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Because it is a private company, Iridium Satellite LLC does not have to publicly announce its subscriber figures. But the success of companies that rely on Iridium technology as part of their business can provide a barometer for Iridium itself.

Eagle Broadband Inc., which uses the Iridium satellite constellation as the basis for some of its communications offerings, announced June 15 the first significant commercial contract for its Satellite Media Access Extender (SatMAX) product. Transportation company Norfolk Southern Corp., which uses Iridium in a variety of applications, will use SatMAX to improve communications at its headquarters.

The communications system provides non-line-of-sight voice and data connectivity using an antenna connected to a repeater network that can be deployed in buildings, on aircraft and other vehicles, or from other remote obstructed locations, enabling an Iridium user to maintain connectivity in virtually any location.

Up to now, military and government users were the primary focus for Eagle. But the service is starting to gain traction outside of the government, as evidenced by Eagle’s contract with Norfolk Southern, a transportation company that has a subsidiary that operates approximately 21,300 miles of railway in 22 states, the District of Columbia and Ontario, Eagle Broadband Vice President of Marketing Randy Shapiro told Satellite News.

“Norfolk has been using Iridium in a variety of application areas for both remote locations out on the railways as well as for emergency back-up,” Shapiro said. “The application we are working on with them is to get coverage in key areas in some of there headquarter facilities.”

A Growing Commercial Market

While Norfolk Southern is the first major commercial contract for Eagle Broadband, Shapiro believes it will not be the last, primarily because Iridium use by the commercial sector is growing.

“We have been doing some work with other corporations and commercial customers, but this is the first one we have announced and we do view this as a significant order for us for two reasons,” Shapiro said. “First, it demonstrates the applicability of SatMAX and the use of Iridium voice and data satellite communications for both everyday use as well as backup emergency use for commercial customers. Additionally, I think it also demonstrates that Iridium is being more widely used beyond just mission critical applications or defense- or military-type applications. Commercial customers are seeing value and benefits in deploying this technology.”

In particular, Shapiro pointed to the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001, as a key driver for Iridium and the growing commercial market for SatMAX.

“There is a lot of emphasis being placed both in government/military and commercial markets by customers wanting to ensure they have reliable communications if they lose their primary communications,” Shapiro said. “It is part of their emergency planning. But they also want to be able to maintain uninterrupted coverage for more everyday applications as well. I think it is very encouraging to us that the Iridium is being used on broader scale.”

Shapiro declined to give any specific details on how big the addressable commercial market is for SatMAX, but said Eagle Broadband is seeing interest in the system from Fortune 1,000.

Moving Beyond Iridium

While the focus of SatMAX right now is Iridium, Shapiro noted it is not limited to a single satellite constellation.

“There is no reason that the technology couldn’t work with other satellite providers,” Shapiro said. “We have done some exploration in those areas. Clearly, it is a technology that is applicable across a number of networks. There is nothing unique or proprietary from a development standpoint” that would hinder SatMAX from being used by other satellite operators to augment their networks.

–Gregory Twachtman (Randy Shapiro, Eagle Broadband, 281/538-6000)

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