Motorola Readies Iridium System for Commercial Launch

Motorola has completed testing and system readiness of the Iridium System for commercial activation.

Iridium LLC has announced that voice quality and call completion rates have met its standards and that Iridium will begin commercial service on November 1, 1998.

``Motorola announced the Iridium System to the world in 1990. Today we are delivering on the promise of communicating with anyone, anytime, virtually anywhere on Earth from space,'' said Christopher Galvin, Motorola chief executive officer.

Motorola operates the global Iridium System network from the Satellite Network Operations Center (SNOC) located in Landsdowne, VA. From this new facility, 250 Motorola engineers and operators man the satellite flight control stations, making more than 700 contacts daily with the satellites in the constellation.

There are two backup control facilities: one in Rome, Italy; the other at the Motorola Satellite Communications Group headquarters in Chandler, AZ. The SATCOM facility served as the control center for the first three Iridium missions until the Satellite Network Operations Center became operational late last year.

``Motorola is controlling what we believe is the largest commercial satellite constellation,'' said Mark Borota, corporate vice president and general manager of the Mobile Satellite Systems Division that is responsible for the space and control segments of the Iridium program.

In related news, Iridium LCC pushed back its global paging service, scheduled to launch Sunday November 1, to November 15 due to concerns that the service was not functioning reliably. Iridium still vows to begin offering telephony worldwide on November 1, 1998.