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points by hbarka 1 day ago | 0 comments

Globalstar is a study in corporate survival. It lives on while its 90’s cohort Iridium didn’t make it.

Consider the journey:

2002: Bankruptcy.

2007: Satellite amplifier failures threatened its voice service.

2010–2013: A replacement constellation helped restore capacity.

2022: Apple's iPhone Emergency SOS gave Globalstar a major new purpose.

2024: Apple committed approximately $1.5 billion in investment and infrastructure funding.

Now: This acquisition by Amazon would bring Globalstar's satellite assets and spectrum into Amazon's competition with Starlink, while preserving satellite services for Apple devices.

Iridium has a museum: iridium museum.com

[–] diek 1 day ago

Iridium exists today, refreshed their constellation with Iridium NEXT just a few years ago, and was just bought by Rocket Lab for $8 billion.

(disclaimer: my Dad worked there for years)

[–] gumby 1 day ago

Fun Iridium trivia: it was originally designed to need 77 satellites, hence the name. By the time they deployed they’d figured out they’d only need 66, but for some reason didn’t change their name to Dysprosium.

[–] Slartie 1 day ago

This kind of trivia can be discovered in the very interesting and entertaining book "Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story" by John Bloom. Highly recommended read (if you're generally into tech/business/startup chronicles)!

And while you're at it, read "Chip Wars" by Christopher R. Miller as well. Extremely good read to understand tomorrows' most relevant geopolitical conflict.

[–] idoescompooters 4 hours ago

There's another good Iridium book called "Creating Iridium" by Hillis.

[–] asa123 1 day ago

the person you are responding to seems to have massively massively downplayed iridium then….

[–] ganoushoreilly 1 day ago

Surprisingly they're profitable, but still saddled with a lot of debt. I know to people over at Iridium that have stayed through the past 15 years or so. They have a niche they're serving that seems stable for now.

I half expect Amazon to keep making acquisitions to try and accelerate their satellite efforts. I don't think it's a net negative thing, there's so much more we can do.

[–] monster_truck 1 day ago

There are countless niches like this in telematics, one of the only industries I've encountered where a seemingly established company will be doing a "Series K" round, typically as a means to buy or build out the infrastructure they need for whatever customer.

[–] jandrese 1 day ago

I am surprised that Starlink didn't eat their lunch. I think the only thing keeping them alive is inertia and the fact that Starlink still has regional lockouts and doesn't work in the most remote parts of the world.

[–] apendleton 1 day ago

Garden variety Starlink requires a big, expensive, high-powered phased-array antenna, and there are lots of low-power/IoT-type applications served by Iridium for which Starlink is not suitable. Once the Starlink direct-to-cell technology matures, presumably that'll serve those usecases, but it still seems pretty nascent.

[–] labcomputer 1 day ago

Iridium still has a monopoly on high latitudes, too, AFAIK. Their USP is being the only network that works literally anywhere on the surface of the earth.

[–] spikels 1 day ago

Starlink works at high attitudes. It was a big deal when they got it at McMurdo 4 years ago. Same in Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) Alaska.

[–] yesod 1 day ago

Under SOLAS, GMDSS equipment is mandatory on ships. Iridium (and Inmarsat) meet that requirement, starlink does not - hence Iridium is still very much around...

[–] paimapi 1 day ago

And they have: https://www.wsj.com/business/telecom/rocket-lab-buys-satelli...

[–] peplee 1 day ago

I can highly recommend the book "Eccentric Orbits" by John Bloom if you want to learn about the Iridium constellation story. Easily one of the best books I've read in the last few years. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26893707-eccentric-orbit...

[–] MarsZebra 1 day ago

Great book, one thing it missed is how these satellite constellations are also funded by the government for their dual use potential in Strategic Defense Initiative development (now officially called Golden Dome)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Dome_(missile_defense_s...

[–] giancarlostoro 1 day ago

> 2022: Apple's iPhone Emergency SOS gave Globalstar a major new purpose.

I wondered who it was that Apple was using for that but never looked into it. Was it for any particular reason on Apple's part other than it probably saved them a bundle compared to going with literally anyone else? Or is there something else I'm missing? Just curious. I wish I could be a fly on the wall for some of these corporate events nobody thinks too much about.

[–] egl2020 1 day ago

I'm not a radio guy, but I've read that the in-phone modems and antennas for Globalstar were much closer to existing designs. The spectrum is apparently right next to WiFi and Bluetooth bands.

[–] kotaKat 1 day ago

Globalstar's technology over everyone else. They've just been crude bent pipes up in the sky. They still are. C-3 is just a bunch of new radio repeaters.

Globalstar's original network was just CDMA over the bent pipe satellite link, their second-gen Duplex network (sold as Sat-Fi 2) was an attempt to go WCDMA, then Apple dangled a lot of cash at them to build out and drop the entire Sat-Fi 2 product, the entire WCDMA core, and go roll Apple's new toys out for them. I'm assuming C3 is going to be heavily LTE-based if it isn't already at this point.

(I had a Sat-Fi 2 device and it was an interesting and short-lived experience. I was also there for the weird interim 201x satellite failure era - I remember having to pull up the Optimal Satellite Availability Tool to go see exactly how many long ~2-10 minute windows I could make phone calls in with a GSP-1600.)

((Double-fun-fact: The GSP-1600 is still actively used on Globalstar today, and it's one of the only tri-mode phones that existed of the era. It was satellite via GSTAR, then had CDMA for local calling and AMPS for the sticks. I had my GSP-1600 activated on a Verizon MVNO for local calls, which was a blast to use.))

