Iridium Into Increased Revenues, Subscribers

They’ve wrapped up their best quarter in the history of the company—Iridium Satellite LLC has announced the firm has approximately 225,000 subscribers worldwide as of the end of the third quarter. That’s a 33 percent increase over the third quarter 2006 total of 169,000. Revenue in the quarter was $74.2 million versus $54.7 million in the same quarter last year, a 36 percent increase. Third quarter EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) of $22.5 million was 61 percent greater than the third quarter 2006 total of $14 million. EBITDA through nine months was $56.3 million versus $39.9 million for the same periods in 2006, a 41 percent increase.




The company has also experienced a tremendous upswing in North American traffic. This upswing followed a new pricing plan and garnering churn from other satellite communications service providers. Canadian traffic nearly doubled, increasing 80 percent year-over-year. Likewise, usage in the U.S. surged by 77 percent. Traffic in the Asia/Pacific region was up nearly 48 percent over last year, and, in Australia, Iridium continued to win thousands of customers previously served by competing mobile satellite service providers. In South America, Iridium recently forged new partner relationships to further serve customers looking to switch from other service providers in the South American market. Strong results are expected in this region in the fourth quarter and beyond—Bethesda, Maryland