his out of a pocket and admitted in front of the
master he'd had it on board for two years. Sadly, the report by
partner' Carl contains a glaring error that our gimlet eye spotted.
It takes a figure of $100 a month for average crewman spend on calls
and then multiplies it by 1.8m, a figure for the total seafarer
population derived from the ITF (a bit on the high side, we think)
and arrives at $1.8bn a year as the total annual spend. Er, no it
doesn't (work it out!).

Meanwhile, the bad news for Inmarsat is that owners and managers are
responding to the call for more crew communications facilities by
putting rival Iridium phones on ships, they're so much cheaper.

(c)of Lloyd's of London Press Limited 2002.

ends - AAP