[–] jandrewrogers 1 day ago

The Iridium constellation(s) are very much in active use. They transitioned their business model from pure communications to RF remote sensing. They are among the leaders in some markets for RF remote sensing platforms. AFAIK the businesses in these markets do not use the Iridium name, which makes sense given it is a historical telecom brand.

[–] bragr 1 day ago

The NEXT satellites also do space based ADS-B and AIS tracking. They packed an impressive variety of side businesses into the current satellites.

[–] jareklupinski 1 day ago

walmart has a museum too

https://www.visitbentonville.com/blog/stories/post/the-new-w...

[–] PyWoody 1 day ago

This is giving me real Severance Perpetuity Wing vibes.

[–] SR2Z 1 day ago

That whole town (Bentonville) is essentially run by Walmart.

[–] pnt12 1 day ago

You're not lying.

"The wait is finally over—the Walmart Museum is back and better than ever!"

"This video series is intended to be updated as time goes on, so go ahead and come back on your next visit to experience more messages!"

[–] marcosdumay 1 day ago

"The floor also features the Hologram Theater, where Sam Walton himself shares his story"

I'm wondering if the show writers used it as a reference.

[–] kotaKat 1 day ago

Mr. Sam would be screaming at what future Mr. Holo-Sam is spewing out of his mouth if we pulled him out of the grave.

It feels a little off-putting to have the hologram alongside his (actual) F150 pickup (and the messaging behind his pickup). The hologram doesn't fit with "what [I'm] supposed to haul my dogs around in - a Rolls Royce?"

[–] mikestew 1 day ago

It lives on while its 90’s cohort Iridium didn’t make it.

Garmin inReach users will be disappointed to hear that: “inReach devices use the Iridium satellite constellation, which forms a mesh with 100% globe coverage.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garmin_inReach

[–] handedness 1 day ago

Iridium didn't make it? I use it all the time.

[–] itsamario 1 day ago

The biggest benefit Amazon has vs starlink is their hosting is considered the standard and because of that they already have a connection to every other network.

So any latency Sat incurs, Amazon will likely have the closest path to the destination and be the most preferred wisp

[–] redanddead 1 day ago

Very high value acquisition

How did they not become spacex/starlink

[–] nicce 1 day ago

> How did they not become spacex/starlink

You need to go big first with the rockets.

If you have the rockets, everything else is easy later on. Collect millions from others to launch the satellites in the meantime.

[–] cbm-vic-20 1 day ago

And if you don't have rockets, you use SpaceX, like GlobalStar does.

[–] joezydeco 1 day ago

Leo/Kuiper was launching satellites on SpaceX as well.

[–] malfist 1 day ago

Only after a shareholder lawsuit

[–] rtkwe 1 day ago

Before Falcon came in and drove down launch costs significantly putting lots of satellites in low orbit you need to replace constantly was a bad way to design a satellite network. It still has some issues like the continuous ongoing cost where the traditional providers' satellites would last for many years before needing to be replaced.

[–] apercu 1 day ago

I consulted for iridium for 8 years from like 2009-2018. They very much still exist?

[–] cubefox 1 day ago

> 2002: Bankruptcy.

Why wasn't this the end?

[–] handwoven 1 day ago

Bankruptcy doesn't mean that assets will be destroyed. Valuable assets (including satellites, brand etc.) will be sold off to new owners, and the proceeds go to the lenders.

[–] laughing_man 1 day ago

That's what happened in Iridium's case. They created a new company, which bought all the assets for $25 million and the original entity defaulted on $1.5 billion in debt. The new company now does business with the original name.

It's the same thing that happened with the GM's 2009 bankruptcy. Technically the original company was liquidated, but you'd never know as a customer.

A family member made a big short bet on Iridium after he decided they couldn't survive and made a lot of money.

[–] cubefox 21 hours ago

Surprising that there was no other company which would have paid more than $25 million for those assets.

[–] piker 1 day ago

Two types of bankruptcy in the U.S.: liquidation and reorganization. The latter lets a company reshuffle assets and debt and schedule new payment plans to continue to exist as a going concern. It often wipes out shareholders.

[–] insane_dreamer 1 day ago

in the US corporate bankruptcy allows the company to restructure its debts.

case in point: the three largest airlines in the US have declared bankruptcy at some point: United, Delta, American

[–] cubefox 1 day ago

https://www.iridiummuseum.com/

[–] pfdietz 1 day ago

I remember the Motorola Museum on the Schaumburg campus has an Iridium satellite hanging from the ceiling.

The entire museum was demolished a few years ago to make way for a Top Golf.

[–] martinky24 1 day ago

What? Doesn’t iridium exist?

[–] huhtenberg 1 day ago

It does. That is until its acquisition by Rocket Lab completes in 2027.

[–] walrus01 1 day ago

This is an incredibly inaccurate and uninformed description. Globalstar was a failure in the market because its satellite network is bent pipe and doesn't provide open ocean or polar or true global coverage. The second corporate incarnation of Iridium (that bought it out of the bankruptcy process) was wildly successful with maritime, aviation and DoD customers. Iridium had VASTLY more market share in portable LEO satellite terminal users and revenue at the time of this acquisition. Iridium grew its market to include embedded data modems like the Iridium SBD modems you find in Garmin Inreach and tons of other equipment.

The *ONLY VALUE* of Globalstar for an acquisition is its legacy spectrum allocation in a very valuable (sub 1.7 GHz, above 1.2 GHz) range. The technology was utter crap compared to Iridium and nobody who worked in two way satellite has taken it seriously since maybe 2002.