Iridium subs up 14%
April 21, 2021
By Chris Forrester
Mobile satellite operator Iridium says it has grown its ‘billable’ subscriber base by 14 per cent to 1.518 million, saying that the jump was driven by growth in both commercial and government customers.
Iridium’s revenue growth during the first quarter-year of 2021 grew 1 per cent to $146.5 million made up of $116.2 million in service revenue (representing 79 per cent of total revenues) aand $30.3 million in equipment sales and engineering revenues.
“While total revenue increased, it’s hard to compare this quarter’s performance to the pre-pandemic period a year earlier,” Iridium CEO Matt Desch said. “Subscribers grew at a double-digit pace, led by ongoing demand for consumer-oriented IoT devices, and Iridium’s commercial IoT subscribers eclipsed one million users on our network this quarter. We feel very good about Iridium’s ability to accelerate service revenue growth over the balance of the year based upon the positive feedback and activity we are seeing with our business partners.”
Iridium ended the quarter with 1,518,000 total billable subscribers, which compares to 1,332,000 for the year-ago period and is up from 1,476,000 for the quarter ended December 31st 2020.
Iridium bought in 1.6 million shares of common stock during the quarter.
The Company’s commercial customer base is diverse and includes markets such as maritime, aviation, oil and gas, mining, recreation, forestry, construction, transportation and emergency services. These customers rely on Iridium’s products and services as critical to their daily operations and integral to their communications and business infrastructure.
Iridium reiterated its full-year 2021 outlook and other elements of long-term guidance.