Thursday, Jan 29, 2004 at 21:17
goldfinder
Iridium No 1 went broke as they could not get enough subscribers to pay for a system that cost 8 Billion (That is BILLION) US Dollars to build.
The original cost to base level subscribers was I believe about $12.00 US dollars per minute and at these rates it was to expensive to most users.
The Iridium company went into receivership and was going to be closed down until a consortium of international businessmen including an Australian who comes from
Perth purchased the system from the receiver for a total of $25 Million (That is MILLION) US dollars.
They then wrote a contract with the US Defence Department who have I believe have 20,000 phone handsets in various uses for a minimum monthly spend of $3.5 Million US Dollars.
The US Military actually used the Iridium system extensivley during the recent Iraq war as it was easier to use phones then have various soldiers carry larger bulkier digital radio's.
It was also more reliable and signal strength was always avaliable as opposed to having to locate sat signals with their normal radio's.
It's also digital and is very difficult to eavsdrop.
The Iridium system is as safe and reliable to use as any GSM land based network.
There is no question as to why the system went off the air a few years ago and it has nothing to do with reliability.
Regards
John
These phones were used to call in air strikes amonst other use's
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