Iridium Communications and Furuno Electric have inked an agreement to offer Iridium’s satellite services to customers in Japan. Furuno Electric will incorporate Iridium Pilot antennas, Iridium GO! smartphone access device, Iridium Extreme handset and the Iridium Short Burst Data service into the company’s satellite communications portfolio, Iridium said Monday. “Together, we’ll be enabling more ships […] More

Iridium Communications and MiX Telematics have partnered to demonstrate global satellite communications coverage at the Bauma Conexpo Africa trade fair scheduled this week in South Africa. MiX Telematics said Monday the partnership works to expand its fleet and mobile asset management offering from terrestrial to satellite systems. “[Fleet] managers will be able to track and manage their valuable assets and […] More

Scott Scheimreif oversees Iridium‘s government programs in his executive vice president role at the McLean, Va.-based communications services contractor. He also manages the company’s work under a five-year, $400 million contract awarded to Iridium in October 2013 for airtime services to the Defense Department through the Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services program with the Defense Information Systems Agency. Scheimreif recently spoke […] More

Iridium Communications has selected seven businesses as the initial service providers to resell the Iridium Push-to-Talk service to military, search-and-rescue, law enforcement and other customers in the international market. The company said Monday the service works to support instant communication from any location via the Iridium low-earth orbit satellite system and operates as half-duplex communication. The following are […] More

Iridium Communications has donated 25 satellite phones and batteries to the International Telecommunication Union as part of efforts to increase the organization’s emergency communications capacity for disaster response and recovery activities. ITU said Wednesday Iridium first donated emergency telecommunication equipment to the organization in 2007. “Iridium’s donation comes at a critical time when natural disasters are on the increase,” said Brahima […] More

Iridium Communications has completed the initial test phase on the primary functions of the Thales Alenia Space-developed Iridium NEXT platform software ahead of the first satellite launch this year. Iridium said Tuesday this testing phase is the first of a series of tests on the platform software’s systems integration and other functions to check Iridium NEXT’s operational autonomy. “Completion […] More

Iridium Communications CEO Matt Desch said the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 incident has prompted the aviation industry to consider using satellite technologies for commercial aircraft tracking, Air Traffic Management magazine reported Tuesday. Aimee Turner writes Desch told the magazine that air navigation service providers are also moving down a path to implement automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast. “I […] More

The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency has collaborated with Exelis and Iridium Communications to test a satellite-based communications service designed to connect military and intelligence personnel anywhere across the globe. Exelis, Iridium and DISA demonstrated the push-to-talk voice and data exchange service for the agency’s  Distributed Tactical Communication System, Exelis said Friday. “We remain committed […] More

Iridium Communications worked with Boeing and L-3 Communications to build the system control segment for Iridium’s NEXT satellite and a facility for managing after-launch and early-orbit satellite operations. The NEXT control segment is designed with L-3 Telemetry-West‘s InControl software that will work to manage command and control of the satellite constellation, Iridium said Wednesday. Boeing […] More

Iridium Communications will conduct compatibility tests on the first satellite engineering model for the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation following its delivery to the company’s technical support center. The company said Monday the model will be integrated into the Iridium Satellite Control System to demonstrate its features and check its compatibility with the constellation. “We are very excited about […] More

Iridium Communications has selected a Radisys telecommunication-grade appliance to manage ground system applications for Iridium’s NEXT satellite constellation. Radisys’ T-Series virtualized platform will work to help Iridium run multiple operational support apps on the satellite operator’s ground infrastructure, Radisys said Wednesday. The system is built with an advanced telecommunications computing architecture, silicon technology and open-source […] More

Iridium Communications has unveiled a global satellite-based Wi-Fi hotspot service to provide mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets with voice and data connectivity beyond the coverage of terrestrial networks. The company said Monday the Iridium GO! offering includes free applications for voice calls and texting and access to email, Web, weather and social media. Bryan Hartin, executive vice president for […] More