Iridium also has geared up its own humanitarian effort. It has sent three people with 12 phones to refugee camps in Macedonia, where they've let refugees make free calls. Some refugees have waited in line 10 hours. Those scenes have given Iridium much of its television exposure. This week, Iridium is sending 50 more phones to refugee sites.
Iridium desperately needs a profile boost.
The service was supposed to launch last fall, then was delayed, throwing off advertising and media plans and confusing the market, analysts say. Iridium's goal has been to break even on cash flow by year's end. To do that, it needs 500,000 subscribers. It now has just 3,000. Whether that's enough or not, we'll see.