| June
7 2001
LEESBURG, Va. — Internet service to even the most remote spots on Earth was rolled out Tuesday by the new owners of the Iridium satellite network that was nearly sent plunging to a fiery end by financial problems last year. "For the first time, the Internet can be accessed from every part of the globe, including the oceans, the polar regions and the mountaintops," said Gino Picasso, chief executive of Iridium Satellite. But the service faces competition from established players like Comsat, now part of Lockheed Martin and Inmarsat, with two decades of marine communications experience and branching out into remote land applications. Iridium's best service will access the Internet at a pedestrian 10 kilobytes per second. Most home computer telephone modems connect five times faster. Still, Iridium believes it can provide valuable e-mail and data services to areas where the competition would be "carrier pigeons or sending a letter," Iridium's chief technology officer Mark Adams said. "We're not trying to compete with existing telephone infrastructure," said Adams, during demonstrations of the service at the company's headquarters in Leesburg, Va. Iridium uses a constellation of 66 low-earth orbiting satellites operated by Boeing to deliver communications services anywhere on the globe. The network was sold last December by its old owners, led by electronics giant Motorola, after high connection prices and cumbersome phones helped dampen customer interest and sent the high-cost venture into bankruptcy. Under its new ownership, Iridium already has a contract to provide secure data services to the U.S. military. Now Iridium is pitching its services to airlines, shipping lines, mines, forestry operations, oil and gas operations and other remote operations. Leslie Taylor, a Bethesda, Md.-based satellite consultant, said Iridium's advantage was its broad coverage while its rivals often targeted coverage at areas of high traffic or population. "They're well positioned to cash in on currently unmet needs to aviation, secure military communications and service to remote areas, at least," Taylor said.
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