Company: IRDM
Filing Date: 2025-02-13
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001628280-25-005302
Chunk: 72

Company: Iridium Communications Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-13
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 72
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 our ability to pursue our business plan.

In addition, one of our subsidiaries, Iridium Carrier Services LLC, holds a common carrier radio license and is thus subject to regulation as a common carrier, including limitations and prior approval requirements with respect to direct or indirect foreign ownership. A change in the manner in which we provide service, or a failure to comply with any common carrier regulations that apply to us or to pay required fees, could result in sanctions including fines, loss of authorizations, or the denial of applications for new authorizations or the renewal of existing authorizations.

Interference with our satellite spectrum, including by operators seeking to repurpose L-band for terrestrial services, could adversely impact our ability to provide our services.

Although we have globally coordinated rights to the use of our spectrum, spectrum interference may adversely affect the performance of our system for customers of our existing and future services. Sources of harmful interference could include unauthorized use of our spectrum, increased use of shared spectrum and certain usages in adjacent bands. In particular, the FCC granted a waiver in 2020 to Ligado Networks to operate a terrestrial nationwide network in the United States on MSS spectrum that includes a 10 MHz band close to the spectrum that we use for all of our services. Ligado’s implementation of ATC or direct-to-device services, whether on its own or by leasing its spectrum to a third party, may affect the performance of our system for customers of our existing and future services. We, along with a variety of other private parties and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on behalf of federal government users, filed petitions for reconsideration opposing this waiver out of concern for the interference that we believe Ligado’s proposed operations would cause. While the FCC’s decision to approve Ligado Network’s waiver included conditions designed to protect satellite services that use L-band 

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spectrum from harmful interference, these conditions may prove inadequate, resulting in harmful interference with our satellites and devices. These petitions remain pending. 

In October 2023, Ligado sued the U.S. government alleging that the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, and Congress unlawfully prevented Ligado from using its FCC authorized spectrum and seeking damages based on its inability to deploy ATC services in the spectrum. The litigation is ongoing. 

In January 2025, Ligado and its affiliates filed a petition for voluntary reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. As part of its reorganization, it intends to execute an agreement to lease and potentially transfer its satellites, ground assets