Cyprus-based Columbia Shipman-agement is fitting more than 100 ships with Iridium satellite terminals in a move to comply with SSAS carriage requirements and to reduce ship communication costs. The decision to make the switch to Iridium on a fleet-wide basis was taken after a six-month sea trial. Such customer commitments are a welcome sign at Iridium as it tries to become consistently profitable by continuing to use its existing in-orbit constellation to keep capital expenditures low. The MVS Group is supplying the Iridium and SSAS service along with Iridium equipment manufactured by Sky Connect. .

(Liz DeCastro, Iridium Satellite LLC, 301/571-6257)