MCLEAN, Va. and LONDON,
Sept. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --
Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) and OneWeb today
announced they have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) to work together toward a combined service offering. This
combined service offering would be designed to make it easier for
their mutual partners to offer unique bundling and co-marketing
opportunities for the Iridium Certus® L-band services
and OneWeb's Ku-band service. The offering would leverage the
strengths of their respective low-Earth-orbit (LEO) networks.
This is the first time that LEO operators have collaborated to
deliver services in L-band and Ku-band.
The MoU also creates opportunities for companies that
manufacture both OneWeb and Iridium CertusTM terminals.
Such new options could include Iridium-OneWeb companion packages in
addition to providers being able to offer combined equipment or
even new dual-constellation terminals.
While both are LEO constellations, Iridium® and
OneWeb services have different capabilities on their respective
bands (L-band and Ku-band), which can create a complementary,
full-service option for applications such as heads of state comms,
critical tactical services, maritime, disaster response and
more.
"It's an exciting time for the industry, and we see great
potential for this offering," said Matt
Desch, CEO of Iridium. "Our services are unique and
complementary, and we know that customers are looking for the
capabilities of both our low-Earth-orbiting networks."
Adrian Steckel, CEO of OneWeb
said: "We believe our new offering can bring many benefits for our
distribution partners. By combining the strengths of our services,
we can ensure our partners are able to deliver the most innovative,
seamless services to their subscribers across many markets, and in
all the places that don't yet have access to the internet."
Due to the physics associated with L-band and Ku-band spectrum,
the two come with different yet complementary attributes. The
OneWeb network will deliver very high-speed broadband connectivity
that transfers large amounts of data. It is ideal for applications
including Inflight WiFi, Government, and Maritime networks that
require global reach, high speed and low latency. Iridium's
crosslinked satellite constellation brings seamless truly global
connectivity with highly weather resilient L-band user terminals,
making it uniquely suited to provide safety services for ships,
aircraft, vehicles and deployed personnel, and can be a
regulation-required capability. The combined power of these two
networks can work together to deliver capacity, resiliency, and
high-speed connectivity to customers anywhere in the
world.
With the first six satellites already launched, OneWeb's system
has already demonstrated broadband speeds of 400 Mbps and an
average latency of 32 milliseconds. OneWeb will begin monthly
launches of more than 30 satellites per month starting in December
enabling OneWeb to provide partial service in late 2020 and global
coverage in 2021. Iridium Certus® is Iridium's new
technology platform launched in January
2019, and offers the flexibility to scale device speeds,
sizes and power requirements both up and down based on the needs of
the end-user.
The announcement was first made at Iridium's 2019 partner
conference in Coronado,
California, attended annually by hundreds of Iridium partner
companies.
About Iridium Communications Inc.
Iridium® is the only mobile voice and data satellite
communications network that spans the entire globe. Iridium
enables connections between people, organizations and assets to and
from anywhere, in real time. Together with its ecosystem of
partner companies, Iridium delivers an innovative and rich
portfolio of reliable solutions for markets that require truly
global communications. The company has recently completed its
next-generation satellite network and launched its new specialty
broadband service, Iridium Certus®. Iridium
Communications Inc. is headquartered in McLean, Va., U.S.A.,
and its common stock trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market
under the ticker symbol IRDM. For more information about
Iridium products, services and partner solutions,
visit www.iridium.com.
About OneWeb
OneWeb's mission is to enable Internet access for everyone,
everywhere. OneWeb is building a communications network with a
constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites that will provide
connectivity to people around the world. OneWeb is creating
business solutions for Broadband, Government and Cellular Backhaul.
Its high-speed, low-latency, network will offer game-changing
Mobility solutions to industries that rely on global connectivity,
such as Aviation, Maritime, Automotive, Enterprise and more.
For more information about OneWeb, visit: www.oneweb.world
Forward Looking Statements
Statements in this press release that are not purely
historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as
defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Iridium has based these statements on its current expectations and
the information currently available to us. Forward-looking
statements in this press release include statements regarding the
timing of introduction, capabilities and benefits of products and
services enabled by the Iridium constellation, including the
capabilities and benefits of potential combined services from
Iridium and OneWeb. Forward-looking statements can be identified by
the words "anticipates," "may," "can," "believes," "expects,"
"projects," "intends," "likely," "will," "to be" and other
expressions that are predictions or indicate future events, trends
or prospects. These forward-looking statements involve known and
unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the
actual results, performance or achievements of Iridium to differ
materially from any future results, performance or achievements
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These
risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the
completion of a definitive agreement with OneWeb, uncertainties
regarding the development and functionality of Iridium services,
and Iridium's ability to maintain the health, capacity and content
of its satellite constellation, as well as general industry and
economic conditions, and competitive, legal, governmental and
technological factors. Other factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those indicated by the
forward-looking statements include those factors listed under the
caption "Risk Factors" in Iridium's Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2018, filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on February 28, 2019, as well as other filings
Iridium makes with the SEC from time to time. There is no assurance
that Iridium's expectations will be realized. If one or more of
these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if Iridium's
underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary
materially from those expected, estimated or projected. Iridium's
forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press
release, and Iridium undertakes no obligation to update
forward-looking statements.
Iridium Press
Contact:
|
OneWeb Press
Contact
|
Jordan
Hassin
|
Katie Dowd
|
Iridium
Communications Inc.
|
OneWeb
|
Jordan.Hassin@Iridium.com
|
KDowd@Oneweb.net
|
+1 (703)
287-7421
|
+1 (202)
415-4030
|
Twitter:
@Iridiumcomm
|
Twitter:
@OneWeb
|
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SOURCE Iridium Communications Inc.