Photo: Iridium

Iridium increased revenue by 22% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same time last year, with increased revenue from commercial services, equipment, and engineering and support. Total revenue in the first quarter was $205.3 million, according to Iridium’s first quarter 2023 results released April 20. 

Iridium ended the quarter with 2,051,000 total billable subscribers, growing subscribers by 5,2000 during the quarter. This total is up 15% from a year ago.

It was a strong start to 2023 after Iridium posted another year of record revenue in 2022, growing revenue 17% over 2021. 

Net income was $9.8 million, compared to net income of $2.8 million for the first quarter of 2022. 

Commercial remains the largest part of Iridium’s business, and commercial service revenue was $112.8 million, up 13% from last year’s comparable period, with growth across all revenue lines including voice and data, IoT data, and broadband. Voice and data and broadband both saw revenue growth of 17% compared to the same time last year. 

IoT is another driver within commercial, and IoT revenue was up 12% in the first quarter compared to the same time last year. IoT subscribers grew 21% from the year-ago period to 1,501,000, which Iridium said was driven by consumer personal communications devices. 

Commercial IoT data subscribers now represent 79% of Iridium’s billable commercial subscribers, up from 76% in the year ago period, Iridium CFO Thomas Fitzpatrick said on the company’s investor call. 

Equipment revenue was $41.7 million in the first quarter, up 24% compared to the same period last year. Iridium is expecting equipment sales this year in line with 2022’s record level.

Engineering and support, while a small portion of Iridium’s business, saw the greatest growth, largely due to the direct-to-device partnership with Qualcomm, Fitzpatrick said. Engineering and support revenue was $24.2 million during the first quarter, about three times the size of the $8.4 million in revenue in the prior-year quarter. Iridium also expects greater engineering and support revenue due to its position on the General Dynamics contract for ground operations for the Space Development Agency. 

Iridium confirmed its full-year 2023 outlook, expecting service revenue growth between 9% to 11% for the full year. 

“2023 is off to a strong start, as we continued to enjoy double-digit sales growth in our Commercial Business and saw another record quarter of equipment sales,” CEO Matt Desch commented. “We continue to see strong demand for equipment from our partner community and believe that new product and service rollouts this year will drive strong subscriber growth and service revenue gains.”