Opinion: So how do you order Iridium satellite service?
cnn.com
February 24, 1999
Web posted at: 10:01 p.m. EST (0301 GMT)
by David Rohde
From...
(IDG) -- If you have the budget for it, there's a new way to travel the world
and stay in touch wherever you are. Called Iridium, it's the first of several
planned constellations of low-earth orbit satellites that bounce calls off one
another until they find the party you're calling.
The beauty of Iridium is that a single phone handset or pager works
everywhere. Interested? Good luck getting the service.
Iridium had some problems getting underway, even after it had launched all
66 of its satellites. It missed its planned Sept. 23, 1998, start date due to
software glitches in its Earth switching stations and some delays in handset
manufacturing. But it finally began commercial service, or so it claims, on
Nov. 1, 1998.
I tested out Iridium's ordering system when
Network World was examining questions
about Iridium's start date. I went to
Iridium's Web site and entered my name as
a prospect for the service. Shortly
thereafter, I received an e-mail,
date-stamped Sept. 4, 1998, confirming my
place on the prospect list. "An Iridium
representative will contact you shortly
regarding your interest," the message said.
I later received a package in the mail. It
described Iridium's voice and paging
services and pictured the devices, with no
prices but plenty of flowery language. An
accompanying letter welcomed me as a
prospect. "An Iridium representative will
contact you shortly regarding your
interest,"the letter said.
I never heard back from them.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Web
site again and found a new, more complex
qualifying form. I tried the system several
times, but it kept kicking me out, claiming I
had not filled in all the mandatory fields
marked by an asterisk. But I had - I swear.
I called Iridium's public relations
representative. She suggested calling 1-888IRIDIUM to find a distributor.
The phone representative asked me all the qualifying questions again, then
read me the names of seven distributors I'd never heard of. I said I thought
Sprint PCS was an Iridium distributor (they announced they were last
month). He transferred me to Sprint. I stayed on hold for several minutes,
then the Iridium representative came back and said, "At the moment Sprint
PCS is experiencing a high call volume." He transferred me to another
distributor. Same thing.
He came back on the line, and I asked what the service costs. He said the
dual-mode handset costs $3,795, and the service providers licensed by
Iridium charge between $2 to $7 per minute.
Look, the stakes are pretty high here. For the fourth quarter, Iridium
reported revenue of $186,000 and a loss of $440 million.
There's a message here for the upcoming satellite systems providers: You
might want to turn off your hype machines until you make darn sure you're
ready to take the orders. [Are you listening, G*?]
David Rohde is a senior editor for Network World.
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