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Satellite Firms Return After Failure to Launch
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Iridium came out of bankruptcy with one customer: the U.S. government. Now it is planning to replace a constellation of 66 satellites at a cost of $2.7 billion to service its growing base of customers.
Over the past year, Intelsat, one of the world's largest satellite companies, with major operations in the District, launched three satellites to build its mobile video and global communications services. Sports events have largely driven demand; the company will carry the Olympics from Beijing for networks in Europe and Latin America, and it also carries the World Cup and Euro soccer games.
"If you're sitting in Eastern Europe and you're watching the NBA Finals, you're watching it because Intelsat beamed it there," said Dianne VanBever, head of corporate communications for Intelsat.
Mobile network operators in Africa have used Intelsat to expand coverage to remote areas. About 15 percent of cellphone calls made in Africa go through Intelsat.
Last year, the company sold the majority of its shares to London-based BC Partners, one of Europe's largest private-equity firms, in a deal worth about $16.4 billion.
Other, newer players are getting involved. ICO Global Communications of Reston launched its first satellite in April and will soon begin a trial run for a service of about a dozen TV channels for mobile devices and TV screens in cars. ICO wants to equip cars with a modem in the trunk and a specialized antenna on the hood for the service.
The company has to get through the first trials starting next year in Las Vegas and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. ICO has content deals with NBC Universal and Discovery Communications.
"Look how XM and Sirius changed the way people view radio, particularly in cars," said chief executive Tim Bryan. "We want to do that for mobile TV."
It has been an expensive proposition, though: building and launching the satellite cost ICO more than $500 million. (The insurance for the launch alone cost $40 million.)
Another Reston company, TerreStar Networks, plans to launch its first satellite next year and then hopes to provide communications services wholesale to other big telecom companies. For example, a wireless carrier could potentially use TerreStar to provide coverage in mountainous regions or other areas where it's too expensive to build cellular towers.
