I thought iridium service was dead....

[charrison]

Iridium sets up shop in Iraq.

Iridium Satellite said on Monday it has been granted the right to sell its services in Iraq, where conventional telephone services have been severely damaged as a result of the war.
The satellite phone company already has a significant presence in Iraq as a result of a deal with the U.S. Department of Defense initiated in 2000. Under that deal, renewed in December, the U.S. military pays $36 million a year for unlimited access to Iridium's network, which allows voice or data transmissions from almost anywhere in the world.

Satellite phones are seeing increasing government and commercial usage in areas where no conventional telecommunications infrastructure is available, partly due to drastic price cuts by operators. Iridium and competitors such as Globalstar target the government, forestry, maritime, oil and mining industries.

They now have access to cell phones and sat phones...

 

[BarneyFife]

Yea but who can afford their ridiculous rates. $1 a minute? Sheesh. Only Osama can afford that.

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: BarneyFife
Yea but who can afford their ridiculous rates. $1 a minute? Sheesh. Only Osama can afford that.

It is expensive, but probably worth it for the time being.

 

[mrbentley]

Mich. co. offers telecom services in Iraq (VoEx Inc}

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Few entities are quite as adept at subsidizing uneconomical enterprises as the US government . . . particularly DOD.

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc
Few entities are quite as adept at subsidizing uneconomical enterprises as the US government . . . particularly DOD.

Yes, I thought iridium was dead, so this news item was quite a shock.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

I vaguely remember a discussion about this contract in 2001 at ATOT.

 

[gsaldivar]

Iridium as it exists today, is not the same Motorola-backed venture that it started out as. The company was acquired in bankruptcy court several years ago, and allowed to retain its name under new ownership. Among other things, Iridium provided the US government with a secure global communications network, and I believe it has continued to provide this service. Because the new company is no longer forced to break-even on the immense cost of launching a network of satellites, it can now offer service to the public at a far lower cost than before. (Airtime on Iridium used to be around $7-10 per minute if I remember correctly...)

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc
Few entities are quite as adept at subsidizing uneconomical enterprises as the US government . . . particularly DOD.

Because God forbid we should conduct military operations with national security in mind -- it needs to be economical defense!

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

NMD will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to develop and deploy and tens of billions annually to maintain . . . to defend against NK . . . a country that's a couple of rice shipments away from unprecedented famine. Despite the catastrophic loss of life and property potentially resulting from a nuke strike . . . you have to consider the extremely low odds of such an occurence before deciding it makes sense to build such a system. This administration shows no such cost-benefit analysis . . . just a mentality to build whatever gives Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz wood.

$36 million per year isn't much by DOD standards but it would be enough (assuming its a supplement to current expenditures) to provide exemplary medical care at several major US bases. It would provide 10K enlisted men with $3600 extra a year in salary. OR it can be used for a superfluous phone.

 

[Warin]

What is to say this system is superflous?

It is secure, and worldwide. And you can bet that the DOD would have launched their own constellation of satellites at a cost far greater than 36m a year, in order to have this service available.

I would think that secure sattelite communications is well worth the money paid for the system. And considering the cost the company went to to bail out Iridium, I dont think it's terrible that they are making money from their prime customer

 

[mrbentley]

Mobile phone battle breaks out in Iraq

 

[AndrewR]

$36 million per year isn't much by DOD standards but it would be enough (assuming its a supplement to current expenditures) to provide exemplary medical care at several major US bases. It would provide 10K enlisted men with $3600 extra a year in salary. OR it can be used for a superfluous phone.

Care to enlighten us on how exactly the US military makes use of Iridium phones? Obviously, you are fully aware of their use since you can term them "superfluous" at the drop of a hat.

How about this: We could drop one C-130J, at a cost of $115 million or so, and pay for a whole crapload of things. What about an F-22? Maybe one Arleigh Burke destroyer? I got it: an F-18E Super Hornet. It's called budgeting prioritization, and it's done by people with a much larger view of the needs of the military than yourself.

 

[Miramonti]

Great idea to setup Iraqi cell phone service, allowing the US to easedrop on their conversations.

Until they realize thats why it was setup, that is.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Yeah I know . . . they are called Boeing, Raytheon, Martin-Marietta . . . all of them have the best interests of American GIs at heart.

