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Technology Stocks : IRID - Iridium World Communications IPO Announced! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CJ who wrote (1094)	11/2/1998 10:47:00 AM
From: Jeff Vayda	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2693

Some news from Satellite News, Phillips Publishing International, Inc.: IRIDIUM PLANS TO INITIATE VOICE SERVICES NOV. 1, BUT DELAY PAGING Iridium LLC [IRIDF] plans to begin commercial voice services Sunday (11/1) as planned, but will delay the rollout of its global paging operation until mid-November due to some unexpected technical glitches, CEO Ed Staiano said during a conference call with journalists and industry analysts last week. Full commercial launch of the global mobile satellite service originally had been planned for Sept. 23, but was delayed when problems arose in providing the service. The reliability rate for multi-gateway calls now is more than 80 percent and should improve when unspecified software problems with three of the 66 satellites in the Iridium constellation are fixed, Staiano said. The rate of dropped calls is expected to hit 10 percent this week and later fall to five percent when the system undergoes further debugging after its commercial launch. "We have not found a single design defect that would prevent us from having a better rate," Staiano said. "Day-by-day, the bugs have been driven out of the system. The system now is performing reliably and at commercial-quality levels." Iridium's final gateway came online in China last week and its billing system and clearinghouse are ready to serve customers, Staiano added. Meanwhile, Iridium reported a net loss of $364 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30. Costs incurred and capitalized for the communications system's assets totaled $128 million for the quarter, taking the total capitalized amount since its 1990 inception to $3.47 billion. At the close of trading Thursday (10/29), Iridium stock was trading at $43.625, up from $37.25 a week before. ...Analytical Report Offers Dimming Prospects For Mobile Satellite Services An independent telecommunications consulting firm last week offered a cautious outlook for Iridium. Ovum Inc., of Burlington, Mass., forecasted a gradually shrinking window of opportunity for Iridium and other mobile satellite service operators to entice international business travelers who will be able to pick from a growing number of global communications options by 2004. Mobile satellite services market will have only 11 million subscribers worldwide by 2007, according to Ovum's report "LEOs, MEOs and GEOs: The Market Opportunity for Mobile Satellite Services." Events that will hurt Iridium and its rivals include next year's rollout of the WorldPhone, which will let mobile subscribers roam between networks; the continued launch of cellular networks; and new third-generation mobile systems, starting in 2002, the report warned. Thank you for visiting Satellite News. Copyright © 1998 Phillips Publishing International, Inc. All rights reserved.