In Asia, Iridium's services aren't licensed in Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines or Vietnam, according to the company's Web site. But getting this far was no mean achievement. Iridium's network required the launching of 66 satellites and the development of 15 ground stations. Now that the service is up and running, Staiano is looking to grab customers fast. A third global service, by ICO, is due to launch in August next year.
Competition also comes from cellular-phone systems with increasingly powerful roaming capabilities.
Iridium has already warned that it may not meet customer and revenue targets for the first quarter. Asia's stake in this investment is significant. Asian companies own half of ICO, for example, with VSNL, an Indian telecoms company, among the major shareholders. Aces, whose biggest shareholder is America's Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, includes major Indonesian, Thai and Philippine interests. They want to protect their market.