Key Takeaways
- Iridium has over 25 years of experience in satellite communications and focuses on reliable connectivity for various industries.
- The company’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites allow uninterrupted communication, positioning it as a unique solution in the satellite industry.
- Iridium is advancing with 5G narrowband IoT connections and enhancing services to protect against GPS jamming and spoofing.
Matt Desch is the Chief Executive Officer of Iridium Communications Inc., the only satellite communications company that offers truly global voice and data coverage. He has more than 40 years of experience in telecommunications management, and more than 30 years in the global wireless industry. Joining Iridium in 2006, Desch has been responsible for leading the innovation and growth of Iridium, which includes taking the company public on Nasdaq (IRDM) in 2009, completing the financing and development of Iridium® NEXT, the company’s $3 billion investment in upgrading the Iridium network with powerful new satellites, and launching Iridium Certus®, a multi-service broadband platform enabled by the upgraded constellation.
Tell us about your company?
Iridium is the “OG” LEO satellite company. We’ve been providing critical connectivity to the farthest regions of the world for over 25 years and are still the only mobile voice and data satellite communications network that spans the entire globe. People may know us if they’ve used a satellite phone, but our primary business these days is enabling reliable connections through services like Internet of Things (IoT) that connect people, ships, aircraft and other assets to and from anywhere, in real time. Together with our ecosystem of over 500 partner companies, Iridium delivers an innovative and rich portfolio of reliable solutions for markets that require truly global communications.
What problems are you solving?
Whether it’s in the air, on land, or at sea, Iridium’s satellite network provides weather-resilient, reliable connectivity when and where it matters most. Iridium is first and foremost a safety service. Our unique network and our position in the radio frequency band allow us to serve many markets that struggle to adequately communicate with far away Geostationary (GEO) satellites, or where cellular towers do not reach. Due to the fixed nature of GEO satellites, signal blockages between a user and satellite can easily occur, whereas Iridium’s LEO satellites that are interconnected to each other in space enable uninterrupted communication anywhere in the world – even for ships sailing at high latitudes, adventurers in remote regions, or transoceanic planes far from land.
Our technology continues to get smaller and easier to deploy, such that it’s now able to be in programmed into chips that go directly into consumer devices like smart phones, smart watches and other small devices. Additionally, we are revolutionizing the Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) field with a solution that protects GPS from jamming and spoofing and provides digital timing signals inside buildings. Our satellite network also tracks airplanes and helps to improve air traffic control across the oceans and many other places.
What application areas are your strongest?
Iridium is the solution for anything that needs reliable two-way connectivity. Cell phone towers – after almost 40 years in operation – only cover about 15% of the worlds surface. People and assets to be managed or tracked stray well beyond that coverage, and Iridium has become the choice for connecting the other 85% of the world, particularly for critical applications and where safety is paramount. You’ll find our technology utilized in all kinds of industries, including maritime, aviation, agriculture, energy, transportation, science and exploration, autonomous systems, first responders and government/military uses. We’re also seeing increasing interest from the automotive sector and everyday consumer devices.
What keeps your customers up at night?
Most of our customers are up at night, because that’s often when disasters strike! Because our network is so reliable, it is mandated in all kinds of safety applications both in the cockpits of airlines and helms of ships and is used to provide first responders with a connection in remote places of the world when it’s needed most. We are proud to provide safety of life services with high reliability, which can alleviate such concerns to our customers.
What does the competitive landscape look like and how do you differentiate?
Iridium’s satellite network and business is quite unique in the satellite industry. For example, Starlink is an exciting new service that focuses on broadband connections, while Iridium focuses on connections to people and assets. We scale down very effectively to very small devices that can even run on battery power, and thanks to our unique spectrum, we operate in any kind of weather and anywhere in the world.
There is also lot of buzz in the industry around D2D (Direct to Device) and NB-IoT. Iridium is positioning our new D2D service as complementary to many of these new emerging services. Many companies seeking to provide D2D services are still seeking out spectrum and funding and need to launch their satellite networks or need to replenish their satellites frequently to stay in service. Iridium does not face any of these hurdles. Our network is completely global and fully operational – we have a dedicated, global spectrum allocation and already provide millions of customers with uninterrupted and dependable service in every environment. Additionally, our fully programmable network allows us to update our satellites in space to comply with 3GPP standards. Once we turn the switch on, Iridium’s NTN service will be fully operational and truly global from day one. This makes Iridium the ideal solution for chipmakers, MNOs, and customers.
What new features/technology are you working on?
Satellite communications has traditionally been proprietary amongst the various carriers, but that’s starting to change rapidly. Iridium is implementing the 5G narrowband IoT standard connections that are being adopted by smartphone and IoT processing companies to make it even easier for cellular customers to roam onto our network when they’re outside cell coverage. We’re also adapting our Satellite Time and Location® (STL®) service by shrinking it down to a single chip to make it even easier to deploy in cellular base stations, data centers, and other critical infrastructure that depends on GPS timing signals. This gives Iridium the edge to become the de facto global alternate PNT technology to augment other GNSS systems and protect users from the effects of jamming or spoofing.
Additionally, we launched our next generation satellite IoT device – the Iridium Certus™ 9704 Module and Development Kit. This new module is the smallest and most powerful created by Iridium and is ideal for creating new satellite IoT applications, including what we’ve dubbed satellite Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) that require real-time data analysis, analytics and automated decision-making. The Iridium Certus 9704 delivers data, picture, and audio messages for industrial IoT, machine-to-machine applications, and remote personnel use cases – providing two-way IoT services anywhere in the world. It can help our partners make fast and reliable connections to a broad array of applications like predictive maintenance, diagnostics, telemetry monitoring, remote asset tracking, and command and control for uncrewed aircraft, vehicles and vessels.
How do customers normally engage with your company?
As a wholesale operator, we go to market through licensed technology and distribution partnerships. We’re always looking for new channels to market and new technology suppliers to embed our network into their customers’ applications. To learn more, visit: www.iridium.com
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