Iridium admits technical faults caused delay

NEWS Iridium - a $5bn global satellite telecoms provider - is to delay the launch of its service until 1 November, due to technical failures in handsets and its satellite network. The launch date was previously set for 23 September, but now only a limited beta service will be launched to 5,000 subscribers to try to iron out quality of service issues. Iridium will not be charging these subscribers until the November launch. The delay was announced by Iridium CEO Ed Staiano, who was keen to see the delay as a "cautious but controlled roll out". "We'll use the time between now and the full commercial launch of the service to learn from a controlled subscriber base," he said. "We have been pleased with the voice quality and are working to improve the operational stability of the network." As well as software problems with the handsets, the consortium has also suffered satellite hardware problems. The satellite network provided by the largest shareholder, Motorola, has suffered at least five breakdowns in the last three months, compromising the coverage of two orbital planes. Each of these satellites are being replaced - with the last not now due to be completed until November. However, Motorola claims there should still be enough operational satellites in the network to run the full service.