DOD (outside of Rummy) is run by a bunch of wanks with less military experience than Bush . . . and we all know that's a difficult bar to get under.

We do not pay the military better or provide more generous benefits b/c we can get away with it. Like many other professions (ie education, law enforcement, public safety) the government at all levels knows it can stick it to these people b/c they live to serve their fellow man instead of themselves.

Ronald Reagan wanted SDI . . . to defend us from the USSR. If deployed (despite the fact it wouldn't have worked then or now) we wouldn't talk about the glory days of almost Clinton surpluses . . . we would talk about our $500B annual debt interest payments and how it strangled the economy through the 90s and threatens the nation's future.

You are right about one thing . . . I am making a value judgment. The people that give their lives in the defense of our country deserve more consideration than DOD nocturnal emissions. Access to Bulgarian prostitutes may be a good reason to waste millions of dollars to bitch slap Germany for the typical 18yo grunt but IMHO American GIs deserve better than the BS procurement brigade and Neocon fantasies.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc
Yeah I know . . . they are called Boeing, Raytheon, Martin-Marietta . . . all of them have the best interests of American GIs at heart.

DOD (outside of Rummy) is run by a bunch of wanks with less military experience than Bush . . . and we all know that's a difficult bar to get under.

We do not pay the military better or provide more generous benefits b/c we can get away with it. Like many other professions (ie education, law enforcement, public safety) the government at all levels knows it can stick it to these people b/c they live to serve their fellow man instead of themselves.

Ronald Reagan wanted SDI . . . to defend us from the USSR. If deployed (despite the fact it wouldn't have worked then or now) we wouldn't talk about the glory days of almost Clinton surpluses . . . we would talk about our $500B annual debt interest payments and how it strangled the economy through the 90s and threatens the nation's future.

You are right about one thing . . . I am making a value judgment. The people that give their lives in the defense of our country deserve more consideration than DOD nocturnal emissions. Access to Bulgarian prostitutes may be a good reason to waste millions of dollars to bitch slap Germany for the typical 18yo grunt but IMHO American GIs deserve better than the BS procurement brigade and Neocon fantasies.

Simply because procurement happens to pad the bottomline of a defense contractor doesn't make that procurement unnecessary. Everyone that I have talked to in the tanker community thinks the KC-767 acquisition is much needed, but the anti-Bush crowd has latched onto that as an example of Secretary Rumsfeld's "arrogance".

As for the realignment in Europe, I am on the fence about it. However, it is undeniable that Europe isn't exactly a hotbed of instability these days, and the presence of 100,000 US troops isn't entirely necessary anymore. How and where to move them is still questionable to me, but the fact that they should be moved, to an extent, isn't. There are plenty of motives, problems, and considerations with that realignment that no one can boil it down to "bitch slap[ping]" Germany. I do actually favor the Congressional proposal to conduct a detailed study of realignment options rather than going full tilt into a plan without really knowing what could possibly occur.

 

[Alistar7]

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc
Yeah I know . . . they are called Boeing, Raytheon, Martin-Marietta . . . all of them have the best interests of American GIs at heart.

DOD (outside of Rummy) is run by a bunch of wanks with less military experience than Bush . . . and we all know that's a difficult bar to get under.

We do not pay the military better or provide more generous benefits b/c we can get away with it. Like many other professions (ie education, law enforcement, public safety) the government at all levels knows it can stick it to these people b/c they live to serve their fellow man instead of themselves


Ronald Reagan wanted SDI . . . to defend us from the USSR. If deployed (despite the fact it wouldn't have worked then or now) we wouldn't talk about the glory days of almost Clinton surpluses . . . we would talk about our $500B annual debt interest payments and how it strangled the economy through the 90s and threatens the nation's future.

You are right about one thing . . . I am making a value judgment. The people that give their lives in the defense of our country deserve more consideration than DOD nocturnal emissions. Access to Bulgarian prostitutes may be a good reason to waste millions of dollars to bitch slap Germany for the typical 18yo grunt but IMHO American GIs deserve better than the BS procurement brigade and Neocon fantasies.

Those who serve get more than just a paycheck, they get a lifetime of medical care, tuition money, plus a ton of other bennies the non serving citizen does not...