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 VIP Interview
Gregory C. Ewert
Executive Vice President Sales, Marketing and Business Development, Iridium Satellite LLC
FLUG REVUE: Mr Ewert, over the last few weeks more press releases have been issued about the activities of your mobile Satellite Communication network than in previous years combined. Is it just that you have a new PR agency, or have you actually opened up new business fields?
Gregory C. Ewert: In actual fact we have launched new business initiatives in aviation, civil and military shipping and in military, land-based applications, for which our offerings for the use of handsets are tailor-made. Accordingly we have stepped up our presence in the international markets and we are presenting our solutions directly to the potential users, including recently in Europe and Asia as well.
FR: Your space-based system is actually several years old and the satellites have already been orbiting for some years. How do you plan to implement the new applications with this technology?
Gregory C. Ewert: Well, we have moved a long way away from the traditional approach just providing a voice service. The customer should know that we do not just offer global satellite telephony but increasingly facilities for data transmission. To this end, amongst other things, we have developed a low-cost, mobile transceiver which, when combined with the traditional GPS applications, opens up new possibilities for global, military communications. Here we are thinking, for example, of real-time situation analysis, and in this area we have succeeded in growing at an average annual rate of 50%. In civil aviation we launched a new initiative this spring – Iridium NEXT – which is our program to build our next generation satellite constellation. At the same time we are constantly looking for new technology with whose aid we can widen our range of offerings still further, for example, the possibility of data transmission using laser beams, more powerful energy sources or antennae. But at the moment we are still able to implement all our products using our existing satellite network.
FR: For how long will your “old” satellites continue to satisfy the requirements?
Gregory C. Ewert: Actually, one should only use the attribute “old” in quotation marks, as it is not the same thing as “outdated”. Continuously keeping our powerful satellites in line with the latest technology is primarily a question of regular software updates, and in this area we have experience that is unique throughout the satellite industry.
FR: So you can update your space vehicles from the ground to reflect the latest advances at any time?
Gregory C. Ewert: Yes, we can – unlike most suppliers of communications services whose big satellites in geostationary or low earth orbit may be brimming with the latest technology but their software packages for data transmission are reliant on ground stations. This means that once the satellite is launched, no further changes or enhancements are possible, all technological capacity is exhausted. Meanwhile we are able, for example, to reprogramme our satellites for the broadband applications which have of late become more and more in demand and thus to update them to the latest technology.
FR: When cellular network technology first caught on world-wide in a big way, there were still plans for several globe-spanning satellite constellations, but Iridium is the only one to have survived. How do you assess the present market situation in this area?
Gregory C. Ewert: Originally there were five or six such business ideas aimed at enabling anyone anywhere to make phone calls, but they were all steamrolled by technical developments. The original Iridium company was also forced into liquidation several years ago because it had only offered this traditional product. But after launching our company seven years ago – Iridium Satellite LLC - we have succeeded in reviving Iridium service with new offerings because we were not prepared to scrap a network of over 66 ultra-modern satellites. As a result, today we are actually the only supplier of such services world-wide, and we do not expect any competition in the foreseeable future.
FR: But is it not conceivable that other companies might want to get a slice of this substantial cake for themselves?
Gregory C. Ewert: They would find that difficult. A new competitor would first of all have to get its own satellites into space, apply for licences for new frequencies and win a customer base, and a simple cost-benefit calculation shows that one would be mad to still want to enter this business today.
FR: For how long will the present satellite constellation continue to be able to work satisfactorily?
Gregory C. Ewert: We currently have 66 fully functional space vehicles, plus nine spare satellites which can cover any failures. Reliability is currently 99.999 percent, which is more than reassuring. Nevertheless, we do of course have to think of the future and we are already thinking about how our next generation of satellites should be equipped. We are conducting our first exploratory discussions with industry over the next year with a view to developing an optimal payload configuration. We also have to consider launch capacity and launch windows, and in this connection we are actually already looking ahead to the period 2040 to 2050.
Matthias Gründer was asking the questions
From page 23 of FLUG REVUE 9/2007
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