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Being an Iridium investor in the late 1990s was quite an experience. This was the dotcom boom, and Iridium looked like the next step in communications-- imagin
by MCRed 12y ago
Being an Iridium investor in the late 1990s was quite an experience. This was the dotcom boom, and Iridium looked like the next step in communications-- imagine being able to make a call or send data from anywhere in the world? Without the expense and cost of building out the cell network!
Shares in the company built in value with each launch as each launch put another major chunk of infrastructure in orbit.
This was totally different than those dotcom trifles like "Flooz" who you knew would just never amount to anything.
I still have my Iridium share certificate.
Alas, there was a bankruptcy, common holders were wiped out, and while it wasn't the total scam that GlobalStar and Global Crossing (The latter I consider to be a deliberate fraud much worse than Enron) it sure felt kinda shady.
I can say we're not in a stock bubble now in part because things like this are not going on the way they were.
Iridium was an expensive lesson for me. If only I'd put that money into Apple-- and the kicker-- I thought about it seriously.
That said, over the years, I've made a lot more from stock picking than I ever have from any index fund. It's not as hard as people make out, or as impossible... but you do learn lessons. And iridium was a lesson.
On some level, I'm glad it's still operational, though I think it's sad that so many years have passed and the network hasn't advanced significantly enough to give terrestrial carriers a run for their money.
- nebula 12y agoWhat was the reason for bankruptcy? was it because it was not able to compete with Cellular operators?
- Animats 12y agoVery high airtime costs. The system has great coverage, but low bandwidth. Also, the handset has to be able to see the sky. When Iridium was planned, it was expected that most mobile units would be vehicle-mounted, not handsets.
- riffraff 12y agoIIRC the antenna was also _huge_ making it completely unpractical for handsets.
- upofadown 12y agoNot that big. The small antenna was a primary feature of the system. They even make candy bar style phones with built in antennas. https://www.iridium.com/ProductList.aspx?productCategoryID=1 https://www.iridium.com/ProductList.aspx?productCategoryID=1
- apercu 12y agoMotorola expected to sell a lot more hardware (read phones) and when there wasn't demand they cut bait.
- andymoe 12y agoI was pretty excited about this when they were putting them up but of course I was just a kid so I didn't lose any money investing in them. :-) I am excited to see that the Iridium NEXT [1] constellation is on the SpaceX launch manifests [2] not too far down the list. There are seven iridium flights in line. Hopefully this time they can find a bigger market and drive down costs. [1] https://www.iridium.com/About/IridiumNEXT.aspx https://www.iridium.com/About/IridiumNEXT.aspx [2] http://www.spacex.com/missions http://www.spacex.com/missions
- diek 12y agoWhat's also exciting about Iridium NEXT is they will have a hosted payload that will do global tracking of aircraft. Right now organizations like the FAA and NAV CANADA are very dependent on ground stations to track planes. Satellite tracking would be a big step forward: http://www.aireon.com/AboutAireon/AnIridiumInnovation http://www.aireon.com/AboutAireon/AnIridiumInnovation
- MrBuddyCasino 12y agoYeah, nearly missed that. Heres the quote: "In June 2010, Iridium signed the largest commercial rocket launch deal ever, a US$492 million contract with SpaceX to launch tens of Iridium NEXT satellites on multiple Falcon 9 launchers in 2015–2017 from Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 3.[15]"
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- javert 12y ago> It's not as hard as people make out, or as impossible... but you do learn lessons. And iridium was a lesson. What was the lesson you learned from Iridium? I am presuming you have something fairly broad, like "don't invest in companies with X type of business plan." As opposed to something narrow, like "Don't invest in Iridium."
- kijiki 12y agoAt least you didn't invest in Teledesic...