Aided by a competitor’s woes, Iridium Satellite LLC picked up 44,000 subscribers to reach 203,000 at the end of June, a 28 percent increase in the past year, the company announced July 27. At the end of June 2006, Iridium reported 159,000 total subscribers.

The satellite telephone provider posted revenues of $66.7 million in the 2007 second quarter, up 24 percent from revenues of $53.6 million total in the same period of 2006.

“The second quarter was exceptionally strong for Iridium with solid double-digit gains in subscribers, revenue and [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization],” Matt Desch, Iridium’s chairman and CEO, said. “Driving these results, among other factors, was across-the-board demand for our data services, with notable recent upticks in the machine-to-machine and aeronautical markets.”

Iridium also reported a 56 percent spike in handset sales, “as we pick up many customers switching to Iridium from competitors with serious network quality issues,” Desch said in an allusion to the problems being experience by rival Globalstar.

In February, Globalstar notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that many of the company’s 40 satellites are suffering from degraded performance in their S-band antennas and that the rate of degradation had accelerated to the point that customers may lose two-way voice and data service as early as next year.

“Clearly our numbers were well above expectations for the year,” Desch said in a telephone interview. “In particular we had unprecedented voice business, which can be attributed both to what we did and some problems our competitors have had.”

A segment of particular profitability for Iridium was machine-to-machine services, a market that Iridium estimates to be worth an estimated $1.5 billion annually. “Our machine-to-machine business saw both increased growth and profitability, which is probably four times the [average revenue per user] of our nearest competitor,” Desch said.

Iridium also  posted an increase of 216 percent in short burst data service revenues, as subscriber activations jumped 403 percent. Iridium saw significant increases in service revenues and unit activations since launching its lower-cost 9601 transceiver in December 2005, Desch said.

The revenue and subscriber gains have come as Iridium launches plans for its next-generation constellation, Iridium Next. Earlier this month, Iridium released its formal request for information seeking partners in the design, development and deployment of the satellite.

“We’ve done internal [research and development] and been checking with partners and customers to find out wants and needs, and [the request for information] is a step toward the satellite manufacturing itself,” said Desch. “… We’ve had an incredible response to it, with almost 70 companies responding for access to it and getting at least 40 companies that we expect to actively” participate.

Iridium likely will award contracts to partners in mid-2008, Desch said. “We have a template for whom we want to work with,” he said. “We’re looking for people with a commercial mindset who know how to build things on time, on budget [and] with quality, which is not always an attribute of satellite technologies. The government can tell you about [manufacturers] stretching out budgets and deadlines, so we’re looking for people who can work in this environment, both to augment what we do today and who can be true partners over the next generation.”