Iridium Communications

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Iridium Communications (IRDM) - KPIs | Sterling

Iridium Commercial IoT Data Revenue (Quarterly)

Commercial IoT data revenue

Iridium Commercial Service ARPU (Quarterly)

Voice and data ($/mo)	IoT data ($/mo)	Broadband ($/mo)
Q1 2023	44	7.22	294
Q2 2023	46	7.48	296
Q3 2023	46	7.9	322
Q4 2023	45	7.12	294
Q1 2024	45	7.57	274
Q2 2024	46	7.7	269
Q3 2024	46	7.79	309
Q4 2024	45	7.29	268
Q1 2025	45	7.75	261
Q2 2025	46	7.83	260
Q3 2025	48	7.95	265
Q4 2025	49	7.7	250
Q1 2026	48	7.63	254
Q2 2026	49	7.64	243

Iridium Engineering and Support Revenue Mix (Quarterly)

Iridium Hosted Payload and Other Data Revenue (Quarterly)

Hosted payload and other data

Iridium NEXT Constellation Snapshot

Figure
Operational satellites	66
Orbital planes	6
Satellites per plane	11
Orbit altitude (km)	778
Ground spares launched Q2 2023	5
Remaining ground spare written off	1
Hosted-payload useful life (years)	17.5

Iridium Billable Subscribers by Category (Quarterly)

Revenue by Product/Service

Employee Count

Employees

Defense Milestones

Sep 1991

Milestone

Iridium LLC formed as Motorola spinoff Sep 1991 to commercialize 66-satellite LEO constellation concept patented by Motorola engineers Bary Bertiger, Raymond Leopold, Ken Peterson 1987.

Nov 1998

Launch

Iridium service launches Nov 1 1998 with 66-satellite + 6-spare constellation; consumer-grade voice/data over LEO global coverage: engineering triumph but $5B+ business cost.

Aug 1999

Paused

Files Chapter 11 bankruptcy Aug 13 1999 after only ~50K subscribers vs 500K business plan target; one of largest tech bankruptcies of dotcom era.

Mar 2001

Milestone

Iridium Satellite LLC reactivates service Mar 2001 after acquiring constellation for $25M from bankruptcy estate; pivots to DoD/maritime/aviation niche customers.

Sep 2009

Commercial

DoD Iridium Gateway services contract; Pentagon adopts as backup global comms: most reliable ssatcom for assured access in austere/contested environments.

Apr 2017

Launch

First Iridium NEXT block launched on SpaceX Falcon 9; replaces 1990s constellation

Jan 2019

Milestone

Iridium NEXT constellation completion: 75 satellites operational across 6 orbital planes

Sep 2019

Commercial

Wins Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services (EMSS) Gateway $738M 7-year DoD contract

Jun 2023

Expansion

Satelles Inc. acquired (now Iridium STL Service); secure GPS-resilient PNT for DoD

Aug 2024

Commercial

DoD contract extended through 2026 + IIoT growth; classified hosted payload contracts grow

Sep 2025

Milestone

STL operational across DoD: alternate-PNT signal to backstop GPS in jammed/spoofed environments

Apr 2026

Launch

Iridium NEXT-2 next-generation satellite contract awarded; targets 2030 launches with hosted-payload SATCOM resilience for DoD.