Iridium Satellite announces that it has 175,000 subscribers worldwide as of December 31, 2006. The new figure represents a 23.2 percent increase over last year’s subscriber total of 142,000. Revenue for the full year 2006 was $212.4 million and EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) was $53.9m. Fourth quarter 2006 revenue was $53.2m and EBITDA was $14m.
The company will announce plans for its new satellite constellation initiative, called Iridium NEXT, at the SATELLITE 2007 Conference, February 19-22, in Washington, D.C. Already under development, Iridium NEXT will provide increased bandwidth, support powerful new devices, and enable new services for commercial and government users.
In contrast to the system performance recently announced by other mobile satellite services providers, Iridium continues to operate the strongest, most robust low-earth orbiting (LEO) network in the world well into the future. Iridium’s meshed network design fosters unmatched coverage and performance, and delivers high quality, mission critical service to its subscribers worldwide.