Iridium Communications; The $5 billion Motorola project that failed

In the 1990s, Motorola launched an ambitious project called Iridium with an investment of about 5 billion dollars to make phone calls from anywhere on earth; A plan that was supposed to revolutionize global communications.

As part of this project, 66 satellites were launched in order to provide complete coverage of the planet. However, the device’s $3,000 price and per-minute call charges limited user acceptance. Simultaneously with the introduction of this service, cheap mobile phones with easier access entered the market and the demand for satellite communication decreased.

Finally, until 1999, only about 55 thousand users were attracted to this service; A figure much lower than the forecasts. Only 9 months after the official launch, Iridium declared bankruptcy and the system was sold for a pittance; The event, which analysts said showed that in the technology industry, “timing” is sometimes more important than advanced engineering.